We caught up with Rufus Aaronson at a warm-up gig at Buddy Guy's Legends in Chicago as the band prepared for their first full-scale tour and asked him to break down the band's debut album, "Breakdown". Here's what he had to say:
1. Damn Right I Still Got the Blues: Our Buddy Guy cover. This is the first song we ever played with Johnny (Miller, the band's frontman/guitarist), and it just felt right. We decided to record it as a pre-release single, and it ended up on the album. It's a great way to open, and I think it really shows what we're all about.
2. Breakdown: We wrote this one with (Radio Nowhere frontman/guitarist) Bradley Ard, and we had a ton of fun recording this one. Brad plays the first solo on this one, which I think sounds pretty good, but Johnny's solo was great. He has such great feel in his playing, I don't think he knows how to hit a wrong note.
3. Michigan Avenue Blues: This one was all Johnny and Chester (Layton, Keyboards), they had this the second day of the sessions. It's a slower song, but it just burns.
4. Old Love: We had to cover Clapton. We did this song in one take with just a couple days to go in the sessions, and it was a lot of fun.
5. Goin' Down: This is one that every blues band has to play, you don't have a choice, so we just decoded we better go ahead and get it out of the way. Another fun track to record. We did this one about halfway through the sessions, and I like how it came out.
6. Jesus Just Left Chicago: Yeah, we covered ZZ Top. Another slow burner. We came in one afternoon, and Johnny and Brad were jamming on this one, so we decided to record it.
7. Cold Shot: Chester really came alive on this one. We knew we wanted to do a Stevie Ray Vaughan cover, but we wanted Chester to have a chance to show off, and this was just right.
8. Remember When: This was the first song we really wrote as a band. We started with the riff, I added the bass, James (Kzyzewski, drums) added drums, Chester joined in, and we had the groove done in a couple hours. We listened back, Johnny and Janes added some lyrics, and we gave it a go. This is probably going to be a single.
9. Since I Left You: Another slow blues track. This one was all Chet. He had it done when he came it, and we just went to town. Great Hammond organ solo on this one.
10. Ride On: We covered AC/DC! This track was just too perfect to close out the album with. We recorded this on the last day of the sessions, because we had one last song to do, and it sounds cool
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The debut album by Blister Kings, "Breakdown", is due out now via iTunes, Spotify, and Best Buy.
