Singer mixes contemporary and classic sounds

Aaron Sedrick mixes sounds to create his music. Photos submitted

By Tom Victoria

Life is a song Aaron Sedrick sings every day. The musician is carving his own path.

Aaron, 25, of Utah said he’s still developing a style.

“This is a question I'm trying to answer to be very honest,” he said. “I'm a multi-instrumentalist. I started the piano at 5, the cello at 11, and I learned the guitar a couple years ago after I broke my knee. I played with those three instruments, so my music's all acoustic and it falls somewhere between indie folk and acoustic pop. I've listened to folk music. You hear Mumford & Sons and there's some influence there, but then I'll listen to pop that's maybe Ben Rector, George Ezra, a little bit more on the pop side, but there's a little bit of influence there. I'm not trying to straddle two genres, but I haven't quite figured out which one it sits in.”

Some of Aaron’s music sounds akin to a contemporary John Denver, which is no accident.

“My parents enjoy the older music,” he said. “When it was just my mom around when my dad was at work, it was John Denver, it was Billy Joel. When my dad was around, it was U2. Mostly high school is when the influence of new music came in. I was listening to Simon & Garfunkel in the sixth grade. All these friends are like, dude, you hear this new song by Drake? I was like, no, it doesn't really interest me.”

Aaron eventually was exposed to newer sounds.

“Then high school I got Imagine Dragons,” he said. “Freshman year of college, my sister said I had to do a rhetorical analysis paper on a song. I asked for suggestions and my sister said, hey, there's this artist named Ben Rector. It's a weird name, but I'll check him out. And that's how that started.”

Through early summer, Aaron prepared to release his music.

“I'm learning how much it takes to release a song,” he said.

Aaron released Come Before on July 25 with more to come.

“Then I plan on releasing a song September 5,” he said. “That will be my song Falling. And then I plan for October 3 or 10 for my song Letter, and then November 7 or 14 for a song called Hear it Ring.”

Aaron makes an effort to make his songs distinctive.

“That's something I've found as I've written music,” he said. “During college, I'd be writing through something, trying to work through it. One of my cousins walking in says it sounds like this other song you wrote. Gosh, dude, it's different. He's like, no, it's the same. I rework it, and then a week later, hey, what do you think? Oh, it sounds a little different. It finally gets to the point, okay, it sounds like you, but it's a different song. All right, we can sit with that. I feel every song should be different enough that when a listener hears it in a sequence, it's not off-putting.”

However, Aaron recognizes musicians have their own sounds.

“At the same time, I've noticed that every artist has a particular melodic progression or chord progression they really like,” he said. “I vary, but I have noticed that I am developing a sound. So Come Before is a guitar song. My producer is wonderful. He helped me out. A guitar, bass, a banjo, we have a cello line and a piano line, and then vocals and harmonies. My song Falling that I finished recording, it's piano and there's no drums. We added two electric guitars, just a really soft electric guitar and one cello part. The next song I will be recording Letter, it's a piano song as well. It needs some plucked strings, like a plucked orchestra. It will probably have some drums. Might throw a horn in there.”

For Aaron, every song tells a story.

“I don't know if it's always a story that the world knows, but at least it's a story that I know,” he said. “It's hard to write music without telling a story. At least from my experience, the best songs have come from sitting down and just playing without worrying, but also having either a gist of a story or specific story in mind. Sometimes, it's just a feeling.”

Aaron stressed the importance of creating music with deeper meaning behind it.

“I really like music with substance, particularly if it feels like it has soul,” he said. “I'm not a huge fan of Hollow Coves, but some of my siblings, in-laws and my wife are. We went to one of their concerts and I left feeling like I ate a really good meal. I wasn't stuffed. I was a little tired, but it's like, oh, there's some substance here. I like life with substance, like people with substance, music with substance.”

Aaron’s personal experiences have a major impact on his songwriting.

“I would say 90 percent, 95 are at least feelings that I've had,” he said. “I have a song, Life, won't be released for a while. And it was just a part of the lyrics. It says: ‘Sometimes it's starting over, rewriting what was written. And sometimes it comes easily and everyone wants to join. Sometimes, it never comes, though. You rest and write some more and sometimes you feel like giving in because nothing's coming through.’ I realized this pattern between me writing music that there are times I will sit down and I will leave with nothing. Those times of nothing are important to get us to the something. Then there's other times where it just flows and I just can't stop. I noticed that in my life with school or going out and dating, and a variety of things. There's times nothing seems to happen, though. I just struggle through it.”

