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Aaron Trueblood, bass guitarist for the Bethpage-based power pop/alternative rock band Fouled Out, w...Aaron Trueblood, bass guitarist for the Bethpage-based power pop/alternative rock band Fouled Out, was a junior at Gallatin High School when the three-man group performed as a showcasing act at the South by Southwest Music Conference and Festival in Austin, Texas, in 2007.
Two years earlier, Trueblood had joined with lead vocalist Alex Khoury to form the band, which won several area competitions before releasing a four-song demo, “A Walk Through Walnut Ranch” in 2006.
That experience, however, did not prepare them for what they would find at SXSW ’07.
“It was just crazy,” Trueblood recalled. “You’d be sitting there and you’d see Drew Barrymore walk down the street, and you’re just like, ‘Wow!’”
“We pretty much felt like chickens with our heads cut off, because we had no idea what to do, what we were doing,” said Khoury, a 2006 graduate of Gallatin High School. “We were very young at the time.”
Three years later, Trueblood and Khoury are returning to Austin – along with the band’s newest member, 18-year-old drummer Johnathan Hughes – after Fouled Out was selected to perform as a showcasing act at the 24th Annual SXSW Conference and Music Festival, which begins Wednesday, March 17, and continues through Sunday, March 21.
The South by Southwest Conference and Music Festival will feature approximately 2,000 showcasing acts – including singer-songwriters Suzanne Vega and Macy Gray and the iconic rock band Cheap Trick – performing on 88 stages, while attracting thousands of music professionals.
A keynote address, which will be delivered this year by the legendary Smokey Robinson, anchors four days of panels, interviews, workshops, mentor sessions, peer meetings and a trade show at the Austin Convention Center.
With so much to do in so little time, Trueblood and Khoury are hoping that – this year – they are not only a little bit older, but a little bit wiser as well.
“We were so young, and we went down there and partied like idiots the first time,” Khoury said of the band’s experience at SXSW ’07.
“That’s not how it should be done,” Trueblood interjected.
“We know that we’re not going to get much done or really get a lot from the experience just thinking that it’s a big party,” Khoury continued. “We definitely know what we want to do while we’re down there, and there’s so much to do that it can get overwhelming.”
“But you can’t let it,” Khoury added. “You just need to realize that it’s an all new experience and a learning process.”
Trueblood agreed.
“You have to know what you’re doing, and know what you want before you go down there,” Trueblood said. “The first time we went, we were just like, ‘We’re going to his festival and play.’ We didn’t know what to expect.”
“This time around, we’re prepared so much more for this, and we know what we want,” Trueblood added. “Hopefully, what we can get out of it is positive feedback.”
Khoury will actually be making his third appearance as a showcasing act at the SXSW Music Festival, having performing at the event in 2008 as a solo artist after Fouled Out broke up “for a little while.”
“What happened really was our drummer went his own way,” Khoury said. “And Aaron at the time was not 18 and his mother wanted him to focus on school. That’s understandable, of course.”
Khoury said that one of the things he learned from the experience, however, was that he did not like being a solo act.
“That was definitely interesting,” Khoury said. “I found out that I don’t really like to play by myself. There’s just something about being in a band: the brotherhood, the friendships, the fights – everything that goes along with it.”
“When you’re playing as an acoustic artist, it’s not a performance as much as it’s just showcasing yourself as a songwriter,” Khoury continued. “Which is great, because they could really concentrate on the lyrics and stuff like that, but, yeah, it really put things into perspective of what I wanted to do and what needed to be done.”
The first step in resurrecting Fouled Out after Khoury returned to Tennessee was to find a new drummer.
“I think we have a drummer’s curse,” Khoury said with a laugh. “I don’t know what it is.”
Trueblood and Khoury subsequently teamed up with longtime fan Matt Twidle on drums, and Fouled Out was back in business.
“He was the first drummer that we had that we really felt like we kind of connected with, and we really started finding our sound,” Khoury said. “But when you have a young drummer and young people playing in the band, sometimes they’re not sure exactly what they’re wanting to do.”
The night before Fouled Out was scheduled to open for Nashville rock band Framing Hanley, Twidle informed Trueblood and Khoury that he no longer wanted to be in the group.
“It was not a good phone call,” Trueblood said.
With the search for another drummer under way, Khoury said that Fouled Out’s biggest fan, Amanda Smith of Gallatin, came to the rescue.
“One day, she gives us a phone call and says, ‘Hey, I found you a drummer!’” Khoury recalled. “And we’re like, ‘Oh … I wonder what this is going to be like?’”
When Hughes came to audition at the band’s studio – which is actually a garage at the home of Khoury’s parents in Bethpage – Khoury admitted that his first impression was that Hughes would not work out.
