Aan

Among the atmospheric, moody pop music created by Portland, Ore.-band AAN lurks one song that vocalist/songwriter Bud Wilson laughingly admitted he loves and hates. "Like I Love You" is a slow guitar song with forlorn lyrics that sound like little moth wings batting against Wilson's clenched teeth until they are eventually released, however reluctantly. One day at a family party, his mother asked him to get his guitar and play for everyone. She asked his sister to join him and his sister suggested they perform "Like I Love You." He not only had to sing the sad "You can't give me what I want dear / 'cause you don't love me like I love you" at a family function, he had to sing it as a duet with his sister.

With new drummer Mica Rapstine—who also plays piano and trumpet—joining Wilson and Reese Lawhon, the trio leaves Portland for a couple of Boise shows next week. (One is a house show, and rumor has it that Starf***er and Guidance Counselor play that same venue in May.) They have plans for a more extensive tour at the end of the summer and Wilson is excited about the addition of Rapstine. He said he's happy to be "relegated to guitar while Rapstine and Lawhon trade off on bass, drums." AAN has just finished recording a four-song EP and you can hear a rough mix of "For Mabel" from the new album at myspace.com/amoradnauseum. - Boise Weekly

I was just talking to a friend about the movie Dude, Where’s My Car? yesterday. In attempting to persuade them to watch the Ashton Kutcher/Seann William Scott opus, I mentioned how it unexpectedly turns into a sci-fi movie, inferring that that twist is reason enough to catapult it into must-view status.

“Girls of Spring,” a willowy tune by Aan, is a similar work, with its own unexpected sci-fi connection. Though I wouldn’t have known it without talking to Bud Wilson, the man behind Aan’s delicate strings and layered, octave-jumping vocals. Below we chat about the sci-fi origins of the easygoing pop track, its meaning and fitting it is for Portland’s annual city-wide winter basement retreat. Cute girls also factor in. Judging by all that, I’d say this too sounds like the recipe for an excellent film. Hey Matt McCormick, wanna helm the project? I hear you just wrapped the other feature you were working on…
Q&A with Aan’s Bud Wilson:

What is the song about?
“Girls of Spring” is about being afraid of getting lonely. It’s knowing that as the weather turns here in Portland, people disappear, stow away in their homes and basements until light returns for more than a few hours a day and we can ride around without fenders again. But also it’s a celebration of the faction of us who are not afraid of the dismal gray rain, and find ways to stick it out with fervor and maintain satisfactory relationships through the coming season. Mainly it’s about cute girls.

How long did it take to write? Why did you write it?
The song was an afterthought. I’d just finished recording a different song that took a few days to get out. I had no intentions of spending another few hours pushing record. The riff came up quickly and there was no choice but to track it. I’d recently re-read one of my favorite stories by Madeline L’Engle, A Wind In the Door. In the book, there is a terrible happening called “Echthroi;” a blackness streaking across the universe turning something into nothing. I had a visual of this “Echthroi” erasing good folks with the coming wind. It’s some sci-fi stuff, but mix love and science fiction and that’s hot shit. It all was recorded in about an hour and a half.

What’s your favorite season?
My favorite season is the fall.

Why?
Picking apples off neighborhood trees. Dressing up to keep warm. Watching things die, knowing they’ll return soon enough when I’ve forgotten about them. It’s about dismissing those things that were bringing a person down and getting skeletal, keeping what’s essential.

What will you be doing in relation to your music during winter?
This winter I’m moving houses here in Portland. I’ll be looking for a drummer. I’ll be recording constantly, I hope. I’d like to find a positive place and make something a bit more uplifting, something wholesome. I’ll certainly be playing shows at Valentines and some of the smaller venues around. I just bought a monstrous bass amp so i’ll be driving the neighbors crazy with low end rumbles. Music is always and everything, the rest of my life wraps itself around it.

“Girls of Spring” will be officially released on a self-released E.P. in spring 2009 available digitally on itunes and in physical form at shows. - Willamette Week Local Cut