Aaron Semer

Aaron Semer was born and raised in rural NW Ohio and steeped in American Roots music and Rock n' Roll from birth. He has made Seattle his home for the past 16 years. Semer works to keep the tradition of American folk music alive in its truest sense by staying relevant to the issues and stories of today, as well as the rhythms and melodies of today. Songs are stories, stories are life.

On his new album, “Love Amidst Collapse,” Aaron Semer strips his music down to the bare essentials – acoustic guitars, voice, some basic percussion, and a few shredding solos for good measure. This is a concept album loosely based around the collapse of society as we know it, and how we would go about moving forward after the fall. On a personal basis, it is a reset button – an attempt for Semer to get back to basics as a songwriter, and to address his own fears about the decline and possible collapse of America. “Songs are stories, stories are life,” he says. “When you give up on the failing stories you have been telling yourselves as a society, what replaces them?”

Hopefully, songs like these.

The Stranger once said he was “blessing Seattle with his presence before catapulting to mega-fame.” Seattle Sound Magazine declared him “possibly Seattle’s least apathetic songwriter.” Despite these and other accolades, Aaron Semer’s obscurity felt cemented. Perhaps it was an unwillingness to play the game. Perhaps just dumb luck. But since arriving in Seattle almost two decades ago, Semer has plied his lonely craft in the dirty backrooms, dingy bars, and basements of the Pacific Northwest, both solo and in a host of bands you’ve probably never heard of. His voice and worldview have weathered – fractured in some places, hardened in others – but the timeless, genre-defying quality of his songwriting remains.