As if the buildup to a new album isn’t enough, Aaron Bruno is preparing to bring AWOLNATION back to the stage — though he’s brimming with optimism for what people will hear (and see) with dates that begin even before their sophomore album Run comes out March 17 on Red Bull Records.
“I’m sort of letting that flow as organically as possible,” Bruno tells Billboard. “We’re figuring out how to present this sound live, and what it’ll look like. I have fantasies and weird thoughts about taking the production to this absurd level, ’cause that sounds like a lot of fun, but I never want o lose that human interaction and feel like we’re so separate from the audience. That could be kind of a turn-off to me when I go to a show and there’s a lot of smoke and mirrors everywhere you look. So we’re figuring out that fine line to walk.”
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However, Bruno adds, fans should prepare their ears for an aural onslaught. “I can tell you that it’s going to sound absolutely brutal live, and extremely good. So whether or not people like the songs, that’s up to everybody else, but I promise you it’ll be great live.”
Bruno and company hit the road starting Friday at the Port of Gold Festival in Tempe, Ariz., following a Wednesday appearance on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live. They’ll play some other key dates, including a South by Southwest stop on March 19, before heading to Europe for a seven-date run beginning March 24 in Berlin and then returning to North America for dates currently booked into mid-September, including appearances at the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival on June 14 and the Firefly Music Festival on June 19.
“We’ve been, to a lot of people, kind of sleeping for awhile,” says Bruno, who produced Run, acknowledging the interim since 2011’s gold-certified debut Megalithic Symphony, which launched the hits “Sail,” “Not Your Fault” and “Kill Your Heroes.” Making Run, he adds, “was stressful, because I just had a different kind of expectation from myself and a different kind of pressure to actually let people down for the first time. It was just a weird experience to follow up something that exceeded any sort of expectations, or even dreams for that matter, and that I then had the freedom to make a follow-up that people could believe in. And I did have creative freedom: No one heard [Run] until it was actually done, so it was kind of a trippy experience. But it was the only way I could have done it. It remains to be seen how the rest of the world feels, but so far it’s been an overwhelmingly positive response so far.”
Following the initial track, “Hollow Moon (Bad Wolf),” AWOLNATION is releasing a video for the song “Windows,” a melodic piece that Bruno calls “a strange pop song, but it worked out.” The group’s other key release this year has been a cover of Bruce Springsteen‘s “I’m on Fire” for the Fifty Shades of Grey soundtrack.
“It’s a song I’ve always loved, and someone gave me an opportunity to interpret it my way and see what happens,” Bruno says. “If you give me the task of just doing my own version of a beautiful, perfect song, it’s an easy experience. I just made it moody and kind of lo-fi and trippy and dark, and in my mind there was no way they were going to use it. But they liked it, and I felt blessed to have a reason to do that song my way.”
Watch the “Windows” video premiere exclusively on Billboard:
AWOLNATION’s full live itinerary includes:
March 13 – Tempe, AZ – Pot of Gold Music Festival
March 15 – Chicago, IL – Q101 Show @ Cubby Bear
March 19 – Austin, TX (SXSW) – ACL Live @ The Moody Theater
March 24 – Berlin, Germany – Lido
March 25 – Graz, Austria – PPC
March 26 – Munich, Germany – Freiheiz
March 27 – Zurich, Switzerland – M4music Festival
March 28 – Cologne, Germany – Burgerhaus Stollwerk
March 30 – Paris, France – Le Divan Du Monde
March 31 – Netherlands, Amsterdam – Melkweg
April 1 – London, UK – Electric Ballroom
April 18 – Woodlands, TX – Buzzfest
April 24 – Tulsa, OK – KMYZ Radio Show @ Brady Theater
April 25 – Frisco, TX – Edgefest @ Toyota Stadium
May 1 – Memphis, TN – Beale Street Music Festival
May 3 – West Palm Beach, FL – Sunfest
May 8 – Tampa, FL – Big Guava Music Festival
May 10 – Philadelphia, PA – WRFF Annual Birthday
May 28 – Vancouver, BC – Commodore Ballroom
May 29 – Portland, OR – Roseland
May 30 – Eugene, OR – McDonald Theatre
May 31 – Napa Valley, CA – BottleRock Music Festival
June 2 – Santa Cruz, CA – The Catalyst
June 3 – San Diego, CA – House of Blues
June 5 – San Antonio, TX – The Aztec Theater
June 6 – Oklahoma City, OK – The Diamond Ballroom
June 9 – Birmingham, AL – Iron City
June 10 – New Orleans, LA – House of Blues
June 12 – N. Myrtle Beach, SC – House of Blues
June 13 – Atlanta, GA – The Tabernacle
June 14 – Manchester, TN – Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival
June 16 – Richmond, VA – The National
June 18 – Silver Spring, MD – The Fillmore Silver Spring
June 19 – Dover, DE – Firefly Music Festival
June 22 – Toronto, ON – Phoenix Concert Theatre
June 23 – Montreal, QUE – Metropolis
June 25 – Boston, MA – House of Blues
June 27 – New York, NY – Irving Plaza
June 28 – Buffalo, NY – Town Ballroom
June 30 – Cleveland, OH – House of Blues
July 1 – Cincinnati, OH – Bogart’s
July 2 – Detroit, MI – The Fillmore Detroit
July 5 – Winnipeg, MB – The Garrick Centre
July 7 – Edmonton, AB – Union Hall
July 8 – Calgary, AB – Flames Central
July 19 – Indianapolis, IN – Egyptian Room
July 21 – Minneapolis, MN – Cabooze Outdoor Plaza
July 23 – Chicago, IL – House of Blues
July 25 – Kansas City, KS – KRBZ’s Annual Radio Show Beach
July 26 – Omaha, NE – Sokol Auditorium
July 28 – Fort Collins, CO – Aggie Theatre
July 30 – Reno, NV – Knitting Factory
Aug. 1 – Los Angeles, CA – Hollywood Palladium
Sept. 19 – San Diego, CA – Kaaboo Music Festival