Montana native Aran Buzzas began his warm relationship with the guitar at the age of fifteen, when he took up lessons with Missoula jazz/blues guitarist Mike Connor. For nearly three years Aran devoted the majority of his spare time to the guitar, and playing in his classic rock cover band, Groundswell. It wasn’t until after high school, and Groundswell’s dissolution, that Aran made song-writing his principal focus, turning to acoustic guitar and hitting the open-mike scene.
In 2000 Aran produced Slainte!, a homemade demo tape he handed out mostly to friends and family. Showcasing mature songwriting and a hint of Aran’s future experiments with analog recording, the demo also contained his first recorded guitar solo. Lead guitar playing would become Aran’s focus thereafter.
Aran moved to Arizona for school in 2003, and thus began a musical dry-spell that was punctuated by several brief, fiercely creative periods of musicality. During each of these bursts, Aran began recording again, and started moving back towards the electric guitar and the music of his roots: bluesy classic rock. In December 2007 the dam burst when Aran wrote “Biggest Fool”, and aching country/blues song about a recent bitter divorce. The following months of playing and recording resulted in Just Bein’ Here Aran Buzzas’ debut CD.
With the help of Nathan Stephens and Groundswell Media Production, Aran transferred his analog masters into a digital medium. Aran plays all the instruments and does all the singing, with a bit of help from long-time musical collaborator Mike Dunn, who sings on five songs, and Nathan Stephens, who sings on one song. The arrangements are far more elaborate and textured than on Slainte!, and the lead guitar is front and center. The styles range from folk, to blues, to country, but Just Bein’ Here is a rock album, and a musical statement to the world.
Shortly after writing “Biggest Fool”, Aran began practicing with Mike Dunn, a childhood friend and talented singer-songwriter himself. The two have formed Little Brother, a mostly acoustic duo with hopes of expanding into a full band. Little Brother recently played their debut show at the Just Bein’ Here CD release party. It will be exciting to see where this new musical road will lead this talented musician!
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