Aaron said any emotion or feeling can result in a song.

“Another song is called The Devil's Chasing,” he said. “Just the feeling that sometimes we always got something on our heels just dragging us down. Just came out of the shower one day and just playing with lyrics. That's a common theme — just how many times are we trying, or am I trying not to let everything pull me back, trip me up.”

Most of Aaron’s former romantic interests don’t have to fret too much about being Taylor Swifted through song.

“I tried to be a gentle person,” he said. “My wife would know this in particular. She knows which songs are about which people. But I've tried to do it in a way that if even if they listen to it, they might not know it's about them. It was just a chance for me to be like, all right, we worked through this. We're good. There's this one called Every Time I See Her, and this girl might know who it is. It was rough. The line is: ‘every time I see her, I die a little more.’ It's a sad song. It's a pretty song. I offered my hands to hold her and then carries on that basically she doesn't want anything to do with me. So every time I see her, I die a little more because she's not mine to hold, and another holds her heart. That's the most obvious one out of all of them.”

Aaron also plays the cello.

Aaron wants his listeners to feel better after hearing his music.

“I developed a mission statement if you will, a purpose,” he said. “I was doing some pondering, and as somebody who's read a fair amount of the Bible, there's a line in there, talks about lifting up the heavy hands. I don't know if that's a perfect representation of everything I want to do. But I feel like there's just a lot going on and how many times have we listened to a song and it just heals us. We just feel a lot better. Hearts are healed. We're a little better for those three minutes. And other times you hear a song, it gets you to move, and you just feel really happy.”

Aaron set two specific goals for his music.

“My purpose would be twofold: to help lift up those heavy hands, maybe heal some hearts, and the other one is to speak about the joy of existence,” he said. “A lot of times, people are like, it's miserable. Yeah, it sucks. Some days, life is hard, but if you stop and smell the roses, to borrow a phrase, there's a little bit of beauty. I've learned to see beauty in the pain. Life hasn't always been easy, but I've learned that if you let it, that the pain will lead you to the beauty. You can become bitter or you can become better.”

Aaron’s new song is about hope.

“This song Come Before, it's a bit of for lack of a better word, a prayer of I'm going on my boat,” he said. “I'm leaving and I've got all these fears. It's an ocean. It's scary, but I'm going to go. I would like some help, those things that I've worked for, the things I've prayed for, all these other things that I'm hoping for, I really hope they come before I leave. I feel that's a shared experience. That we're all doing scary things. But I'll go anyways, and I'll figure it out. Trust it'll work out.”

Aaron said a musician should show personality.

“I feel so,” he said. “You don’t have to go over the top like Lady Gaga unless that’s your style, but people should be able to connect with you as well as your music. I find a little personality goes a long way. It makes you relatable. In my experience, relatable brings more people into your circle of fans and even friends.”

Aaron’s music isn’t the only thing reminiscent of John Denver. The contemporary singer also has a laid back, amiable personality.

“I feel that a congenial personality is more likable and is better in the long run,” he said. “I suppose there may be instances in the music industry where aloof or obnoxious are considered cool to a specific group of people or genre type. But overall, it’s important to remember that you as a musician are just as human as your fans. Sure, you make great music and you’re someone people may look up to, but you bleed and cry and laugh just like anyone else in your audience. A congenial personality is more likely to bring the right people to you. It creates another connection with your fan base.”

Aaron wants his music career to be successful, but isn’t sold on becoming internationally famous.

“I don't know if I want to get Taylor Swift baked,” he said. “That just sounds like a lot. She has a great following and just built a good fan base. I tend to split things up into bite-sized chunks. I got fired a week before my wedding. I sat down with my wife, then my fiancee, then I said, I've had a feeling for a while. At some point in my life, I would like to pursue music. Not now, in a couple years. She was always super supportive.”

Aaron set a few objectives for his career.

“My first goal is to make sustainable income to support a family,” he said. “My second goal is my high unachievable goal. I live in Provo, Utah, right now, about an hour south of Salt Lake City. Where the Jazz (basketball team) play is the Delta Center. I'm not sure how many seats it is, but I've seen that arena sold out. My top dream is just to sell that out. The third one, I want to play in Carnegie Hall (in New York) again. I played there in my high school orchestra and it blew me away. My mom made sure I went because she said you're never going to get the opportunity again. I would like to be able to do a show there and bring my mom and say we didn't think I could get here again, but here I'm standing on stage.”

