EXOTIC FRUITS are a post punk/psych rock duo based in Austin TX . Best friends since their first indie project in Seattle back in 2009 Jon and Aaron have waited nearly 12 years to play together again. The groups debut E.P. “Panda Vision” is colorful, sincere and exhilarating and will grab you by the shirt and won’t let you go until after its last reverberated moment.
I sat down with Jon and Aaron to talk about their early musical experiences, how they started playing together and the making of “Panda Vision” which you can get here.
CMM: What was the first music that really made an impact on you all as kids and what artist or band did you all enjoy the most?
Jon: first memorable experience of music was with my older brother (also a guitar player). He had a lime green 1977 VW Bus with front safari windows and in the center console he had about 20 or 30 CDs…Radiohead “the bends”, Blondie “parallel lines”, Stone Temple Pilots “Core”, Nirvana “nevermind”, Red Hot Chile Pepper “blood sugar sex magic”, Rage Against the Machine “Evil Empire”, Sublime “Self Titled”, Deftones “around the fur”, No Doubt “tragic kingdom”.. over time he exposed me to all the great bands of the late 80s / 90s, but that was a particularly memorable day and my first time really hearing anything not on the local oldies or classic rock radio station.
Aaron: First time I remember really being blown away hearing something was when “Deloused in the Comatorium” by The Mars Volta came out.
CMM: When did you all first start playing instruments and eventually playing in your own bands and how did the two of you meet and start Exotic Fruits?
Aaron: I started getting drum lessons at 13 in high school. The tutor would show up for 30 minutes to teach 6 of us which meant we each got 5 minutes on the kit. I was the only lefty so was basically forced to learn right footed/left handed, and I still play that way today.I’ve been playing in bands really since I started learning drums.
I met Jon by chance in a small town in Montana while on a vacation from New Zealand in late 2008, 3 weeks later we were both writing songs together in New Zealand. By 2009 we were forming a band in Seattle. We’ve done a few other projects here and there (all lost to the ether), but the fruits began in 2022 after I won the green card lottery, moved to Austin and we could actually be in a room together for longer than a few weeks without me having to go back to NZ.
Jon: I’m a self taught guitar player. Started when I was about 9 or 10.. used to learn zeppelin songs and dick around at the nearby guitar center- yeah I was that fucking kid, sorry to everyone who worked there.. As a vocalist I remember my high school choir teacher telling me I should quit singing, I was that bad. Found a home for my voice in rock n roll when I was about 18 and started seriously playing on projects.
CMM: The group’s E.P. “Panda Vision” is a really spectacular record. What was the recording process for making the record like? Any particular gear you used that really helped shape specific parts?
Aaron: Thank you, that means a lot. We kind of did the reverse of what a band is supposed to; find members, write demos, test them live, save, go to studio. Instead Jon and I just wrote and demoed for 9 months, recording every idea to a click track so it could be cut up later, chopping and rewriting until a sound started to form. In the end most of the songs came together in a couple weeks, so we said fuck it and booked studio time, and then scrambled to find musicians to record with us.
Jon: I took a lot of mushrooms.
CMM: If the band could do a score for any film director who would it be and what would the film be about?
Aaron: my personal fav director is Christopher Nolan, and the film would be about some kind of time travelling gone causing a wrong world ending event.
Jon: Aarons a good musician. That’s a good director. I just want to make an album for the SLC Punk! Reboot
CMM: What’s next for the band? Any new recordings or upcoming shows?
Jon: we’re always working, playing, writing.
