We were lucky to catch up with Jeremy Aitken recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Jeremy, thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?
My first love before music was actually acting, I performed in a few Shakespeare productions starting in 6th grade and my last performance was in 8th grade. I had started playing guitar by that point for about a year roughly and was starting to fall in love with it. By the time I was 15 I met my guitar instructor and took lessons for just about 6 months before I was told I had completed 2 years of material in such time. I practiced all day and any chance I could get and was absolutely obsessed with it! My biggest obstacles really were learning how to write music that didn’t sound like a scale practice. It’s something I’m still working on today and I’m constantly forcing myself to remember that scales are guidelines, not hard and fast rules and it’s okay to bend and break those guidelines to create music that is more pleasing to my ear!
Jeremy, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I picked up guitar when I was 12 years old and started sitting in with bar bands when I was 15-16. My family and I also performed together my 10th-12th grade year at our school as part of the talent show. A few years after high school I joined my first official band, Easy Kiddo and we were together until roughly 2010. Ever since then I have mostly written music and performed solo and have 2 albums out under my Spirit Guardian moniker with a third releasing in early March if all goes as planned! My music is something I care a lot about and have created a whole world and backstory behind all of the albums. The arc starts with my first album, Astral Voyager, and continues on my second album, Seasick, with the story coming to a conclusion with my third album, Call of the Colossus. It’s a marriage of two of my favorite things, science fiction and music! All of my album art has been done by my amazing wife, Gloria Aitken (Gloria Aitken Art), and I’m so fortunate to have such a talented artist as a partner! A lot of my time goes into supporting her art business, where I proudly refer to myself as “Mr. Gloria Aitken Art”, at the various art shows we do nearly every weekend. Most weeks I am working 7 days a week between my normal job, Art, music and being a dad and husband. I love working hard for these things because I truly care about them and believe in them! My latest foray into the creative field has been photography. Since about 2021, I have been writing and photographing live shows under the name, Iron City Sludge. It started because there was so much talent in this area and I had never seen anything like it and wanted to preserve it for history. Eventually, the photography become the focus and the writing has been pared back just due to my schedule. I started playing around with portraiture and artistic photography in the last year and I have really found a love for that as well! Whether taking a picture of friends enjoying a special moment, or walking in nature and seeing a cool mushroom or plant, or photographing old abandoned things, I really have fallen in love with the form!
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
From a business perspective, playing music or hosting shows doesn’t make any money unfortunately. My main source of income has always been a normal 9-5, and Gloria Aitken Art has been our small business now for a couple of years. Two weeks before Christmas in 2023, my full time job of the past almost 6 years abruptly shut down with no notice. I had never felt more lost or scared for my family and we were supposed to be going out to Nashville just two days after for a big art show which also meant paying for a hotel for all of us and other expenses. These few days were some of the most unnerving times of my life, but at the end of that weekend we had done our biggest sales weekend ever for Gloria Aitken Art! After that, I knew that we would be okay and that if we worked hard that the art could be a legitimate provider for our family!
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
I get to experience the reward in a lot of ways thankfully. I’ll start with Gloria Aitken Art. Most folks don’t know, but Gloria has been chronically sick for a decade with fibromyalgia being the main contributor. Most days, it’s hard for her to get out of bed, but she still works hard on her art when she can and I don’t think folks realize just how much it takes for each of these pieces that get created. From there, it makes it super easy for me to work my butt off working art shows and talking about her work to others. To see people react to something she has created, whether it’s making them smile or laugh, or they just admire the work is infinitely rewarding for me. For people to be repeat customers and tell us how many pieces they own is truly a special feeling! Moving on to photography, the biggest reward is always when I take a picture of someone and they love it! I’ve had many folks tell me they don’t like pictures of themselves, but liked my pictures of them. That is definitely the biggest reward for me in that field! I have also started making prints of some of my creative photos and seeing people connect or purchase my art for their home, or friend or family member is special! The music part is trickier. Most albums take a lot to finish and especially with me doing everything myself. I put so many hours, days, months and even years into every album and the meaning I impart and stories I create and tell are so important to me, but it’s hard to connect with folks sometimes just with instrumental music. I often feel discouraged with my music and it’s reception and it’s hard not to compare to others in those moments. I’ve noticed that when I do get a chance to share some of the story behind the music that people tend to connect to it more and having people watch me live and be into it is the ultimate reward! I’ve sold shirts, and stickers and I’ve even randomly been recognized as Spirit Guardian at events which feels pretty neat! I truly care about every creative thing I do and I ultimately hope that it connects with others as well!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/jaitkenphotography
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1WwMLMgRw4/?mibextid=wwXIfr
Image Credits
Iron City Sludge/Self
Gloria Aitken
Amelia Aitken
Caleb Wilemon
What I See Imagery
Rusted Venue