One listen to Aaron Lewis’ new album, State I’m In, and you can tell that the state he was in when he made this album was heartbroken, hurting, lost and deeply emotional. “It was a tough record to write,” says Aaron, “hence why I ended up using some other people’s songs.”
Aaron has never recorded songs in the past that he didn’t have a hand in writing, but on this album there are three of them, and he explains that he relied on outside writers because, “The couple songs that I did write had such an effect on me, and what was coming out of me was – I don’t know that I was ready for it… I just wasn’t ready to deal with what was coming out and I certainly wasn’t ready to put it on a record for the world to see. So, in an effort to take some of it off myself, in the sense that I can separate from somebody else’s song – well, I didn’t write it – but I certainly gravitated towards songs that fit the mood and fit within the songs that I’d had written.”
While State I’m In sheds light on some of those deeply personal and dark corners of Aaron’s mind, it certainly doesn’t tell the whole story. Aaron says, “It’s not that I couldn’t have wrote the record, it’s that I don’t know that I was ready to put out what that record would have been on a whole. It’s coming. It’s absolutely gonna come. It might come in a little bit of a different setting.”
While Aaron’s fans will probably relate to a lot of the songs on this album, he says, “My songs have always been very autobiographical, which means I don’t write my songs for other people. So I’m not really hoping that other people are getting anything out of it. I’m hoping that I’m getting what I need to get out of it, and that’s really how I’ve always approached writing songs.”
So even though Aaron isn’t trying to write what the fans want, the songs and this new album will still resonate with them because he says, “They tend to come off pretty genuine because I’m writing them for me.”
Aaron Lewis – songs autobiographical :37
“It was a tough record to write, hence why I ended up using some other people’s songs. The couple songs that I did write had such an effect on me, and what was coming out of me was -I don’t know that I was ready for it. So in my typical fashion, I avoided it and took advantage of the fact that I’m here in Nashville and there’s plenty of people here in Nashville that would love me to record one of their songs. So I recorded a couple of songs that really impacted me in a similar manner than if I had written them, but there was still a separation. When I heard them I felt them for sure.”
Aaron Lewis – recorded some outside songs :34
“I just wasn’t ready to deal with what was coming out and I certainly wasn’t ready to put it on a record for the world to see. So, in an effort to take some of it off myself, in the sense that I can separate from somebody else’s song – well, I didn’t write it – but I certainly gravitated towards songs that fit the mood and fit within the songs that I’d had written. It’s not that I couldn’t have wrote the record, it’s that I don’t know that I was ready to put out what that record would have been on a whole. It’s coming. It’s absolutely gonna come. It might come in a little bit of a different setting.”
Aaron Lewis – fans get from album :23
“My songs have always been very autobiographical, which means I don’t write my songs for other people. So I’m not really hoping that other people are getting anything out of it. I’m hoping that I’m getting what I need to get out of it, and that’s really how I’ve always approached writing songs. And I think that’s why they tend to come off pretty genuine because I’m writing them for me.”