Meet “cozy specialist” Aron!
Photo courtesy Universal Music Group
On May 29th, 2025, 1824 hosted a virtual press conference with Verve Records to show off their rising jazzy pop-based star Aron where we had the opportunity to ask two questions. The North Carolina native artist recently released “Table for Two” at the end of May as a single for his now released EP “cozy you (and other nice songs)”.
Terrance: “ Your music carries slow, jazzy undertones, would you say certain jazz movements from the 50s & 60s have influcenced your sound?”
Aron replied that a lot of his music is derived from blues. He’s inspired by a lot of Stevie Ray Vaughan and Steve Witherspoon. He feels that blues and jazz, especially in the modern scene, converge well, and he’s been able to detail that in a lot of his music. Blues and jazz have inspired many different genres, each taking a specific aspect of blues or jazz and leaning heavily into it, thus creating an entire new genre. These different genres have the potential to combine in a very cool way, and are more similar than we think.
Luffy and Jamie Cullen have been great musical influences to Aron as well, and they have been instrumental to his upbringing. Aron said it was cool for him to see musicians bring something different to the table in terms of the jazz genre, and it definitely helps him to keep being unique with his own musical tastes. Aron also cites pop music from the 30s and 40s as what made him really look back on the societal changes from the time, and how they have led up to this current moment.
The jazzy roots are also depicted in his music videos, which give off a cinematic vibe, reminding of Wes Anderson films, and hinting at film noir undertones. The music video was shot from 8AM to 10AM, by a big crew in LA. Aron said he was surprised by the music video shoot, as he had not spent much time in LA, and he never knew music video shoots had catering or lunch breaks. Aron said that discovering this and other aspects of the shoot was interesting and almost scary, but he found it exciting. He said the new experience was something he needed to shift and grow as an artist.
This EP is all about coziness as Aron calls it. This can be seen in the EP cover, which came about when Aron was randomly playing a guitar whilst at the video shoot, and one of the photographers took a photo unexpectedly. At first, Aron was not sure the photo was right for the cover, and initially he was against it being the cover, but eventually he decided that he was happy that the cover came about the way it did, because it really encapsulates the cozy vibe.
Since graduating college Aron has learned to say ‘no’ more often, and he gets to choose a lot of what is important to him and what doesn’t really entertain him — particularly when it comes to writing his music. Aron is learning to do the same with opportunities that are presented to him, by choosing what is right with him and what aligns with his life, values, and morals. As he was having a conversation with a friend one day, Aron came to realize that he wanted to discover the ‘why’ behind his popularity. He initially just wanted to blow up, but he is starting to learn how to navigate the external noise, and to understand that it is actually all about the people who truly understand the music, the people who genuinely enjoy what they are listening to. That genuine support is what has driven Aron to where he is today.
Aron went to Winston Salem for boarding school. He worked hard to balance school, music, friends, family, and his passions. Aron says that he wanted to learn classical composition ‘like a nerd’. It was pretty cold and hundred people in his class year. All he did was go into a practice room and try to play through block bases, which really helped with his creative process. Him being in his room playing guitar was what lead him to realizing that music was all that he ever wanted to do.
Aron says that he experiences peak coziness whenever he pictures a sensory deprivation room, which he compared to a SpongeBob episode where SpongeBob starts hallucinating and imagines that he is starting to melt. Along with being a fan of SpongeBob, Aron mentions being a fan of Gilmore Girls, which he calls his his go to cozy show. The coziness of Gilmore Girls comes through in his music. That cozy vibe he creates appeals to the young female audience he has garnered. Aron depicts coziness as drinking tea, being in bed, and watching Gilmore Girls. In his music, he builds a world full of coziness and contentment.
The modern young fanbase has an exciting taste for older music within blues and jazz, and it helps to tie jazz artists into the modern landscape, which helps the jazz and blues scene converge overall. Aron’s young fanbase has come from his blow up and virality on Instagram reels and short form content creating deliverability and discovery among new artists. Aron likes that a lot of music, is now young people driven as he calls it, making it exciting for jazz to have young new talent and a younger fanbase driving the music forward. Aron being only 22, helps him relate to this younger audience, even while playing music inspired by the 30s and 40s. This helps bridge the gap between the new and the old.
You can stream Aron’s EP “cozy you (and other nice songs)” here.
Alex: “As you being a Charlotte native, how do you feel about the diversity you bring to the local music scene compared to other artists within the scene?”
Aron replied with how he feels about the Music style and Demographic differences he brings to the local music scene. “My mom is Malaysian, which is supa cool… it’s been kinda cool discovering my heritage in a backwards way. I grew up like a normal kid… so I think finding out that maybe I do have something different to offer. I’ve thought about maybe looking back on Malaysian music.”
He followed up with this on his response to the music style side of this question with how he thought that the indie/classical styles would be a interesting addition to the scene because of how diverse and cool they are. “I do think it would be very cool of me to get into that and really dive in. But honestly I don’t really think about the demographics too much but i am aware of the differences and what makes them special. As for musically, I’m kind of in a world of people who really like Jazz but specifically kind of this 30’s & 40’s kind of thing. Most people who like Jazz are more into people like McCoy Tyner or really exciting stuff. Not so much the “Awe! It’s Cozy!” things. but yeah, diversity is a really interesting thing not normally something at the forefront of my mind but its interesting. at points you can see it, the way someone thinks is interesting. it’s like seeing a popup book.”
