Aaron Wallace A.K.A. Darksiderz

By Jay Oakley

I'm standing here with Aaron Wallace, stage name Darksiderz. How's it going?

Good man, good. How are you?

I'm good. How's the tour been going so far?

Great. The first day was a little hairy but that's just because everybody's trying to figure out production. But now the crew's so tight and everything's so good. The show's have been awesome so far I couldn't ask for anything more.

So not even really technical difficulties, just people meshing?

Not even so much meshing. It's actually a little technical. I built this booth for the tour and it shipped because I couldn't fly it here because it's to heavy. So they shipped it here and the wheels got bent during shipping so we went to take it off a riser the first show of the tour and the wheel bent more so now we have to drag it off. I was kind of a mess but luckily it was the first show so we figured things out.

How far along are you into the tour?

This is the fourth show. It's really early, we're only about a week in tops.

When it comes to anyone who might be unfamiliar with yourself and what you do, describe yourself.

I produce and it's called Hardstyle it's mainly a dutch kind of thing but I like to tie in dark dance music. I do what I like to do but it's more electronic based. 

When it comes to people seeing you for the first time and the show you put out is it something more along the lines of visual?

Yes. Before I was doing a lot of the production and DJ stuff I was in bands and punk rock bands so I'm not your typical DJ that's going to just be up there with a laptop and won't interact with the crowd. I like to bring the rock and roll stage vibe but with a visual and lights kind of thing.

So you're not just hiding behind your equipment.

No no, I'm jumping on my booth and throwing shirts and stuff at the crowd. Jumping into the front and getting people to scream, I'm active for sure.

When it comes to putting together music for your fans to hear do you have hard copies of records at the moment?

It's mostly digital. I do have hard copies of stuff here and there. But with this day and age with the record industry and record sales its hard ya know? They can just download your single so I usually release EPs and singles. I going to release a full length album. After the tour I'm going into writing a full length album that I've been putting a lot of time into that. I'm going to do two albums for my solo project and Joe Letz (CombiChrist) and I are starting a side project so I'm going to be writing that with him. That's EDM based also and that's called Fake Friends and that's coming out pretty soon.

For fans that are new or just casual what can they expect at a Darksiderz show?

Chaos and rowdiness. I like to get real fucking rowdy. I'm chaotic, I come from a punk rocky background. I use a lot of bass. My played a lot of basement shows as a kid so I like to get rowdy. The music's heavy and it's a heavy, driving, rowdy experience. 

Coming from the underground punk scene what were your influences?

I grew up on an Indian reservation so things were scarce at times but I was really into trash metal so I started with that. Then I started to get into other things like Type O Negative was huge and it's one of my favorite bands of all time. So I branched off and got into goth rock and 80s goth rocky kind of stuff and industrial. So in my town I started going to raves and it was basically the punk rock of dance music and the vibe was so great so I went from there.

So you're here as CombiChrist's direct support. How's that doing and how are they treating you?

It's great, I've been treated so well and from everybody it's been unreal. Everyone's been so humble and accommodating to me. I've been friends with Joe and Andy, Z Marr and Abbey already. I've been friends with all those guys before the tour and outside of this. So we both got onto the same agency and it worked out. They said they had a spot for me and asked if I wanted to come on in between as a DJ and keep the crowd pumped so I play right into their intro.

Are you here for the whole tour?

Yup, the whole tour.

Where are you stationed out of? Where are you from?

I'm stationed out of a really small town Carson City, Nevada. I'll travel but that's were my studio's at and that's were the Indian reservation I grew up on's at. I like it there because it's a small town like you can drive through it in 15 minutes but it's not very distracting so when I'm there I get a lot done. If I was living in Hollywood of Manhattan I'd never get anything done.

So Nevada's home?

Oh yeah, Nevada's home.

When you do get that down time what do you do?

I listen to music, I write music a lot. I've been getting really into fitness and working out. I work out a lot and when I'm on tour I make it mandatory that I take at least an hour out of my day to do some kind of physical activity. Luckily everyone of CombiChrist's bus is really into trying to eat healthy right now so it's kind of cool.

With the music that you make and release are there any goals that you're looking to achieve?

I just like playing music in general. Every time I set a goal and hit it then I tell myself I have to go bigger and better. That's like the album thing for me. I've always released a lot of remixes and singles and EPs and stuff like that so now it's time to do a full length album. Play more festivals, effect more people and just be a positive influence. 

That all sounds great and thank you so much for taking the time.

Yeah totally, life's great and solid.