Aron! Talks About His Recently Released New EP 'cozy you (and other nice songs)'

Singer-songwriter Aron! released his new EP cozy you (and other nice songs), on June 6th. The EP consists of a six-song tracklist.

How did your journey into music begin? Was there a moment that made you say, “This is it for me”?

Aron!: I think the moment I really got into it. There is an 80-year-old jazz teacher. I saw him at a music store playing these weird chords. I was just like, "Wow, that's what I want to do. I went up to him and said, 'Excuse me, sir, can I please take lessons from you?" I would go over to his house and do lessons till midnight.

Are there any particular artists, jazz or otherwise, who you feel have significantly influenced your musical style on this EP?

Aron!: I think a lot of it is these super niche old '30s and '40s songs that I'm obsessed with. There's something about pop music from back then that's super cool. It's more of a songwriter thing, Cole Porter, Matt Denis, Johnny Mercer, just really old people write really good songs.

What do you do when you’re facing a creative block? What keeps you inspired to make new music?

Aron!: I feel like writer's block is a bit of a rumor. A songwriting teacher told me writer's block is just because you're too lazy to push through it. There is so much to explore. Right now, the possibilities seem endless, so I just want to try all of the things.

The video for “table for two” feels like a whimsical short film, complete with a surprise ending. How involved are you in the visual storytelling of your music, and how do you see visuals contributing to the cozy pop brand you’re building?

Aron!: The way that it goes is, I make a song, and then a couple of people are like Do you want to do a video for this? I'm either like, yeah let’s do it, or no I don’t want to. The basic idea I had was kind of lame, we were at a restaurant with a waiter. There's this director whose name is also Eran, and she turned everything around. She said what if we put the table on wheels and we have the waiter push them through the streets of LA. Everyone was like, yeah that’s what it's got to be. It was really cool to see everything come together. That's the thing I've been working on more; the benefit of working with people and collaborating can really bring to the table. It shakes things up in a really cool way.

The EP is called cozy you (and other nice songs). What does ‘cozy’ mean for you emotionally, physically, or musically?

Aron!: Cozy, goes with vulnerability. This is something I was recently thinking about. You can't really be cozy and be afraid to be vulnerable at the same time. It's your most comfortable.

How did the concept for the EP cover come together?

Aron!: I think we just took a bunch of pictures and tried to go for this cozy thing. This wasn’t even a posed picture. I forgot they were taking pictures, I was just playing songs on the guitar, and they got me. We were all like, yeah, that's pretty good, let’s go with that. I was actually pretty anti-me being on the cover. There was a disagreement. I was like It’s so weird if I’m on the cover. It's about the music, not me. Everyone was like no you should it's your first project you should be on the cover.

As a genre-bending artist, how do you think your music is shifting the way people listen to jazz today, and do you see it continuing to grow or change?

Aron!: I like that a lot of these genres are young people driven, the 18-24 age range. It's what makes the music exciting. We've kinda gotten to a place now where we need more of that in jazz, and we're getting it. There's a lot of young people who are really propelling the music forward. The more young people listen to it, the more it supercharges the movement.