While today the Limerick-born-and-raised, Dublin-based musician Aaron Maloney considers making music to be a fundamental pillar to his stability, it didn’t initially take his fancy.

“It’s funny, actually; I was originally given a guitar by my parents – God, maybe when I was 14 or something like that – and I was like, ‘Why the hell did you get this for me? Like, I have no interest in learning how to play this,’” laughs Aaron when remembering how he got into songwriting.

“But then I was thinking, ‘You know, it would be cool to play the James Bond riff,’ like [Hums Monty Norman’s “James Bond Theme”]. So, I learnt that, and I was like, ‘Cool! That’s not bad!’ Then I learnt ‘Do I Wanna Know?’ [by Arctic Monkeys], of course. You know, [Vocalises the riff to the song]  And that was it, man! Like, I did nothing else, after that! [Laughs]”

A couple of years later, Aaron’s friend, Liam – who, according to Aaron and filtered through my editorialising, seemed to put so many skill points into singing that he had none left over for vocals – asked if he would be interested in starting a musical duo. “He was like, ‘Aaron, you sing all the time!’,” Aaron recalls.

“And I have been singing all my life. I’ve never really thought of it as something to get into, but I’ve always been singing, all the time. I’ve probably been singing coming out of the womb, to be honest.”

The two learnt the song “Riptide” by Vance Joy, with Aaron admitting that he initially stole the singer’s distinctively Australian intonations for his performances. But it worked! “There’s this thing called YSI [Youth Social Innovators] in secondary school,” remembers Aaron of their first gig.

“It’s sort of like CSPE, sort of civil, political education. But there was this retreat that we went on, where there was a bunch of different schools at this YSI retreat. I can’t even remember what the subject was – it was some political thing – but there was an open mic there, so we were like, ‘Alright, we’ll go up and we’ll play “Riptide.”’ [Laughs]

“So, we went up and we did it, and there was a lot of people, now! And we were absolutely shitting bricks! There’s also a video of that because of course there is! There’s always a video! But, when we were playing it, there were a few girls close to the stage and looking at us, and, afterwards, they came up to us, like, ‘Oh, my God! You were so great!’, and we were like, ‘We’ve got to do this more often!’ So, from then on we were like, ‘We’re in a band!’”

The two christened their project Elenay (pronounced like Eh-la-nae), which was a phonetic play on their initials “L and A,” and the opportunities seemed ceaseless. They contacted the Limerick branch of the national youth music education group, Music Generation, who helped them get their footing. From there, they began busking and playing upstairs at the famous Dolan’s music venue and supported acts like the indie pop artist Brí and the local rock band Anna’s Anchor.

Yet, for their success, Aaron didn’t envision it as much more than an in-the-moment hobby. “It wasn’t like I was actually actively pursuing music as a career, at that point,” he explains. “It was kind of just something we did for fun, and if we made it, we made it. Great.”

In 2018, Aaron moved to Dublin to study Film and Television Production at the Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology (IADT), with the move unceremoniously serving as the end of Elenay.

“I kind of took a little bit of a hiatus from music, at that point,” recalls Aaron. “When I first moved up, I did write a few songs, which I made into an EP, called Ignite. I did that in 2019. I recorded it in late 2019, and then I did nothing with it! I didn’t release it until 2021!

“In 2021, I was like, ‘What am I doing, sitting on this EP? I have it recorded, I might as well release it.’ So, I released it, and I did nothing with it! Then I was like, [In a mopey tone] ‘Why is nothing going on with it? I’m not getting any streams on it! What the hell?!’ [In his normal voice] Obviously not! I did nothing with it! […] After that, then, I kind of took a big break. I mean, I was writing music, but, in terms of actually pursuing it and releasing and recording, I didn’t.”

After four years in college, Aaron earned a BA (Hons) in Film and Television Production. Aaron feels that what he learnt from this course has aided him in this new music career. “I think, especially nowadays, they’re [film and music]  a lot more connected, because everything is visual, now, with music,” he says.

 “For sure, what I learned at my film course definitely translates into music, you know, with doing music videos. Because I majored in Directing, and when you’re a director, you are creating something to invoke emotion in a viewer. So, you’re kind of doing the same thing as a musician. So, in a way, you’re a director of music.” Yet, when it comes to videos for his own music, Aaron prefers to divorce the two occupations. “I like being just the artist in [my] music videos,” he says.