The first musician to leave an impression on a young Aaron was the Piano Man.

“The first time, I graduated high school in Missouri,” he said. “To go home for Christmas was to drive. My sister was out here at school. So 18 hours one way, 18 hours back. On one of those trips, we were listening to a CD of Billy Joel. It was of a play and talk concert. He talked about the first time that he had been inspired and that he thought nothing was possible. I remember hearing that, just hearing this man as he sat in the little kid's shoes, saying that I would love to play the guitar. I would love to do that. I would love to play for people. I don't think I can. That really hit home.”

Composer and pianist John Schmidt was another inspiration.

“He writes how he got a degree in English, and he didn't think he could make music work,” he said. “He graduated in English. He'd been practicing and playing, doing plenty of charity concerts. He graduates and rents an auditorium and invites people and sells it out. He put his work in, but somehow it worked. Maybe it will work for me, too.”

Aaron grew up singing as part of a group.

“We were church going people growing up,” he said. “I remember as a kid a couple times singing in the church choir. You'd sit in services and you sing the hymns, sing the songs, sing whenever the radio came on.

Aaron started singing solo after graduating high school.

“I bought the sheet music for Perfect by Ed Sheeran,” he said. “That was probably my freshman year of college. I'm sure there were a couple other pieces. Most pieces before that were just piano. Rosemary's Theme from The Giver, a couple other pieces. I want to be able to play the song that I really enjoy. I want to sing it.”

Aaron and his wife Kylie take a ride.

Aaron later decided to work on his technique.

“I started voice lessons a year and a couple months ago, about 14 months ago,” he said. “I’ve taken classical lessons for the past year. I found that that has helped me tremendously even though I’m more in the folk/pop genre. The very fundamentals in all types of singing are the same: breathe, vowel formation, larynx position, etc. For someone who already sings but wants to get better in a specific style of singing, I would recommend finding a teacher that teaches in the style you’re looking for or as close to it as possible. If you don’t know, just start. I knew I wasn’t going to sing classical but I liked my teacher and I figured that whatever I learned in one area of singing could be applied to another.”

Aaron’s songwriting led him to take lessons.

“I wrote my first piece at 15, a piano piece,” he said. “I decided I want to write this vocal piece freshman year, didn't know what I was doing. Luckily, one of my roommates was a composing major, so he helped me with some progressions, chords there and helped me write it. From there, it went. Last year was the end of my senior year, and I knew at some point in my life, I wanted to do music. I have a friend who's a vocal major, performance major at BYU (Brigham Young University). I've heard him sing. I've known him for a while and I knew he did voice lessons and was like, hey, you have any spots? I want to get better at singing. If this is where my life is supposed to go at some point in the future, then I should probably start now to prepare. It might take 10, 20 years, but the best time to start was 20 years ago. Second best time is today.”

Aaron has older and contemporary musical inspirations.

“Ben Rector has a sound, his music I enjoy and timbre to his voice I've enjoyed,” he said. “I would put him in there. And John Denver, people said the song (Come Before) sounds like him. I guess that fits. Mumford & Sons and Billy Joel, somewhere in there, they fit. The reasons are there's either their sound or what they represent. George Ezra, he wrote Budapest. First time I heard that song, I thought it was a fantastic song. I like his style. The way he writes, all of these musicians, it's just real. I don't think there's anything pompous. I don't think there's any facade. What they write about is what they live and then do it in a way that it will reach other people.”

Aaron said lyrics can’t be nebulous, but rather detailed storytelling.

“This composer friend of mine that I met with, he said if you want to reach a broader audience, you need to be more specific,” he said. “The more specific you are in your writing, the more people you can reach.”

Aaron would like his music to endure.

“I like music that's ageless,” he said. “I think everything has an age to it. You listen to Bach, you know it was written in the 1700s. You listen to the Beatles, it's the ‘60s. Ben Rector, Billy Joe, you know when they were written. But there are certain sounds that are enduring. I would like my music to be enduring in that way. I would like it to be relevant today and relevant in 50 years, and that's not always possible.”

Aaron still is seeking the right song to utilize one of the instruments he plays.

“Ukulele,” he said. “I'm sure there's a spot for it in some sort of island song. I don't know how to do it. And maybe the harmonica.”

Aaron isn’t shy about his religious faith.

