What Strange Beasts had its beginning on Halloween, the venerable Benaroya Hall in Seattle shows Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho accompanied by the Seattle Symphony. One fateful evening in 2016 Aaron Kremer (Bass, Vocals) and Jonathan Maxwell (Drums, Vocals) attended with a mutual friend. Post-performance conversation turned to music, and soon enough they were jamming their way through the inevitable big dark of a Pacific Northwest winter together. With the addition of Benjamin Ruby (Keys, Vocals) Alley C, (Guitar) the lineup was complete mere months later. The quartet quickly found themselves fortunate in early jamming sessions, in that they all would step up to sing together, forming layered harmonies as a melding capstone to the pieces they would write.
By Kamil Bobin
Discovered via Musosoup
Hello What Strange Beasts. What first got you into music?
Ben: Was gifted a toy keyboard on my 9th birthday, and I saw my teacher put on a concert for his youth group band and relazied I wanted to play the keyboard for real, he took me under his wing and from then on I could not stop playing
Jonathan: Dad would listen to classical, Mom would listen to S&G and Michael Jackson
Two possible stories, either I begged my mom for piano lessons or I was dragged kickeng and screaming to them. Either way I can't now picture a life without making music
Kremer: The animatronic band at the local pizza restaurant, and mom insisting on me taking piano and guitar lessons, for which I'm very much obliged
What do you think your role is in this world?
Ben: To be a storyteller
Jonathan: To bring some art and compassion in to the world while I'm around
Kremer: To communicate through music, connection with others
Your latest track is 'Cat's Paw'. Can you share with us the background of its creation and did any unusual things happen during its creation?
Jonathan: Alley brought something he had been holding on to for the better part of a decade in his musical journey, and when we first heard the skeleton he had shown us we instantly fell in love. As far as unusual things, we wrestled for the longest time with the lyrics and vocal melodies and what the sound was trying to say to us , but the words and story behind them spun themselves out of thin air and we wrote it all in one afternoon. I think it was the last song on the album that we were nitpicking and chewing on all the way through the studio sessions.
What is one message you would give to your fans?
Ben: Thank you for making our music a part of your lives
Jonathan: Life is short, learn to laugh at your self, and find joy even in the darkest moments
Kremer: What they both said
How do you spend your time?
Ben: Roasting coffee, syntheis and sound design, trying to corall a hyperactive pug
Jonathan: Lately for leisure, thanks to pandemics and isolation, alot of Elden Ring and Hiking
Kremer: Camping, cooking, working on far too many tube electronic and mechanical projects
What are you most proud of?
Ben: Staying together and growing stronger as a band during the pandemic, writing and creating Startlights Castaways
Jonathan: Actually completeting Starlights Castaways
If you could go open a show for any artist who would it be?
Ben: Phish
Jonathan: Tame Impala
Kremer: Radiohead
What are you doing to ensure you continue to grow and develop as an artist?
Ben: Refusing to settle on a specific sound.
Jonathan: Taking lessons, getting uncomfortable trying new things. And reading a lot.
Kremer: Listen to as many different types of music that I can, actually studying theory, checking out plays, poetry readings and classic literature (Was inpsired to do so by reading that the Beatles did such during their Revolcer and Sgt Pepper era)
Do you think that technology is improving lives?
Ben: I'm a keyboardist, so yes.
Jonathan: To add to Kremer's Answer; It's incredible to have the compendium of human knowledge on our smart phones. However, it seems to more often be used to complain about things and look at cat videos. (That's what I find myself doing afterall).
Kremer: In some ways great improvments, in someways great detriments
What are your plans for the future?
Kremer: Make more music / Play more shows. And hopefully find success at both.