Aaron Turner

Aaron Turner

Aaron Turner is a musician, singer, graphic artist, and founder of label Hydra Head Records. He is most widely known for his role as guitarist and vocalist for the post-metal band Isis, while also participating in several other bands and projects such as Old Man Gloom and Lotus Eaters.

Though raised in New Mexico, Turner moved to the Boston area where he attended school and formed Isis and Hydra Head. In June 2003, Turner moved operations of both the band and label to Los Angeles, California where he works on several musical projects and artwork for many different bands.

Early life

Turner was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, in the United States, in 1977. At an early age, his family moved to New Mexico, where he was raised. His mother was a teacher "who taught a progressive curriculum" and his father an author, "mainly [of] non-fiction". Turner describes his upbringing, surrounded by his parents' writer, artist and photographer friends, as "creatively nurturing". At 12 years old, he began to smoke marijuana, as "in New Mexico, there wasn't a lot for kids to get involved in". At age 17, he started a company that sold rare punk rock records via mail-order. He later moved to Boston to attend art school at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, and in 1995 began releasing music. By 1997, the Hydra Head label was becoming a respectable small record label. Turner describes his early industriousness as being motivated in part by boredom:

I grew up in New Mexico, and there wasn't a whole lot as far as youth culture is concerned. Especially when I started to get interested in straight edge and wasn't doing drugs anymore, there was really nothing for me to do. So that was like a big reason for me, I suppose, to become really productive. Also, I've never been a really social person. So there's not a lot of time taken up by my social life. And music has always been a very very big part of my life. I guess just a combination of those factors is why everything got started so early.

Equipment

Touring with Isis in 2007, Turner used two different guitars: a 1972 Fender Telecaster Custom (black), and a 1976 Fender Telecaster Deluxe (brown), played through various effects, a VHT Pitbull Ultra Lead, and two 4x12 Sunn cabinets. He has also recently acquired a custom guitar from the Electrical Guitar Company (as has his fellow Isis guitarist Michael Gallagher).

In the past, Turner has also used a Gibson Les Paul Standard and has played through Sunn, Mesa Boogie, and Mackie amplifiers.

Playing with Isis, Turner and his fellow guitarists usually tune their instruments (low to high) B F# B E G# B (a tuning more typical of the baritone guitar) to achieve a heavier sound.They also use other tunings, though less frequently, such as F#-F#-B-E-G#-B.

Musical influences

Turner cites Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Godflesh, Neurosis, Tool, and Led Zeppelin as influences on Isis' sound. However, he points to the electronica and hip hop genres as shaping the group's rhythmic focus and use of sampling, as well as their occasional digressions into ambient passages. He has also listed Melvins, Jimi Hendrix, Swans, Björk, Beastie Boys, Oxbow, Earth, and Coil as among his favorite artists, and has noted that Megadeth, Metallica, and Slayer were important to his early interests in the guitar.

Discography

Performing live in Colchester, UK, in 2004.

Main article: Isis discography

With Isis

• Mosquito Control (1998)
• Red Sea (1999)
• Sawblade (1999)
• Isis / Pig Destroyer (2000) (Split with Pig Destroyer)
• Celestial (2000)
• SGNL>05 (2001)
• Oceanic (2002)
• Panopticon (2004)
• Oceanic: Remixes & Reinterpretations (2004)
• In the Fishtank 14 (2006) (Split with Aereogramme)
• In the Absence of Truth (2006)
• Wavering Radiant (2009)

With Old Man Gloom

• Meditations in B (1999), Tortuga Recordings
• Seminar II: The Holy Rites of Primitivism Regressionism (2001), Tortuga Recordings
• Seminar III: Zozobra (2001), Tortuga Recordings
• Christmas Eve I and II + 6 EP (2003), Tortuga Recordings
• Christmas (2004), Tortuga Recordings

With Lotus Eaters

• Alienist on a Pale Horse (2001), Double H Noise Industries
• Mind Control for Infants (2002), Neurot Recordings
• untitled 7", Drone Records
• 4 Demonstrations, self-released
• Wurmwulv CD (2007) Troubleman Unlimited Records