“When John first came in, he looked more rock and roll than we did,” Khoury recalled. “I saw him and he was real tall – he’s pushing 6-(foot)-3 – and I’m probably 5-8, maybe. I remember thinking, ‘Oh yeah, I don’t know. I don’t know.’ Negative thoughts. Negative thoughts.”
But that was before the three began to jam on “Hysteria,” a song by one of their favorite bands, Muse.
“I’ll never forget the connection that we had that day,” Khoury said.
“We came in negative and then, all of a sudden, we were like, ‘Whoa!’” Trueblood added. “I’ve never heard a drummer like this guy right here, ever, in my life.”
According to Hughes, the audition was “phenomenal.”
“I’ve told them, yeah, you can always go and play with other people – there’s always people that you’ll still jam with,” Hughes said. “But, after playing with them, you know, I haven’t played with anyone better than them in my life – so far.”
Since Hughes joined the band in November 2009, Khoury said, Fouled Out has gotten even better with every performance.
“Ever since we ventured into John here, everything’s just been great,” Khoury said. “We’ve only played together for like two or three months and we sound so much better than what we ever have,” Trueblood said.
“To have a drummer that can take your song that you wrote and make it the best that it can be, in your opinion, is just a great feeling,” Khoury said. “We almost get chill bumps when we play together. We’re great friends. We don’t want to do anything else.”
The group subsequently met producer/musician Brion Gamboa, a former semifinalist on “Star Search,” and recorded their new single, “Smile From a Veil,” which Khoury wrote.
In addition to preparing for SXSW ’10, Fouled Out has been working on a new five-song EP that is being produced in Murfreesboro, as well as performing at several area venues, including 912 Park, an all-ages venue located in Westmoreland.
“It’s really cool that Westmoreland is branching out and having an all-ages rock venue,” Khoury said.
“And it’s actually a very nice venue,” Trueblood added. “I was very surprised when I first walked in there. I was like, ‘Man, this is awesome!’”
Being selected to perform at the 2010 SXSW Music Conference and Festival, according to both Trueblood and Khoury, is a big deal for Fouled Out, especially since the band is not currently represented.
“It excites us that we are unsigned, unrepresented, and we get to go there, because it doesn’t happen,” Trueblood said. “To be accepted and not be represented by anybody is just a huge feat.”
“Really, you never know who’s going to be there,” said Khoury, who noted that Pete Townsend of The Who was the keynote speaker for SXSW ‘07. “And if we don’t know them now, we will soon, and it’s a big honor for us and we’re just so excited, as young as we are, to be even given the opportunity to be able to play in front of so many people.”
“I guess the fact that we were selected once helped us a little bit to get selected again,” Khoury added. “But, it’s a luck game.”
This time, however, Trueblood and Khoury said that Fouled Out will be much better prepared to take full advantage of the opportunities to showcase their own music and talents, as well as build its fan base.
“We just need to remember that it’s always about the music and that’s what’s important,” Khoury said.
“I expect a lot of good things to come out of this, like building our fan base in Austin,” Trueblood said. “It’s a huge connect. It’s the live music capital of the world. It’s a privilege to be down there to do that.”
“Really good things can happen out of this,” Trueblood added, “if you know the right people to talk to.”
“Just for somebody to say, ‘Hey, I saw this awesome band called Fouled Out,’” Khoury said. “If we can get one person in Austin to say that, then I’ll think it was a successful trip.”
Meanwhile, Hughes – who will be making his first-ever trip to the SXSW Music Conference and Festival – will depend the Trueblood and Khoury while they are in Austin.
“I’m just really excited to play and see how it goes,” Hughes said. “I’ve not experienced it so, obviously, they know the opportunities and what to expect.”
“But I’m really just looking to have a good time,” Hughes added. “It’s another band experience to add onto the experience we’ve already had, and I’m sure there’s a lot of things to get overwhelmed with, but I have two guys that know what they’re doing, so I’d say I’m pretty well set so far.”
“We’d like to think that,” Khoury said.
Trueblood and Khoury said that SXSW ’07 was a humbling experience for Fouled Out, but once which taught them how much they still had to learn.
“We were like, ‘Yeah, we’re going to do this and we’re just going to take it over,’” Trueblood said. “Once we got down there, we realized that there’s a really strong work ethic that you’ve got to keep.”
“To be able to do anything in this kind of business, it has to be straight work, like you go to school and you have to put a full-time effort into that,” Trueblood added. “It’s crazy.”
“I guess you can say we got a sense of what kind of dedication we were going to have to put forth for it to make a difference,” Khoury said.
Fouled Out, which performed three times at SXSW ’07, is scheduled to perform once at this year’s event, at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, March 17, at Headhunters, a heavy metal tiki bar in Austin's hard rock district.
“We’re just so excited to even have the opportunity to play,” Khoury said. “It’s almost hard to describe what we’re going to do or what we’re not going to do. We just know that it’s going to be a huge experience.”
