We’ve got lots of news to report from the Aaron Freeman camp this morning, the most important bit of which is that the artist formerly known as Gene Ween is happy and healthy. Congrats go out to Aaron for passing the 15 month mark in his sobriety, an accomplishment he wisely calls “the most important thing I’ve ever done.” Now that Freeman’s back in “fighting shape,” there’s lots of music on the horizon for the singer-songwriter who co-founded Ween with Mickey “Dean Ween” Melchiondo.
Even in Ween’s earliest days Freeman and Melchiondo were known for their experimental recording efforts using four-track cassette recorders. Aaron will pass the lessons he learned from those days and beyond to future musicians taking part in his Experimental Analog Recording summer workshop at The Paul Green Rock Academy in Woodstock, New York. Here’s the description of what participants will learn at the workshop, which takes place from July 15 – 19 and is open to those ages 8 – 18…
Here’s another cover of John Lennon’s Happy Xmas (War Is Over), this one features our pal Aaron Freeman, formerly Gene Ween, along with Gregg Cagno and Maggie Anderson and comes courtesy of Punk Rock Meshell. The video was filmed today at God Save The Qweens in New Hope, Penn.
We checked in with Mr. Freeman this morning, who got a laugh out of the reaction to his telling us he was in Belgium undergoing “a transformative procedure.” As you can see, he’s still a man…baby.
2012 has been an insane year for Aaron Freeman as the artist formerly known as Gene Ween has released his first solo album, left Ween after 25 years and most importantly has remained happily sober. Freeman’s solo album, Marvelous Clouds, didn’t contain any of his own tunes as it featured 13 interpretations of songs by poet/songwriter Rod McKuen. Aaron has been writing more original material lately and has started sharing basic versions of his tunes on his SoundCloud channel.
Just today Freeman posted a song called “Genene” and we couldn’t help but notice “Gene” being part of the title. Was it about his leaving Ween or a sex change? We contacted Aaron about Genene at his hospital room in Belgium where he is undergoing “a transformative procedure.” He immediately made sure to tell us, “This song is left to interpretation on purpose. To me it’s just an honest song about where I’m at, creepy, real and pretty, just the way I like it.” Freeman finished our chat by saying, “On one hand it’s about change and acceptance on a personal, spiritual level but can obviously be interpreted literally as a sex change.” We’re sure there will be plenty of interpretations of this one.
Take a listen to Genene by Aaron Freeman…
Freeman couldn’t be happier about exactly where he’s at as 2012 draws to a close, “I’ll be a year sober at the end of December and I’m really feeling great as well.”
