Aaron Everything
Donegal born rapper/singer Aaron Everything is the latest Irish artist to take on our Guestlist series and chat about the 10 songs that shaped him as an artist. Aaron has a busy 2021 ahead of him in terms of his own music and appearing as a guest on a number of upcoming tracks. He is releasing his latest track 'The Outlaw' tomorrow. Be sure to check it out!
Fleetwood Mac - Landslide
This is the song my mum played to death in the car and I never got sick of it. Even now me and her sing it together if one of us starts it off. Probably started me off on my road to being a big broken cry baby with the lyrics on this track. I remember when I was writing more sad or melancholic music, my mum would ask me why I write that way and I said “no wonder with you blasting 'Landslide', 'There Were Roses' and 'Big Girls Don't cry' in the car for years!” It just never occurred to her that her music would've influenced my taste in such a way.
Eden - Rock+Roll
I loved his production style sort of mixing electronic production with indie and a bit of hip-hop and I discovered him at a time where Irish artists weren't getting much play time on a global scale and was so surprised to find out he himself was Irish. It was a huge motivator for me seeing how well he was doing and made me think damn, I can do this too.
Alt-J - Left Hand Free
So me and two of my best mates were asked to play at the 'Cup of Tae' festival that was being put on in Ardara in Donegal. This would be my first time performing on stage with a band and we did this Alt-J track. It really gave me a huge confidence boost and it was one of those things where after you finished singing the track to the crowd you knew this was something you wanted to do on the regular.
Blackbear - 4U (Acoustic)
I actually heard the acoustic version of 4U before the original and I loved the whole acoustic EP it was included on 'Dead'. I am all about legacy in my own work. I don't want to put a track out for it to be forgotten about. This is one of the reasons I made my acoustic EP 'The Hollows' composed of three of my earlier tracks 'Die in L.A, ‘Loss’ and 'Twenty1'. I don't know if I ever would have ever been inspired to do so without Blackbear.
The Weeknd - The Morning
I love the backing tracks of The Weeknd's songs but I think his vocal harmonies are really what stood out to me. This heavily influenced my recording process and is probably one of the reasons I record so many vocal layers to have huge variety in my vocal harmonies. I sing when I'm happy, when I'm nervous, I've been singing since I was a kid in the 00's writing my lyrics in my denim covered book. I let the producers put their love into the beats I hop on and I take care to make the vocals as full and thoughtful as I can.
Westside Connection - Bow Down
When I think I've run out of writing material I like to think of Ice Cube and his success in writing so much content between NWA, Westside Connection, his solo stuff and whatever he wrote for Dre separately. So many hits and I love Westside Connections tracks above all else for the lyricism and having one of the best diss tracks of all time (in my opinion) 'King of the Hill'.
Lil Peep - Nineteen
Being so close in age to me, Lil Peep's music really spoke to the way I was feeling at the time upon release of his album Crybaby. I've spoken in my artist bio about how Lil Peep was a catalyst for my career. This would be the first time I'd ever cry about the passing away of an artist I listened to and I just felt an overwhelming need to start recording in the months following his death. I feel like when I started recording it really changed me as a person. I was kind of realising my flaws and putting them out into the world and it helped me move past them. I actually started to realise this around the time I released 'Twenty1', which is a track about self-growth.
Drippin' So Pretty - Last Shot "Heroin"
I've heard plenty of songs talking about addiction before but never any do on the nose. Drip has always been quite open about his heroin addiction, about the effects it had on his long relationship. I found this so refreshing just how honest he was with the writing and it definitely helped me write about my problems drinking heavily was contributing to when I was younger.
Childish Gambino - 3005
I have seen Donald Glover in so many mediums be it TV, music or stand up. I took his incredible diversity on board especially when it came to the genres I do working with artists like Uwmami, who I'd say falls under the Nu-Soul/bedroom pop umbrella, to all my own music with the acoustic EP to tracks like 'The Sheriff' and 'Plenty of Fish'. I want to be able to do as many styles and hone my vocal skills and collaborate as much as I can while I'm alive.
