Headstash

Aron Magner From All Sides

As Conpsirator continues to gain steam with The Disco Biscuits playing only sporadically, Aron Magner, Marc Brownstein, Chris Michetti and a rotating cast of drummers (at the moment, Pendulum’s KJ Sawka) have been falling into a comfortable groove.

Lately, the band has played a ton of gigs all over the country and have been entering new markets, as they attempt to rise through the livetronica ranks. Scheduled to play festivals from Starscape to Summer Camp and everything in between, Conspirator is well on its way to mirroring the allure of Magner and Brownie’s other band.

Side-project no more – this is the real deal.

[FIND a complete list of tour dates on Conspirator's website.]

We chatted with Magner as he carried his kid over to chill with Brownie (yes, they live within walking distance) about everything from his maturity as a musician and trends in electronic music today to teaming up with Big Gigantic and Skrillex’s big night at the Grammy’s.

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Headstash Magazine: Hey Aron, how’s everything going?

Aron Magner: Good, I'm actually walking to Brownstein’s house right now. Look how cute we are, we live within walking distance.

Conspirator in 2011 - Photo Credit: Kaitlin Parry

HM: You guys are next door neighbors? That’s like a sitcom.

AM: I think they should have some sort of reality show with us and we’re all just the characters. There’s always plenty of drama.

HM: I think a lot of people would definitely watch it. Now a good time to talk?

AM: Yeah, totally. My son is sleeping on me and I don't feel like such a rock star right now for sure. There's like baby things on my chest, but yeah, let’s do it.

HM: How's the tour going so far?

AM: Amazing. We're kind of taking a little break right now, but the Colorado shows were awesome – specifically Boulder and Denver.

What's interesting about it is as we play Boulder and Denver and Chicago more and more, they’re starting to feel like concerts. Now, I see people in the front row that are excited for a concert – that are excited to hear their favorite Conspirator song.

[FOLLOW Conspirator on Facebook.]

It's one thing when you come out with a side-project, but it's another when it starts taking on its own entity and it’s exciting for the band members. The Fox [in Boulder] and the Denver show sold out. There's a lot of people up there getting stoked and getting excited about Conspirator, not just me and Marc.

HM: As musicians, is that when you start seeing it transition from a side-project to a main project? When you see the fans getting amped up and excited for the band and not necessarily for you guys as being part of The Disco Biscuits?

AM: Yeah, kind of. The Disco Biscuit has always been and will always be my main priority and Conspirator was always kind of like a side-part, an extension of that. But for better or for worse, with The Biscuits playing less shows in 2011, it opened up the opportunity for Conspirator. And that’s fun and exciting. The only way you can let a band breathe and let a band marinate and understand our musical personalities and let the songs take on their own evolution is to play.

Anybody will tell you that, whether it's your full band or your side-project. It took five years to take that initial stride with The Biscuits. The chemistry was always there from the first show, but in order for the songs to start coming alive, it took four or five years.

I'm not saying it's going to take that long, but it takes a little bit of time and practicing new material and all that stuff to make a band.

I’m kind of happy I’ve been allotted this time in 2011. Not to say I wouldn’t be as elated to be playing more Biscuits shows, and I hope it all works out in the future.

HM: You touched on selling out Colorado earlier, what markets are you finding most enjoyable to play? Are you finding markets you’re able to thrive in now that The Biscuits didn’t necessarily hit too often?

AM: There are certain markets that are good for The Biscuits because it's a petri dish, a breeding ground for people receptive to our stylings of music. That’s one of the reasons why we and so many other acts do well in Colorado or on the East Coast. Obviously, the markets that have always been good for The Biscuits have been good for Conspirator.

[FIND complete lineups, ticketing information and analysis on our 2012 Festival Guide.]

Conspirator in 2011 - Photo Credit: Kaitlin Parry

I'm curious about the markets that, for better or for worse, The Biscuits haven’t been able to build like the West Coast and the Midwest. It’s been like a passion project for me to reach out to fans that, for one reason or another, we haven't been able to get out to – like the Pacific Northwest.

It takes a lot of effort to get out to those markets. That is certainly one of the reasons that we haven't visited the Northwest festivals as often as I would have liked to. So, it's nice to be to concentrate on making a concerted effort to get out there.

