Aaron Guest - Doing it for the Dreams

At four years old, Spokane native Aaron Guest heard the UW fight song playing during a radio broadcast of a Husky game. He went downstairs, sat at the piano, and figured out how to play the fight song from what he heard on the radio. After hearing him play, his parents started him on piano lessons, and he spent several years training in classical piano. Guest taught himself guitar as a teenager and played drums for the Growers during college, but his basics come from piano.

“I know I have music inside me,” Guest says.

The 25-year old WWU alumni got a looping pedal six years ago, and since the first few chord progressions has never looked back.

Along with three solo albums, he’s recorded with The Growers, 20 String band, JuiceBox, Halo of Bees, Polecat, Coty Hogue, and Vantage and he still performs with the last three.

“It’s fun for me to experiment with different genres and play different instruments with different musicians. It’s my favorite way to improve,” Guest says.

He adds, “I’ve been with up to seven bands at one time before.”

The independent artist isn’t looking to get signed or get famous. While he regularly books shows for Polecat, creating that full band sound as a solo artist would be difficult.

“It’s more of a writing and recording outlet for me,” Guest says.

With influences like Broken Social Scene, The Album Leaf, and Sigur Ros, Guest’s ambient, dreamy songs are “sit down and close your eyes music.” His upcoming album, Dreams, talks about subconscious states of mind he’s experienced and collected, rather than a particular person or event in his life. Engineered by Jon Garrett of Vantage in the Fairhaven College Recording Studio, this album focuses on big sound and plenty of instrumental and vocal layering. All the music was written and performed by Aaron with some vocal help from Jon.Guest’s diverse musical experience results in a varied album with both quiet reveries and rock crescendos.

When asked to describe his sound, Guest said, “You are what you eat. It comes out subconsciously.”

Guest will release his new album at Mckay’s Taphouse on Oct. 14 with the help of bandmates, followed with a set by Vantage.

“When I make people cry, or laugh, or smile, or dance, that’s the bees knees right there. When you can feel people react physically to sound that’s why I do it,” Guests says.

Guest emphasizes music’s ability to move people not just to get them to dance and sing along, but to think and reflect. By collaborating with his network of musicians, Guest continues to progress as an artist. Through practice and support he finds his musical niche in Whatcom County.

“I found a community of musicians that are very talented and more importantly, driven to improve their sound. That’s why I’m still here. I love Bellingham because the people are receptive to music and so hungry for it,” Guest says.

He hits on the simple but essential qualities of the Bellingham music scene that make it ideal for an emerging artist: A want and a need for music.

For more information, visit www.myspace.com/aaronguest.

Compilations have long held a special place in my heart; within this special place is an even special-er space devoted to local compilations. This appreciation began sometime in middle school after discovering North of Nowhere, a 19-track CD of Bellingham bands, most of whom I have never even heard of, and has continued with the help of Four Dots, ancient KUGS cassettes and impressive collections by MASA, Estrus, Clickpop, Murder Mountain and countless other DIY efforts.

My appreciation is not just in being able to easily discover new bands (at least to me), but in that they serve as documents for our community’s musical history. Breakfast For Dinner, self-released from the ruins of Friendship City, steps up and offers 11 tracks into our town’s legacy, including intimate solo efforts from Cumulus, Nick Duncan and Coty Hogue, So Adult channeling a sober Westerberg, Stuck and Femme Uke’s adult-friendly sing along “F’uked Up”. Council of Lions contribute a track not found on their new EP while the now defunct Connecticut Four do the opposite.

Closing this record is Party Thighs’ ode to crazy cat women, and Aryeh Gonif lamenting backward Seahawk caps at Rumors. Despite its short playtime, Breakfast For Dinner covers a lot of area and serves as a great snapshot for Bellingham 2009.

Self Released

November 2009 Cover by Bradley Lockhart

Download the October/November Compilation here

Boris Budd and the Waterboarders – Roll on Roller Betties

The Oregon Donor – October/November Compilation

Council of Lions – Six Point Two Percent

Vintage Rhymes and Valentines – The New Year

OuiSi – The Party

Snug Harbor – A Version of Love

Amber Darland – Without Blame

Coty Hogue – Word in Hand

Anna Schaad – Mermaid

MURmen – In Cars We Faded Far Too Wasted

Coty Hogue hits it out of the park with her new full length album To the West. This album offers up a slice of Americana with introspective songs of renewal and hope performed flawlessly by Hogue.

The vocal performance shines with Hogue’s fabulous voice grabbing the listener and inviting them into the Appalachia feelings of nature and nostalgia. Coty brings it home early in the record with the haunting “Dear Mother.” The song evokes the feelings and hardships of family, farms, and money. I also loved the a Capella “Shiloh’s Hill/Battle of Shiloh Hill.” The song made me feel as if I were involved in a Civil War era march with my unit after a bloody battle. Part gospel, part country, the number really hits hard. Coty shows the ability to write words that are reflective of a time in the past, but they also have a fresh, current feel that keeps interest. This is evident in the awesome, “Undone in Sorrow,” a country tear jerker that pretty much does what the title says it will.

My favorite track on the record though is the Patsy Cline like “Sugar Moon.” Hogue just sounds downright hot when she sings this song. The group behind Coty really does a fine job of setting the mood for this one. Overall, the band does it right through the whole record. I like Coty Hogue a lot. She has a great amount of talent.

Cello Room Productions

myspace.com/cotyhoguemusic