Despite creating worldwide viral frenzies with their songs and grabbing the opening slot on the Prophets of Rage tour, Awolnation isn’t running to steal the spotlight.
Instead, the Southern California electronic rock quintet — whose song “Run” has more than 250 million views on Vine and the gold-certified single “Sail” holds the record for the most weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart by an independent artist — is keeping expectations grounded and retaining an underdog mentality.
“Any time there’s some sort of phenomenon online it definitely blows my mind, but this whole thing blows my mind,” Awolnation frontman Aaron Bruno said recently as he walked the streets of Montreal, Quebec, hours before the fourth stop on the “Make America Rage Again” tour, which arrives Saturday at the Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre in Tinley Park.
“My whole career leading up to this point was mostly failure so when everything happened with Awolnation it was unexpected,” said Bruno, whose previous bands include Under the Influence of Giants and Home Town Hero. “So I keep the underdog mentality and try to appreciate every moment and every single fan. I don’t really take myself seriously and nor do any of the guys in the band.”
Handpicked for the tour by Prophets of Rage – the new supergroup featuring Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello, Tim Commerford and Brad Wilk with Public Enemy’s Chuck D and Cypress Hill’s B-Real – Awolnation represents a surreal success story after multiple disappointments as well as an opportunity to collaborate with heroes from an adolescence focused more on music and the surf than good grades. Moreover, their music is forging a pathway to unifying people from around the world.
The gold-certified debut album “Megalithic Symphony” (2011) cruised Awolnation into international stardom. “Sail” was everywhere, from a trailer for History channel’s “Vikings” and a BMW commercial to the soundtrack for the Brad Pitt movie “The Counselor.”
Awolnation, for Bruno, was a new beginning.
“I’d lost it all and was just trying to put out the best music I could. I hope for the best and expect the worst ’cause I’ve had my heart broken so many times in the industry,” he said. “Not that I gave up, but when I was 21 I was like ‘I’m going to be in the biggest band in the world’ with my first signed band and that failed. Same thing happened with another band. With this one, I thought I’m just going to make a very ambitious record with an ambitious title and at the very least maybe people will think we’re good live.”
“Run,” the title track from the 2015 sophomore album, incited its own movement on Vine, with millions creating their own videos set to the song.
Now the likes of the Beastie Boys’ Mike D and Steve Aoki, the Grammy-nominated musician and one of the world’s highest-grossing deejays, are offering new compilations on the “Run (Remixes)” EP due out Sept. 9. Daniel Nakamura, the hip hop producer known as Dan the Automator, and Del the Funky Homosapien, the rapper and Ice Cube’s cousin, remixed the title track into “Run (Beautiful Things).”
Not bad for Bruno, a self-taught multi-instrumentalist who once pondered what life held in store for an insecure high schooler into rap and punk rock.
“Duff McKagan (Guns N’ Roses) just played on stage with us in Seattle. Our drummer sat in with Weezer recently. I sang a song with Weezer,” he said. “It’s a dream come true. You can read reviews or listen to certain critics, but all the bands I looked up to growing up have approved of me and that’s the best praise I could ever get.”
Now 37, Bruno was a girl-crazy, straight-edge kid who loved surfing and used his allowance to purchase his first cassette, Run-D.M.C.’s “Raising Hell.”
“When I was a kid growing up, whatever band I was listening to at the time, those were my best friends and the people I looked up to most, the bands who helped me walk into first period of high school with a confidence I wouldn’t have had otherwise.”
“Awol” was one of his high school nicknames, “a lighthearted joke,” he said, having something to do with his disappearing act “as we’d freestyle rap and battle each other out of boredom on our way to chase waves and find the best place to surf.”
His parents taught him basic chords and he learned the rest on his own.
“I’m not a great guitar player by any means,” said Bruno, who also plays bass, piano and percussion. “With each instrument I play on the record I’ve learned enough that I can get by to write these songs. I’m not a master musician. My art is in songwriting and production.”
At age 15 he was diagnosed with attention deficit disorder – hence the “Sail” lyrics of “Blame it on my ADD baby” – but didn’t care for the effects of Ritalin.
“I didn’t think there was actually anything wrong with me. I just felt that I didn’t good grades ’cause I didn’t care about what the teachers were teaching nor did I necessarily believe the curriculum,” he said. “Each member of my band we all relate and always talk about how difficult it was in high school. Everybody remembers that one teacher who was awesome, but there were more bad ones than good ones for me growing up. It’s important for people to understand their audience. Maybe there’s a kid who there’s something about that you can tap into but you’re not going about it the right way.”
Of course, after much trial and error, Bruno has tapped into an international audience with his lyrics.
“Sometimes I hit the nail on the head with the lyrics I write and people relate to them,” he said, “and I’m grateful I can help that person to feel better throughout the day.”
The tour with Prophets of Rage, which goes into mid-October, offers yet one more route to connecting with fans.
“Tim Commerford is a good friend of mine and we’ve been talking about doing something together for a long time,” Bruno said. “Rage is one of my favorite bands. They know we can handle getting the show warmed up for them. We’re a very heavy, powerful band, especially live. The guys in (my) band are incredible and throw down so hard that Prophets thought we’d be a good fit. It’s just an honor to share the stage with such legends.”
Awolnation does a 45-minute set and might have surprises in store for fans. Bruno recently joined Commerford, Wilk and Morello on stage for a version of Bruce Springsteen’s “The Ghost of Tom Joad.”
“I don’t know if we’re going to do it every night,” he said, “but that was a trip and I was pretty scared, but I pulled it off OK I think.”
While the members of Prophets of Rage have long been considered artists with a revolutionist stance and they performed “guerilla”-style sets at various sites near the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, the tour, Bruno says, is more about unity through music than politics or divisiveness.
“This isn’t about who to vote for at all. This is about letting people celebrate music together and a place to go,” he said. “The world seems to have a desire for heavier music and music that can help everybody sort of exercise out some emotion. I’d encourage people to put their phones down and actually look at the beauty of this world. Of course there’s a lot of negativity, but rather than focus on that I would much rather look at what is still beautiful about this world.”
Vickie Jurkowski is a freelance writer for the Daily Southtown.
“Make America Rage Again” tour with Awolnation and Prophets of Rage
When: 7 p.m. Saturday
Where: Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre, 19100 Ridgeland Ave., Tinley Park
Tickets: $20 for pavilion, lawn or deck; $69.50 for general-admission pit or second pavilion; additional $65 for Awolnation Meet & Greet Upgrade Package.
Information: 708-614-1616; www.livenation.com; awolnationmusic.com; prophetsofrage.com.
