Aaron Hensley, 21, is a local pop-punk/hardcore drummer with a passion for not only rock, but WGI (Winter Guard International) drum corps as well.
WGI is professional drum corps; you have to know how to drum to make the team. Over the summer, he even got the opportunity to go on tour with Alienate You.
While he has been a part of many projects recently, Hensley is currently drumming for The Wellers, a local rock band that frequents venues like the Outland Ballroom.
Q: Who are your musical influences? Is your current band modeled after them?
A: Who I look up to, I suppose? I’m influenced by a lot of pop punk and hardcore music, such as Blink-182 and Trapped Under Ice, which leads to what this band’s influence is.
Q: You have been in other bands in the past. What makes this experience different from, for example, Rat Bastard?
A: It’s a lot more professional. With past bands, there was a lot more bickering and arguments. Because of the professionalism, I can make more progress with the band as a whole.
Q: Alienate You, one of your recent projects, got the opportunity to go on tour this summer. Where did you go, and how was it?
A: It was an East Coast tour. We started in Tennessee and went to Virginia. We got to go to the beach, and that was a lot of fun. I got to see dolphins. I don’t go to the ocean very much since I’m from the Midwest. After that, we went to Milwaukee and saw one of the Great Lakes. Something that made it really cool, though, was playing shows at all of the different venues. Playing for people that have never heard our music or of us was really neat because we impacted them as a band. They wanted to buy our album, and that was awesome.
It also sunk in for me that’s what I want to do all the time. I want to constantly play for the rest of my life.
Q: Not only do you rehearse with various bands, you have also participated in drum line at the world level. Are you still interested in that activity?
A: Actually, I just got my Gateway packet yesterday, and I’m looking to audition for the 2015 season. This will be my age-out, so it will be my last chance to do drum line-related stuff.
Q: Has playing in drum corps had a positive impact on playing set in bands?
A: A lot that I’ve learned from drum corps transcribes to what I do in the band, like rhythm and timing. It gave me a lot more confidence. While it’s somewhat different, it’s fundamentally the same, and I can use what I learn all the time.
Q: Where do you see yourself going in the future?
A: I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately, and I’ve narrowed it down to two things. I have a huge passion for music; it’s my world. But I’m only going to be banking on this whole band thing for two or three more years because I have a job I can take elsewhere now that would make an immediate increase in my life, but I’m hesitant to do it because I love music so much.
