UTG INTERVIEW: Aaron Gillespie of The Almost

The Almost has been working on their latest record for over a year now, and their hard work genuinely shows. Frontman Aaron Gillespie couldn’t be more confident for the release of his band’s upcoming release, The Fear Inside Our Bones. During our brief chat outside of The Orpheum in Tampa, FL we discussed the recording process of The Almost’s third LP, Gillespie’s songwriting, and the band’s current east coast tour with All Get Out and Makeshift Prodigy.

Fear Inside Our Bones was the first album that The Almost recorded without Aaron Sprinkle as a producer. Would you say that it took somewhat of a leap of faith to record with Marshall Altman?
No. I mean, I love his records and I kind of want to go back and do a record with Aaron again. After you’ve used a producer for a certain amount of time, you should switch just to– You know, it’s like going to the same restaurant over and over again, and getting the same thing. Every once in a while, you kind of want to get something different just to try it. You know what I mean? So that’s what we did.

Would you say that recording the album in less than four days was stressful?
No, it was amazing. It felt like it should. You know? Like, in your room with your friends and you’re playing rock and roll and it just happens. I think that’s the way it should be.

We rehearsed too. Like, because of the way we did it [the recording], we did it live. So we rehearsed for weeks in the same town that we were doing the record in. So we rented a place that was down the street from the studio and just rehearsed, rehearsed, and rehearsed. It was really good.

Gotcha. How long were you guys working on this album, as far as writing goes?
A year.

Wow. Nice.
On and off.

What things do you ever ask yourself when in the midst of songwriting?
I don’t know. I think “is it honest?” It’s probably the most important thing for me. “Do I really believe this?” You know, that kind of thing.

Name one of your favorite songs off of The Fear Inside Our Bones, and why.
This song called “Ghost”. It’s just like straight up rock and roll. It just came out a couple days ago. It was like the most rock and roll thing I’ve ever done. [There’s] like no sub-genres, it’s just rock and roll.

According to what that recent Facebook status of yours said, It looks like you guys wanted to make this tour as barebones as possible: do merch yourself, shed light on the locals in each town and all of that. Was there anything that made you guys want to do that specifically?
I think that’s when tour was the most fun: When there wasn’t a ton of stuff riding on it. When you just show up and do it, when it was about the songs, the musicianship, and the people. It’s not about how many people would show up, and if you had enough production or any of that. It’s just about [how] God gave you a gift, [so] go out and use it, you know?

Be sure to purchase The Fear Inside Our Bones on April 16, 2013.

Written by Adrian Garza (Twitter)

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One Response to “UTG INTERVIEW: Aaron Gillespie of The Almost”

  1. Joshua Klatt says:

    Can’t wait to hear the album!