The sun was setting in the distance and it was finally starting to cool off. My feet hurt, but I was walking around, checking out the merch booths as I waited for NOFX to take the stage. I started talking to the guys at the Fueled By Ramen booth, and found out that one of them was in the band, The AEffect. Although I had not actually heard their music, I had heard a lot about them and asked the guy if he would be willing to do an interview. Aaron cheerfully accepted, and the following discussion took place.

So your name is Aaron, what do you play?
I play guitar and I sing.

You play guitar, and who else is in the band?
Steve plays keyboards, and, Brad plays drums. And we all sing, but I do, I guess the main vocals.

Ok, so just give me a history like where you're from, how you got hooked up with Fueled By Ramen, and stuff like that.
Um, well ok, let's see, I met Steve in high school actually and we started playing in various bands there.

Where was that?
High School was in Orlando, FL, and then we both ended up in Gainesville for college which is 2 hours north of Orlando, and we met Brad through mutual friends and he ended up playing drums for us. And, the way we got hooked up with Fueled By Ramen is that they're based out of Gainesville and also happened to, uh, work there.

Oh, did that help?
So, yeah I mean I was like putting together a bunch of demo packages, you know, and getting ready to send out to all these labels, and my boss John who owns half the label and runs it with me said "We'll just put that out for you, you don't have to worry about sending it out" and I was like "That's really cool of you" so we ended up doing that, and it's a lot easier because it's hard for me to get out on tour because I do so much at the office, but it's more justifiable on the label because I'm actually helping the label while I'm on the road too.

There you go. It's probably nice to have your label be friends, you know?
Yeah, exactly. Everyone at the label is like friends of each other and like everyone is really supportive of each others bands, like people that work there, you know, with bands, and bands of each other, it's like a really good community.

Right on. Well, what we do for our ‘zine is we do like 5 questions, it's been the same for every band, but first question is... if you were to be stranded on a desert island, and you could only bring 3 CDs and 3 other things, what would you bring?
Ok, 3 CD's, and 3 other things. Led Zeppelin 4, uh... shit. I don't know which Pink Floyd CD, but definitely one of those, and probably, uh, Nirvana - Nevermind.

Right on, what three other things would you bring?
Three other things I would bring. A toothbrush... very very anal about dental hygiene.

You're the first person to say that.
Really? Like, I'm always brushing my teeth and flossing and stuff. Um, let's see. 2 other things. My Ibook, can't live without my Ibook. We actually run a lot of our music from it as, like you heard, it's electronic based. And, we actually run sequences it while we play, and so it's like, and the drummer plays to a click, so it's like, I don't know, it's kind of like an extension of myself almost, so I can't be without that. Uh, 3rd thing, Game Boy Advanced.

What's your favorite game?
My favorite game? Right now I'm really into, uh Rampage Puzzle Attack, I like the Pac-man collection quite a bit. You know, I've got a few games in there. Tony Hawk is really good for that too.

Right on. Ok, which would you choose between your parents watching you have sex, or you watching them have sex?
Uh (laughs), let's see. I'd probably rather them watch me if I had to choose one. I definitely don't want to see that.

Alright. If you could be anyone for a day, who would you be?
Oh geez, all these tough ones. Um, I wanna name these genius people, but they're all so fucked up too, so it's like, you'd wanna be them but you wouldn't, like Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys. Amazing, amazing songwriter, arranger, everything. He's totally depressed, totally on drugs all the time.

Yeah, Charles Manson n' shit...
Yeah, that's totally not me, but I mean like I would love to have that kind of ability that he has. Incredible guy. So, I'd probably...

Well, it's only for a day.
Yeah, it's a day, so I'd be depressed for a day, be on crack for a day, then I'd be fine.

There you go. What's the funniest or craziest thing that's happened on tour?
Um well, I can tell you on this tour, on the way out to L.A., we drove from Florida all the way to California nonstop, and our drummer Brad fell asleep at the wheel in Texas and we ended up going off the road and like barely missing the huge cement column that holds up the overpass you know, for the highway and then barely skidding to a stop before oncoming traffic on the other side of the highway. That'd probably be the scariest thing that's ever happened.

Yeah, for sure. How do you feel about MP3s, and people sharing music over the Internet?
I love it. I love it. If people can't afford, or don't even want to buy your CD they should have their friend rip it and send it to them and I think it's more about the music really.

Has it affected Fueled By Ramen at all?
I don't see it really. I think there are mixed opinions in the office, but my stance still remains that, like you want kids to hear it, it's great music, and it needs to get out there, no matter how it gets out there. So, I'm more about the music I suppose then the money, really.

Hey, thank you very much. If you could just let people know how to get in touch with you, and maybe list some good bands from Florida, or that you've seen out on the road, that would be great!
Right, ok, well um. Let's see, we have a website, it's www.theaeffect.com, aeffect is spelled a-e-f-f-e-c-t, it's kind of weird, but and then, as far as shout-outs I would like to say what's up to Counterfeit. They're from San Diego, and they're really really fucking good. You'll probably here something from them soon, if you haven't already. As Friends Rust, they've been sweethearts to us, they played on the PunkRocks stage and they're from Gainesville too. So, Hot Water music, they've been like big brothers to us on this tour, cause we're totally clueless, and they've done it all and they've been good pals to their Gainesville folk. So... that's pretty much it.

Thanks a lot man.
Yeah, thank you!