Features

Whenever Red Scare signs a new band, I get excited. I can't help it... it's a Pavlovian thing. So here you go... meet Success, Red Scare's latest signee who will be releasing the album "Radio Recovery" on March 31. It's really good and you can hear me gush about it once I get the review online but for now, read on to see what vocalist/guitarist Aaron Rev had to tell us. Oh, and don't forget to pre-order the album here while you're at it!

PRT: First of all, congratulations on the new album, it’s really good! Not really a question but I’ve heard that flattery gets you everywhere.
Aaron: Ha! It's always appreciated.

PRT: You’ve been around for nearly ten years but this year finds you releasing a new album on Red Scare, you’re playing some big festivals and touring with Masked Intruder, you’re on the Warped Tour comp, you’re featured in Alt Press’ “Bands You Need To Know in 2015”. Why didn’t all this happen any sooner?
Aaron: Well, we were focused on playing as many shows as we could with friends and touring bands over the last few years, and we've been lucky enough to always have good friends willing to put out our records. So we were doing our thing, and we we're happy with it. But we finally got hooked up with Red Scare and ball just started rolling super quick. Toby (Red Scare) already helped us a ton.

PRT: Can you give me the history of the band written in the form of a tweet?
Aaron: We're a few guys from Seattle who've been friends for years and all came together with the same goal... Be great people, play great punk rock.

PRT: I read somewhere that you changed the name of the band, was changing it to Success a way of hopefully creating a self-fulfilling prophecy or did you just want to make it hard for people to find you on Google?
Aaron: Haha. Funny thing is, the reason we changed our name was that no one could find us online because they couldn't spell one of the words in the name! But also, at the time the focus of the band became more prominent, and we wanted a name that was simple and to the point.

PRT: For the people out there who haven’t heard you guys yet, if Success was the lovechild of two other bands, which bands would have had sex and which position were you conceived in?
Aaron: Oh man, haha. That's a great question. Probably The Clash, and the Bouncing Souls, but with Tom Petty watching. Or at least I'd like to think so. As far as position, "discretely in public" for sure.

PRT: Your new album is called “Radio Recovery”. Is the plan to take back the airwaves?
Aaron: The idea of Radio Recovery is the fact that the radio and music used to inspire people. But with the over saturation of information availability due to the internet, then mixed with social media, that idea seems a bit gloomy these days. There are so many bands out there that have lost sight of how much you can do with your ability to play music and make art beyond "looking awesome and playing breakdowns". It's time to take that back.

PRT: You recorded the album with Steve Rizun who has previously worked with the likes of the Flatliners and Junior Battles. How did you hook up with him and what is the biggest thing you learned from him?
Aaron: We hooked up with him through Red Scare, but we'd heard of him before. We all loved how The Flatliners records sounded, so we were stoked to work with him. We learned a couple things from Steve... Record everything a billion times, even if you think you nailed it. And, Canada has terrible coffee, and bacon-flovored potato chips.

PRT: You have a fair amount of class rock influences sneaking into your songs. Growing up, what came firstc an undying love for Journey or the Descendents?
Aaron: I personally have younger parents, so bands like Journey, Cheap Trick, and Thin Lizzy we're always on when I was growing up. They're some of the earlier inspirations. But the first time I heard "I'm The One" by Descendents, "Burnout" track one of Dookie, or pretty much anything from The Clash, that's all I wanted to play.

PRT: You have quite a few shows coming up, you book shows for bands passing through Seattle and you all have regular jobs as well. Is it hard to combine all of that?
Aaron: Ya, that's part of the game though. Deciding to take a risk with your livelihood an comfort to be in a band is a tough decision to make, and way tougher on your own. So we work our butts of when we're in town, and we work hard to try to make it easier for other friends who've made the same decision. It always comes back around to help us in the end.

PRT: I read that you come from the same town as Toby and have known him since you were in high school.  So I’m pretty sure you must have a good Toby story, feel like sharing it?
Aaron: Haha... I don't! I will say though, underneath that gruff demeanor, he's a huge sweetheart.  He really does go out of his way to help everyone he can.

PRT: What is one thing you have managed to keep under wrap up until now about Success?
Aaron:Our live show is intense, and a ton of fun. We've toured a good amount, but we'll be getting to places this year that we've never been. We're going all over the US this year and talking about Europe soon.  We're real excited to finally get to high-five more great people from all over the world.