Among the talented ranks of student performers on campus, sits the largely unrecognized lead singer and guitarist of The State, Aron Glennon '04. Along with his bandmates, Glennon is working hard to establish The State in the local rock scene, and on a national level in the near future. As one of 100 bands from around the world picked to perform at the esteemed International New York Music Festival at Madison Square Garden, he will hopefully have a chance to do just that.
Hailing from a small town in New Hampshire, Glennon formed the band with his high school buddies Kyle Needham (guitar and keyboard), Bill Lord (guitar and keyboard) and Matt Plouffe (drums). They later added bassist Sean Philbrick, whom they met and hit it off with in a bar this past July.A physics major at Brandeis, Glennon started playing music his senior year in high school, but didn't consider it a career choice until he became more passionate about music in college. "Only in college did I have the free time to play more and write more. Now it just seems like the only place I want to be."

Juggling music with his studies can often be a challenge, but Glennon has managed to do it for the past four years. Before this year, he wasn't as serious about his band becoming anything more than a hobby, so he was able to work out a system of doing homework during the week, and playing music during the weekend.

Lately, though music and the band have taken up much more of his time, due to the effort to advance the band entirely through self-promotion. Since the band is relatively inexperienced in regards to the music business, promotional work is difficult and time consuming. "Because we are new at it, we don't take shortcuts we now realized we should have." Luckily, Glennon is a second semester senior who has already been accepted to graduate school.

Glennon has had little professional musical training. While attending the University of California at Santa Barbara before to transfering to Brandeis last year, he took one semester of voice lessons. He also took one music theory class at Brandeis. Glennon taught himself how to play guitar because he wanted to be able to play Radiohead songs.
"I started learning through [Radiohead] songs and through that I developed an understanding of chord progression, melodies, harmonies and whatnot. Soon after that I started writing my own stuff," Glennon said.

Since all of his bandmates remain in Hampton, N.H., Glennon must commute back and forth between Hampton and Waltham to practice. He gets around the lack of practice time by making tapes of the music he writes and allows the rest of the band to add in their respective parts.
The State has performed in several local venues in New Hampshire and the Boston area, including a few appearances on campus. Although they have performed in such notable venues as Harper's Ferry in Boston, The State focuses on playing in locals bars and venues in their home state because they need to make money to produce and promote their demo.
Glennon describes their music as "very Bend's era Radiohead, before they got all experimental.... it very much straight ahead rock, kind of like Brit-pop." He also says he is influenced by bands like Nirvana and The Beatles, but he mainly draws his inspiration from Radiohead because he feels that "if you want to help music progress, you have to be influenced by the people [like Radiohead] who are pushing boundaries."

As with most young musicians, Glennon draws most of his inspiration for songs from his "uncanny bad luck with women." He considers music "to be an emotional release, a kind of therapy in a way." While most of his songs stem from relationships gone sour or lack thereof, he doesn't worry that he will run out of material in the future.

"When I actually do find someone and get married and have kids and I am happy in that respect, my music will probably go a little more political. Only because there is always stuff that needs to change," he said.

Glennon feels that his band's music has developed and matured immensely in the short time that they have been together. At the start, each member was nervous of criticism from the others and was afraid to try different things.

"Now we are getting a little more comfortable in our own skins. I think we are taking more risks," Glennon said. In their earlier stages, the band's main goal was to churn out songs without regard to product. Currently, they have worked toward refining their sound. "We have done a lot of stuff with new songs-we are adding parts, we are constantly changing and its a really organic process."

After hearing about the New York Music Festival, Glennon researched it further and quickly sent in a demo tape. After hearing that they were one of the few bands chosen to display their talent, Glennon and his bandmates were ecstatic. The festival, founded last year, will give the band a chance to expose themselves to record executives from major labels such as Sony Music and Virgin Records.

Glennon wants The State to get a record deal, but he is not getting his hopes up.

"You need to be realistic. I guess my main goal right now is just to get contacts because I am moving to New York next year to try and pursue a career [in music]," he said. Regardless, Glennon plans to continue his education in music technology at New York University next year.

After gracing the stage at Madison Square Garden, The State will return to the area for a special appearance at the Midnight Buffet at Brandeis on May 3.