I remember first meeting Aaron at an open mic at the now defunct (and torn down) Common Market Southend sometime around 2014.  It was a muggy summer night and in walks this lanky, long-haired cat with enough instruments (guitar, bass, keys) to start his own jam session with several musicians on hand.  What I didn’t realize is he was about to play all of them — by himself.

I was completely taken back by how incredibly gifted this guy was and in addition to playing and looping all the instruments (while spitting rhymes over the top of all of it), he was very humble and easily approachable.  I later found out he had moved down from the Baltimore/DC area to start work in Charlotte and work his way through the music scene.

Aaron Malander goes by the performance name of Aarodynamics.  Aarodynamics is a multi-instrumentalist and the ultimate DIY musician who fuses elements of hip-hop, funk, and jam music into all of his performances.  He composes, plays, produces, markets, records, and books all of his shows and music.

This Saturday Aaron is producing a local home-grown music festival for all-ages at his home in east Charlotte pegged as the East Side Meltdown.  He has recruited a stable of local bands and artists ranging in genre from singer-songwriters, hip-hop, funk, jazz, jam and everything in between.

I sat down with him to discuss the origins of the festival, his thoughts on the local music scene, and what it really takes to be the ultimate DIY musician in the Charlotte market.

Records On The Wall:  Tell me about how East Side Meltdown came about?

Aaron Malander:  East Side Meltdown came about through my lack of a spring show schedule. I have been wanting to throw a festival or some kind of party with a lot of bands for years, I just never had an appropriate space. Now, I have access to an awesome property that we will be opening up for one day to spread the love. Charlotte doesn’t have many events that are run by the artists themselves, at least compared to other cities of similar size. So I got some bands together and we’re putting on a party.

ROTW:  What was behind the decision to change the name of the festival from Slutfest to East Side Meltdown?

AM:  Well, Aarodynamics is going to be undergoing a branding change soon, moving away from Get Slutty and that whole theme. It just became too hard to make people understand satire at first glance. The whole ‘get slutty’ thing was something that worked when my audience were mostly fans who already knew and appreciated my style of satire and comedy, but it was incredibly off-putting (rightly so) to those who had no context in which to understand the act wasn’t actually seriously advocating neglecting school to be like The President or other song topics. Plus, it’s way easier to get neighbors and sponsors on board when the name of the event isn’t SlutFest. I think we clearly made the right decision.

ROTW:  The local artist lineup spans genres ranging from singer-songwriters, hip-hop, funk, jazz, jam and everything in between.  How important was it to get the right artist and genre mix for this event?

AM:  Charlotte doesn’t have enough jam bands! But seriously, I wanted to get fans of different acts together who don’t normally ever share bills. I was also trying to do it in a place where they might stick around and catch other acts. This city has an issue with booking 10 bands to a ‘showcase concert’, where they advertise ’10 bands for one low price!’. In reality, those bands play 30 minute sets to a few of their friends and the other bands that are on the bill. Everyone’s friends show up for an hour, then leave after their friends are done playing. In the future when we are in a larger space, I would like to expand the genre list even more to include some metal, EDM, and bluegrass. But that’s an idea for another year.

ROTW:  What is the ultimate goal of throwing your own one-day festival?

AM:  To come out without any disasters happening. Everything else is gravy. We’re doing this thing 100% legit though, so if anyone causes trouble we can just call the police. This year, I’m doing it to say that I did. The other goal is to generate enough interest through the event this year to entice more people to volunteer for next year’s event. If we want to expand to a 2 day overnight camping festival like is currently planned, we will need A LOT of help.

ROTW: I’ve been following your musical career and getting to know you over the years….you are the ultimate DIY artist.  What advice would you give Charlotte artists who are trying to make name for themselves in this market?

AM:  Well first of all, thank you. I think necessity is the mother of invention. I would greatly prefer to work with more people, I just haven’t found a lot of like-minded cats down here when it comes to music. I have a really big love of jam bands and a really big love of anything where the players shred.  Charlotte is a lot more song/album-driven than other towns I’ve played in.  It was basically a culture shock coming down here and having such a small music scene with so few bands that are really pushing themselves instrumentally.

Most of the really talented bands in Charlotte seem to be guys in their 30’s/40’s and full-time session guys, rather than the 20-somethings I’m used to hanging with. So it really took some time to figure out how to approach this market, as it values totally different things in an act. I think I can end my rambling and break it down into a few concise points:

• You can’t expect ANYTHING to get done without personally seeing it through from start to finish.
• If you want to make money, learn to play a 3 hour set. Learn some covers. They can literally be any cover you want, as long as people can recognize them. Charlotte’s bars, restaurants, and breweries literally can’t fill all their open slots because there are so few bands in town that can even play for 3 hours. Stop being proud, the music industry is dramatically different today than even 20 years ago. A&R guys won’t cut you a check to get good and cut an album, it’s all on the bands now to do everything up until distribution.
• Practice your instruments. There’s literally no downside to getting better. Unless you are playing some weird conceptual art music or something. But even then, still practice.
• Prepare to invest your own money in yourself. Music isn’t cheap.
• If something you want doesn’t exist, make it happen!  Eric, you saw the basic total lack of music blogs in Charlotte covering the concerts you attend and you remedied that problem with Records On The Wall. In the same way that no one was doing the kind of free party I wanted to go to, so I made East Side Meltdown. It isn’t going to happen if someone doesn’t start it. Make it happen!

Details for the event:

What: East Side Meltdown Music Festival – All ages: Noon-6pm, 21+: 6pm-11pm

When: Saturday, May 25th from Noon – 11pm.  Bands from 5pm-11pm.

Where:  3700 Seaforth Drive, Charlotte, NC  28205

Details:  This is a free block party with vendors, artists, food, and more!  Parking and event details on the Facebook event page

Artist lineup and set times:

Aarodynamics – 10:00-11:00pm
Lisa De Novo – 9:35-9:55
Menastree – 8:30-9:30pm
Lonely Jones – 7:45-8:15pm
Deaf Comet – 7:00-7:30
PHAZEGAWD – 6:30-6:55pm
Tin 4 – 5:50-6:20pm
Walter Boston DJ project 5-5:30