With House of Low Culture

• Submarine Immersion Techniques Vol. 1 (2000), Crowd Control Activities
• Gettin' Sentimental, Robotic Empire
• Edward's Lament (2003), Neurot Recordings
• Live from the House of Low Temperatures, Hydra Head Records

With Ringfinger

• Decimal

With Greymachine

• Vultures Descend (ep) (2009), Hydra Head Records
• Disconnected (lp) (2009), Hydra Head Records

With Unionsuit

• demo tape (1996), Hydra Head Records
• Accidents Happened 7" (1997), Second Nature Recordings

Artwork

Turner's artwork tends toward the abstract or surreal, often depicting strange or fantastic landscapes and structures. His work on album covers, concert posters, and other music-related graphics is distinct from typical work in heavy metal or rock graphic design. In part, this may be because of the way that Turner views his objectives in creating designs, which he has discussed on his blog in response to criticism of the clarity of text on one of his concert posters:

I also generally reject the idea that posters and album sleeves and t shirts have to be marketing tools with overly obvious type/graphics, as opposed to more artistically oriented pieces that invoke the true spirit of the music they are intended to represent. if the bands being represented aren't writing 3 minute pop songs with inane choruses that beat the listener into submission, why should the representative graphics serve that purpose? i like to think the audience that follows these bands isn't the type of audience that requires overly simplified/commercial imagery and type in order to draw their attention to the "product". it is precisely the type of corporate design mentality as exemplified by the statement above that i have striven to avoid with what i do in the realm of music related graphics. we're not trying to sell our music to wal-mart shoppers, so if you expect our graphic personality to fall in line with what you were taught in design school about corporate branding and "truly effective" type and illustration techniques you shall be continually disappointed. clean type has its time and place, but this poster which is meant to showcase the personality of our label and by extension the show itself isn't it. music related design can be art simply beyond the idea of selling something...

File:Australasiacover.jpg

The cover to Pelican's Australasia is typical of Turner's style.

In 2008, Turner's artwork was featured in a FIFTY24SF Gallery group show entitled Catalyst. Turner has created album covers and liner note artwork for a variety of artists and bands, many of whom are signed to Hydra Head Records.

• 27 – Let the Light In
• 5ive – 5ive
• Aereogramme – Seclusion
• Agoraphobic Nosebleed – PCP Torpedo, Frozen Corpse Stuffed with Dope
• A Life Once Lost – The Fourth Plague: Flies
• Beecher – Breaking the Fourth Wall
• Bloodlet – Entheogen
• Burst – Prey on Life
• Cave In – Antenna
• Cavity – Laid Insignificant
• Clouds – We Are Above You
• Converge – Petitioning the Empty Sky
• The Dillinger Escape Plan – The Dillinger Escape Plan
• Hematovore - Untitled
• The Hope Conspiracy – demo
• Isis – Mosquito Control, The Red Sea, Sawblade, Celestial, SGNL>05, Oceanic, Live.01, Panopticon, Live.02, Oceanic Remixes and Reinterpretations, Live.03, Live.04, Clearing the Eye, In the Absence of Truth, Shades of the Swarm, "Not in Rivers, but in Drops", Wavering Radiant
• Jesu – Silver, Lifeline, Conqueror, Jesu, Why Are We Not Perfect?
• Johnny Truant – The Repercussions of a Badly Planned Suicide
• Kid Kilowatt – Guitar Method
• Knut – Terraformer
• Mistle Thrush – Drunk with You
• Old Man Gloom – Meditations in B, Seminar II: The Holy Rites of Primitivism Regressionism
• Pelican – Australasia, The Fire in Our Throats Will Beckon the Thaw, City of Echoes
• Premonitions of War – Left in Kowloon
• Eugene Robinson
• Rosetta – The Galilean Satellites
• Torche – Meanderthal
• Tusk – Get Ready
• Zozobra – Harmonic Tremors, Bird of Prey

References

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