Cove Aaronoff, of Phnom Penh-based originals band Japan Guitar Shop, has long had a great reputation as a fine singer and songwriter, and is starting to do solo gigs now as well. It was, indeed, high time that LengPleng got him to sit down and talk JGS and songs.
Normally a solo act later forms a band and then returns to being a solo act intermittently when it becomes harder to get the whole band together to rehearse or play. You’ve gone the other way, you suddenly appeared with Japan Guitar Shop and only after a couple of years started doing solo gigs.
That’s due to [bandmates] Colin [Hodgkins] mainly, and Eugenio [Falcomer]. They had been playing together over a summer, just for the hell of it, with the notion of having a band. One day Colin said to me hey, I’ve got a proposition for you – do you want to be the front man of a band? He hadn’t heard anything from me, we just knew each other a little bit. But I said sure. He has an abundance of energy, and I don’t know if it’s faith – it’s not delusional, because it always comes true it seems – so I got swept up in that wave, his energy and his vision.
And you got your start opening for Little Thieves?
Lewis [McTighe] stopped by a rehearsal – we didn’t really know him, Eug knew him – just to give us some pointers, having formed Little Thieves, and they were already doing well and they were extremely capable musicians. And he listened – we only had five songs or something – and he said why don’t you come and open for us at Oscar’s? So we did. The environment in there was great, it was packed. So we started with a bang, I guess. And then Lewis joined the band soon after.
So you already had songs ready to go?
I had songs. I’ve been writing songs for a long time. I love writing songs, it’s one of my favourite things to do. So we had somewhere to start, it wasn’t like we got together and had to write immediately. Colin had raps, or at least the ability to come up with them. That gave us enough material to start. Then we went from five songs to ten songs and more and more and more – it’s been like that ever since, it’s constant. We have two songs we’re working on now, and tomorrow it will probably be another two. Everybody says this, but the environment here is so supportive, there are so many opportunities to grow and showcase your efforts. And then somehow, for whatever reason, the music we were making clicked with a lot of people. It has a lot to do with the limited original band situation, but at the same time I just think it’s so cool that one of the many fortunate things is that you don’t have to adhere to any norm as far as what’s hip goes.
Frank Scarfone of The Blue Souls is now joining the band on lead guitar, replacing Arone Silverman who was replacing Lewis McTighe.
He’s going to be playing with us. None of them can replace each other, it’s been cool to have such different players. They’re all in the band as far as I’m concerned, and always will be. I can’t wait to see what we sound like with Frank – we played a last minute gig at Laundry while we were recording in Siem Reap, and he did splendidly. It’s great to see how it works already, and how all three of them work differently – Frank is very meticulous.
Did you have much of a musical life before coming to Cambodia?
I went to college, I got a degree, I started a career – and all the time I was writing songs, because I just love writing songs, and so bands kind of formed around me. This would be my third band, I think. And I would love it so much that I would find the time to trek through the snow and take that subway for an hour and a half in a blizzard just to play. But I was never aspiring to anything – I’m still actually not aspiring to do anything – I’m just enjoying what’s going on. Phnom Penh is the first place where I have the opportunity to just sit back and enjoy it. The rewards are here right now. It’s kind of following your bliss, and things being fortunate enough in the world and the universe where you are asked: do you love that? Here you go. That’s obviously not true for everybody, and I feel unbelievably fortunate to be able to do it.
How did you get into songwriting?
By listening to songwriters. It was like studying without knowing you’re studying, just because you love it. When I was younger I’d be walking my dog or whatever, always with headphones on. I didn’t know how to do anything, and I’m still figuring out how to do the fundamentals, musically.
When I was a teenager I thought I wanted to be a novelist, that was my plan. I didn’t know how to play music, but working with a guitar with a couple of strings on it, and by year, over time, with patience, I was able to make up something like a song, to then put lyrics on it. I quickly realised how much easier that was than writing a novel. And more social. I can just write a song and it doesn’t have to be such an epic undertaking. Two verses and a bridge, a hook, a chorus if I’m really inspired. I get to sing it, the music takes care of the lyrics in a lot of ways. Like you…
It’s the words first and then “what can I lash together musically?”?
Exactly.
And every now and then something breaks for you the right way and there’s something that bit better.
There’s endless reasons why I appreciate that process, that it even exists, and I get to do that. And once I figured that out, that was it. I’ve written hundreds of songs that I can’t remember, I love the process. Some of them end up sticking around.
And then someone comes to you to say “I really liked that one”.
Oh man! Yes. And the way you can communicate through song, it’s just got so much going for it that it makes me feel bad for novelists. I don’t know if it’s just because I’m not really adept at writing a song that’s very specific and stays within a setting, or a notion – this is something I used to talk about with another guy I used to write songs with back in the day, Josh Bass, who I actually still write songs with from afar. We want to leave songs as open as possible. I love watching songs age – the song doesn’t change but seeing how it matures and takes on different meanings for different people. I don’t really know what my intention is a lot of time, and I’m watching it take on meaning for me even. Oh, that whole verse means this! And it could mean something completely different than it did a year earlier. Those are the songs that are still here. So that’s really important for me when I’m writing – trying to write a durable song.
Are there old songs in the current repertoire?
I bring them out every once in a while. Some of them are pushing 20 years now. But again they are different now, just like I’m different.
Do you find that the way that the band plays and sounds is an influence on what you are writing? Or do you bring a song in and say “here, let’s go”?
The band plays how I would want a band to play, the style that I want to listen to. It’s very close to the music that I hear in my head. That’s the zone we’re already in, we click and are on the same page. The album that we’re recording is going to wind up having 15 musicians on it, even though we’re a five piece band. Many of them, because it’s such a small community, fell in love with songs from the audience, they have their favourite song, and now they’re recording a solo on the song that already meant something to them before they came into the studio. Different people respond to different songs musically, but there’s been a good handful of players already on the album that are, like, “oh yes, this one means a lot to me, can I have this one?” People graciously cater to what other people have to bring, in the name of collaboration and creativity.
You’ve mentioned co-writing a lot – do you do a lot of that?
I love co-writing. When I write alone it’s normally out of necessity, an emotional refuge. But as an activity, which I adore, I am rarely going to sit down and think I’m going to write a song, unless I’m already in some emotional state where I don’t know what else to do. I’ve had two long term songwriting partners, and we’re on the same level in a lot of ways. You have two sensibilities working together, and it’s back and forth – I just love the process. It has to be with the right person, although as I’m getting older, especially around here, it’s just fun. I feel very blessed to have run into Colin. Gary [Custance, Little Thieves, We Are Ewe]and I have written a few songs together just because we both love writing songs, and we have very different styles and approaches. That’s more let’s sit down and see what happens – the ends are not important.
Cove is not playing this weekend but he’s likely to be back on stages really soon.
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