It's an early spring afternoon, and Aaron Steinberg (who performs as Aaron Taos) is about to start a new chapter.
After several years performing as a solo artist, Taos is going back to his roots, in multiple ways, having teamed up with his one-time barber and fellow artist Tyler Lindsay, as the two have formed a new band called Showpony. Their first single "Shine" arrived this past week, a sampling of what they hope to offer in the months to come.
The new project is a homecoming of sorts for Taos, as both he and Lindsay are from New Haven, Connecticut, having grown up near each other but not actually meeting until a few years ago, when Lindsay would cut Taos' hair and they began to form a bond through music and mutual appreciation for bands such as Queens of the Stone Age, Oasis and Arctic Monkeys.
"We were like, 'OK, let's start a band,'" recalls Taos. "And we wrote pretty quickly, like five or six songs. 'Shine' was the second one we did and the lyrics [of the songs] fluctuate between being about New Haven specifically and also stories that are maybe somewhat fictional. This one falls in that category. It's about an acrobat who sort of self-sabotages and dies during a performance. Yeah, it's a bit of an extrapolation, but we thought it was an interesting idea and it fit the bigger sound and the instrumentation."
For Taos, who had come to lean into his more polished, poppier alt-rock side over the years, he's finding new, collaborative inspiration after having written and produced for other artists recently, while also witnessing a resurgence of rock in the musical landscape.
"Tyler and I both started in bands and the more rock, live music world," says Taos. "It feels full circle for us, back to what got us excited about music ... A year and a half ago, I saw Arctic Monkeys in L.A. and Fontaines D.C. opened for them, and I was like, 'Oh yeah, this is why I want to even do music in the first place!' The idea of playing live with a band of guys that I'm friends with. It's just so much better with a really tight band."
Of course, Taos acknowledges the reality of the current music industry, but he's not deterred.
"I feel like it's just harder to maintain a band. It's so much cheaper, even for myself in my own artist project," he says. "I was doing a lot of acoustic shows recently because it is expensive to tour and travel with a band unless you're selling everywhere out. And so I think live music has suffered a bit and downsized because most developing artists can't afford to tour with the full band unless you really are scraping."
He continues: "We've been both doing it for a while. But I think we reached a point where we missed that. We're both from the city. And I think ultimately, you want to represent where you're from. I had been traveling, I had moved to L.A. And I think with this project, we're tapping into that teenage energy of starting a band and wanting to put on for your city. And it's really exciting."■