Whilst in college, Aaron was living in Stillorgan (which, for those unfamiliar with County Dublin, is about twenty to thirty minutes outside of the city centre, depending on the mode of transport, traffic, etc.) and didn’t really engage with the city’s music scene during that time.

“It’s only at the start of this year, really, that I started [getting involved],” Aaron says of the Dublin music scene. “Because I was getting into film stuff, I was doing more films. I was working a kind of shitty job, and I was writing at the time and I was working. I was getting into the job to save money, but I did a year of it and I really didn’t save a lot of money. [Laughs]

“And I was like, ‘What the hell am I doing?’ and ‘I wrote that fuckin’ album, there, about four years ago. What the hell? I should do something with that!’ So, I was like, ‘I’m getting back into music! Fuck it!’”

The album that Aaron is referring to is his upcoming debut, titled Dark Earth. The album’s songs began life about four years ago when Aaron’s girlfriend (who he now lives with in Dundrum) moved to Australia, which made him feel despondent, and he expressed his frustrations through music.

Aaron’s recent activity in the music scene has resulted in the album finally taking shape. “I came across this jam session at the start of this year, and I went and met a whole bunch of people,” Aaron says. “I met Fernando, who helped with the album. I met a guy from the Netherlands, Tom. He was over on holiday. The first day, he started busking with one of the guys there, and I saw that they were busking and I was like, ‘I’ll have a go at busking! Why not? I haven’t busked in years!’

“And, yeah, I just started making a load of contacts, started doing a lot more open mics, just doing what I can, you know? Just meeting as [many] people as I can, and collaborating with loads of people. […] Yeah, I’ve just been doing as much as I can, and then, eventually, I got a tax return, a nice tax return, that paid for the album!”

The album was recorded throughout May at the Red Lake Sound Studios in Portlaoise, with engineer Gary Duncan, whom Aaron had worked previously with on his debut EP and his latest single, “It Takes One to Know,” which was recorded and mixed throughout the end of 2019 and beginning of 2020, but which was only released in July.

The single will not be featured on the album; instead, it serves as a reintroduction to Aaron’s music and it is the first song to be released with his new moniker, ARREN, which he adopted during this current album cycle. He even updated the cover and metadata of the Ignite EP (which was originally released under his real name) to reflect this.

 “It’s just kind of a single that’s sort of in that in-between,” Aaron says of “It Takes One to Know.” “It’s in between the Ignite era and the Dark Earth era. […] I did want it to be a sort of summer song, that invokes that summer look.”  The film-influenced aesthetics and themes featured in both the song and album can be seen in the music video for the track, which was released yesterday and is directed by Aaron’s friend, David Coleman.

Now, after reigniting his solo career with this single release/music video combo, Aaron is focusing on gigging and releasing his debut album. “I’m delighted with this record,” Aaron proudly says. “If I had to say what I learnt from it, it’s to collaborate with as many people as you can on it, because collaboration is the key to quality, and keep an open mind for suggestions.”

Aaron claims the album is him going back to his “subconscious influence” from the acts he heard in his household as he grew up, like U2, Elvis Presley, and The Script, to create something “very folky, very soft” and eschewing modernity for modernity’s sake.

“It just makes you happy,” Aaron says of this style of music and his decision to go down this route. “And that’s what I wanted to do with the music, you know? [I was] thinking about all this electronic stuff, but really what makes me happy is doing what I listened to, growing up, and I think it’s more fulfilling as an artist and a listener.”

ARREN’s latest single, “It Takes One to Know,” is out now on all streaming platforms. ARREN will perform with Huntings, Ragtags, and Fernando Antunnes at Sin É in Dublin on August 9^th. Tickets are available from Eventbrite. You can keep up to date with ARREN’s music, live dates, and social media accounts on his website.

Tune into POSTBURNOUT.COM Interviews… tomorrow to hear this interview in full, where we go into further detail about everything discussed in this article, as well as mental health, if being a musician is a net positive or negative for a person’s mental health, long-ass movies and intermissions, the meaning and making of the music video to “It Takes One to Know,” the Limerick music scene, and much, much more. Available on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Music Podcasts.

Aaron Kavanagh

Aaron Kavanagh is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Post-Burnout. His writing can also be found in the Irish Daily Star, Buzz.ie, Totally Dublin, The GOO, Headstuff, New Noise Magazine, XS Noize, DSCVRD and more.