“It’s not an easy road and it may not be vogue, but if we're not true to who we really are, there’s not much footing to stand on,” he said. “There’s no solid foundation. I don’t feel the need to shout about what I believe from the stage, but I do feel the need to be honest about them and live them the best I can and in doing so, I hope to invite others to do the same. If you’re Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Jewish or are just a good person but doesn’t believe in a God, then just be the best and kindest you can be and the world will be the better for it. I find that being Christian is just as much a part of me as breathing or being bilingual. Christian themes and ideas percolate into my songs and talk all the time. Most of the time, those are things like hope for a better world and loving one another. Things we can all agree on.”

Aaron is working toward reaching his target audience.

“I'm starting with social media, specifically Instagram,” he said. “I started with 200 people. I had one do particularly well, so I boosted it for a day and it just got enough hate that it kept finding people. My plan right now is the word of mouth and the power of social media because I've noticed my demographics, the men does around 25 to 34, and then women, it's 55 plus, it does the same thing. Which is good because those are the people that have money to spend and you have your people that are going to be around longer and your people are going to have money to spend. I was hoping to evenly distribute it across because that's a good business model. Word of mouth with plenty of good friends and the social media channels I've developed, it's a wheel that started to spin. You just do things to link it to John Denver, and then the algorithm knows to send it to people that like John Denver or have you ever thought about putting George Ezra and Billy Joel? It brings those two people in just so. That's the plan.”

Aaron stays motivated by not forgetting what he wants to achieve.

“It's the focus on higher goals,” he said. “There has to be some sense of self, some sense of me in there. But it's not just the me now. What will sometimes go through my head is, would I rather sacrifice the future me for what I want right now? Would I rather give up today and do nothing at the expense of what I could be in 10 years? The answer is no, of course not. I'll look back and say why didn't I work harder? Knowing that every action I take has a consequence and an additional weight on top of it is knowing that if I'm going to be able to provide for a family. That's a pretty good motivator: to not let your wife and children starve. It's that I don't want to let her down, my wife Kylie down. I don't want to let me down. I don't want to let the people I'm doing this for down. As a religious man, I don't want to let the Lord down.”

Aaron stressed people have to take it day by day.

 “If I'm going to do it, then I should just get my butt in gear,” he said. “It's okay to take a break occasionally, but you just don't stop. My motto is do the best you can every day. There are some days that I get an amazing amount done. I got two hours of practicing. I got this course taken. I got this written and no distractions. Other days, I'll have a friend in crisis and just needs to go talk for a couple hours. When I get back, I got a lot less done than I should have. I help somebody out, which is not immediately rewarding, but a good thing. I finish the day knowing that I can come home and tell my wife I did the best I could today, and that's enough for her.”

Aaron dispensed advice to aspiring musicians.

“Keep trying,” he said. “That comes with don't give up, but also put in the work. If you don't know something, go learn how to do it. Go figure that part out. My mom taught me piano. Started the cello because I just fell in love with it. By 15, I said I want to write a song. I sat down and tried to figure it out, and threw the first draft away. It was garbage. The second draft was good enough. I borrowed a bass line from another song. The song is so boring, it probably put you to sleep. My mom said she loved it, so thanks for her. I just learned from that and said this one was really boring. What would I do next time to make it not boring? I would add a different movement in there or something.”

Aaron said musicians should never stop learning.

“When I got to college, when I was doing it, I didn't understand chord progressions worth a darn,” he said. “I knew it sounded good to my ear, and I tried to figure out what sounded good to my ear. I was like, I think it should go here, and played all the chords. I found the right one. And then trying to write a vocal piece, I didn't know chord progressions were a thing. Should have known that after 15, 16 years of playing the piano, but I didn't. My composing friend, he said 1, 4, 5, which is the basic pop. I went on, I said I don't want to do this all the time. So I googled chord progressions.”

Aaron then followed a composer to learn more.

“I signed up for this composer's email list,” he said. “He would just say have you ever heard of a suspended chord? I was like, what's the suspended chord? He explained the use of it. To anybody who doesn't know, it's the rising to heaven feel they'll use in movies. That's the suspended chord. I’m like, oh, I'm going to use that. What if I do this in a minor key? So always be learning. If you don't know something, figure out how to know it or find somebody who does. And just don't give up. Just start. I started with Instagram a couple years ago, took a break, came back. I didn't know what I was doing, but I said there's this course that could maybe teach me something and it helped.”

Aaron’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/music.aaron.sedrick/

Aaron’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@AaronSedrick

Aaron’s music: https://linktr.ee/aaronsedrick