Background to Peace, Love And Other Trending Topics
The original writing process for Peace, Love And Other Trending Topics started in 2010, when Aaron was working on new material to play as a part of his live show. The basic chord progressions and keyboard loops were written, and although most of them were scrapped at the time, the ideas were saved for future use if he continued to progress into the acoustic pop cross over artist that he was attempting to become at the time.

When Aaron's debut EP Getting Out was released, ideas that were left over from the writing process of the EP were then edited by both Aaron and close friend and purcussionist Derek Baker. Other ideas were bounced around by the two, including some general interludes, containing nothing but soft acoustic chords to progress each song to the next, but this idea was scraped in favour of having a variety of influences and making a number of songs stand out more than others.

The general musical styling behind the album eventually evolved from a straight up acoustic/folk album, into an acoustic/pop cross over, with elements of hip-hop, and electronica, which allowed for a greater variety of listeners and an increase what Aaron could then envolve himself into.

Lyrically, there is no set theme to the album. Due to the writing process being split up over various amounts of time, it would have made no sense to attempt to re-create the feelings when the lyrics for the songs written in 2010 were, and therefore Aaron decieded to write lyrics about whatever was on his mind when he felt the need to write lyrics. This diverse variety of themes added to the idea of each song having a different impact on the listener whilst also exposing more of Aaron's views on certain topics.

The recording process of Peace, Love And Other Trending Topics
Starting in July 2011, with producers Damion Holmes and Gia at Apple Beam Recording Studios in London, the process followed a basic routine of demoing the tracks over the first week without vocals, adding vocals to the tracks the next week, and then starting work on the official recordings.

However, due to Aaron and Derek Baker's lack of attention during the early stages (as seen in Aaron's video update), the process took significantly longer than expected, with all recording expected to be completed by the 7th of August. The eventual finish of recording was found as Monday the 5th of September, due to Aaron playing festival shows, and taking a week off to write extra material for various projects, including the start of his contribution towards Postscript's second album (never heard from), and work on his own second album. Various guest musicians were brought in during the process of recording, some to add an extra flavour to the actual songs themselves (for example Rhys Perrin for Aaron's live band performing the violon and some additional guitar work across the album), and Postscript adding his vocals to the track 'Don't Leave' to add more variety.

Title: Peace, Love And Other Trending Topics - Aaron Marks
Released: 12th October
Format: Digital Download, CD Album, Limited Edition Vinyl
Recorded: Apple Beam Recording Studios, London
(July 2011 - September 2011)
Genre(s): acoustic, indie, pop, folk
Length: 37:29
Producer(s): Gia, Damion Holmes
Label: Halcyon Days Records

Singles:
1) It's True, I'm Trouble (14th August 2011)
2) You're Alive (Why Ask For More?) [9th October 2011]

Tracklisting;
01. It's True, I'm Trouble
02. Down For The Count
03. Why Leave? (Featuring Postscript)
04. You Called?
05. Sell Out (Featuring Derek Baker)
06. You're Alive (Why Ask For More?)
07. Don’t Say That I Don’t Know You (When You Don’t Know Me)
08. Social Network Queen (Or The Death Of The Myspace Whore)
09. Peace, Love And Other Trending Topics
10. Photoshop Is A Girl's Best Friend

Don't Leave (featuring Postscript)

Starting with a bass synth sound, along with Aaron's vocals being held and echoed during the opening of the song, whilst Postscript is heard alongside the echo (repeating the words), until a kick drum is heard, as Postscript starts to rap. After a verse of raping, the drums progress into a symplistic hip hop drum beat and Postscript continues to rap. As the song reaches the chorus, an acoustic guitar is heard along with the bass synth sound. The song follows the same musical pattern, however, Aaron sings for the third and fourth verses and then towards the end of the song Aaron and Postscript both sing at the same time, until the chorus is repeated twice and the song ends. The chorus of the song is the most catchy part, with the lyric of "Don't leave me like this, I'll have to try to catch up to you, you're the one thing holding me down, you're my gravity"

Aaron: Don't Leave was written mainly by Postscript lyrically, as he features in a fair amount of the song, but from what I can tell it's a mix between a failing relationship gradually ending, and a close friend suffering from a terminal illness, which is personal to me as well as him. We mixed ideas up, and used metaphors for the rap based parts, but the message should be clear to everyone, and just shows how we as humans fail to deal with extreme changes and loss.