Name: Aran Buzzas

Birthplace: Helena, MT

Currently residing: Missoula, MT

Musical past and present in one rambling run-on sentence: I started playing guitar when I was 15, forming a classic rock cover band with my best friends that lasted just over two years.  After high school and the band’s end, I went in a more singer/songwriter oriented direction, playing acoustic guitar and hitting the open mike scene.  For years I played mostly for myself, producing a (very) rough cassette demo in the late 90’s that I gave to close friends and family.  It wasn’t until late 2007, at the end of a long musical dry spell that new inspiration struck.  I began writing and singing traditional country music, released a homemade CD, Just Bein’ Here, of mostly old songs I needed to get out of my system, and began practicing in earnest with the plan of forming a band and conquering the world. Or at least western Montana.  Unfortunately it was about this time that I developed recurring tendonitis in my forearms, and that has slowed my musical ambitions the past three years.  However it’s allowed me to focus on my vocals, and write a collection of new songs, more in the honky-tonk vein than my older stuff.  In summer of 2010 I released a four song demo, The Niki’s Closet Demo, which showcases my new direction.  Since fall of 2010 I have opened for several touring roots music bands, including two of my very favorites the Clumsy Lovers and Hellbound Glory.  My songs have been played extensively on underground country podcasts, and just in the last month I’ve begun work on a full length professionally recorded album.

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 1.  Who are some of your favourite composers, musicians and bands from the past and present?

I am such a music nerd that you would really have to break it down by genre!  Since I’m a country musician, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, Hank Williams (Sr.), Willie Nelson, and Merle Haggard are huge influences on me.  The Dubliners, The Pogues, Flogging Molly’s early stuff, and Altan for the Irish trad.  CCR, the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Steppenwolf, Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson etc.  Contemporary artists include Hellbound Glory, Whitey Morgan & the 78s, Caleb Klauder, J.B. Beverley & the Wayward Drifters, Cutthroat Shamrock, Calamity Cubes, Clumsy Lovers, .357 String Band, McDougall, Rachel Brooke, Wayne Hancock, Dale Watson and too many more to list!

 2.  Is there a particular song or musical passage that never fails to move you emotionally?

There are many of them, in many different musical genres.  “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” by Hank Williams comes to mind.  Certain Irish rebel songs stir things deep inside of me.  Soundtracks to certain movies, and so on…

3.  How would you describe your perfect day?

This is a tough question, but it would involve a large home cooked breakfast, lots of guitar time, family, friends, sunshine and homemade beer.

4.  What would your friends say they appreciate the most about you?

You would really have to ask them this question!

5.  What is your most valued material possession?

Besides old journals and photo albums, it is without a doubt my guitar.  Predictable, but true.

6.  Who were you, or would you be nervous to meet?

I was nervous when I met Wayne “The Train” Hancock.  I would be really nervous meeting Willie Nelson.  Probably Merle Haggard as well.

7.  If you could blink your eyes and be in a favourite place right now, where would that place be? 

Since it’s cold weather out right now, I’d say Makena Beach on Maui.  If it were warmer it would be somewhere in the west of Ireland.

8.  Is there something you would like to do more of in the future?

More music.  Always striving to play more.  Maybe more traveling as well.

9. Where would you like to find yourself in ten years?

I would like to have a reasonably stable band unit that is well established in Missoula, and maybe tours occasionally around the northwest, west coast, or even to some of the more prominent roots music festivals in the U.S.  I can’t imagine living somewhere besides Missoula!