HM: For this tour you have KJ Sawka on drums after going through a few tours with a rotating cast that included The New Deal’s Darren Shearer, Lettuce’s Adam Deitch and Lotus’ Mike Greenfield. Have you guys been able to  get into a groove because he's been with you for a little while?

AM: That's why we want him in more and more shows for sure. We started out our relationship with KJ with a quick week last fall and then told him, “You're our drummer for all of February.”

And all these shows in March have KJ Sawka. Except the show in Buffalo, we’re flying in Adam Deitch for that one – KJ has had a show on the books for awhile that night.

HM: Do you guys think you’ll make a commitment to one drummer for the foreseeable future sometime soon?

AM: I would certainly like to and we're definitely inching closer to that. It's been fun playing with so many different drummers. We're incredibly fortunate to have such a large vat of drummers to choose from. And all of them are some of the best drummers in the entire country.

Conspirator in 2011 - Photo Credit: Kaitlin Parry

Nonetheless, they also have other things going on and that's partially why it's taken us awhile to really lock in a drummer. It's fun to say all these drummers are “co-Conspirators,” but it's time to make it a band.

HM: Talk a little about the live album you guys have coming out in April. Did you know going in you wanted to make an album from that show or did you listen back and decide you should release it?

AM: Honestly what happened was we played the show and recorded it for posterity’s sake. We didn't think at all about releasing a live album. Brian Holroyd got a great recording of it and took it upon himself to do a quick mix and spend a little more time with it. 

When we listened to it we said, “Wow, this sounds good – certainly better than a lot of the recordings we have. Let’s put some serious time and effort into making it as good as we possibly can.”

Then, when we listened to it, we realized that it sounded great and the playing was awesome. We called in a friend to put some final touches on it. He really liked that we were able to capture the essence and the energy of the live show within the recording.

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It's really nice having so many contacts and cohorts over the years. We can call on anybody and everybody supports each other whether it’s the front-of-house guys or the distributor.

HM: You guys always come across really relaxed on stage. How do you think that affects the playing and dynamic between you, Marc and Chris? Do you attest that to you guys being older and more mature as musicians and people?

AM: Absolutely. It's funny because it's one of the things that we said originally about Conspirator when it was just me and Marc: our goal was to be the easiest going band.

If we needed to go on a half-hour later or a half-hour earlier than our scheduled time, then whatever, who cares? And that laidback attitude comes off and we have a lot more fun in the set.

Also it’s awesome playing 7,000-person venues with The Biscuits, and it's humbling going back to venues as Conspirator that The Biscuits were playing in 1999. It's easy to control a 500-capacity room and it’s fun at the same time and it gives you some youthful exuberance.

HM: Talk about using technology with Conspirator as opposed to what you do with The Biscuits.

Conspirator in 2011 - Photo Credit: Kaitlin Parry

AM: With Conspirator I'm definitely using the computer a lot more. That's the foundation of what this band is. We're not just using the computer as an added synth as I do with The Biscuits. With Conspirator, it's more the floor map. That's where all the work and time and effort goes into it in pre-production.

HM: What do you think about Skrillex winning three Grammy’s last month? How do you think that has affected the electronic music scene?

AM: It affects the reception that the fans have toward our styling of music for sure. It allows us to get exposed to a much wider audience, a much wider fanbase so we can tap into what we already have, but also be exposed to many more people because that's what everybody loves right now: electronic music. It's the year of the DJ.

HM: You guys recently teamed up with Big Gigantic and played as Gigantic Underground Conspiracy and have plans to hit Summer Camp as a super-group in May. How did that come about?

AM: It basically came about when The Biscuits and Big Gigantic were both in Chicago on December 31. We were kind of joking about playing a show together on January 1. Big Gigantic’s manager, who also happens to play bongos in the project, put everything together and we just decided to run with it . . .

I just showed up at Marc's place with my son and he’s wheeling his son around on a bike.

Marc Brownstein (in the background): It’s like daddy daycare over here.

HM: It’s rock star daycare.

AM: Nothing makes me feel more like a rock star than what’s going on right now.

HM: I’ll let you get back to it. Thanks for the time, Aron. Appreciate it.

AM: Awesome, thanks, man.

 

 

 

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Catch Conspirator tonight at The Note in West Chester, Pennsylvania as they continue the North East leg of their tour before headlining LIFT Festival in New Hampshire and heading west to California. For complete list of tour dates, check out their official website.