The Wallflowers with Aaron Lee Tasjan

For the past 30 years, The Wallflowers have stood as one of rock’s most dynamic and purposeful bands — a unit dedicated to and continually honing a sound that meshes timeless songwriting and storytelling with a hard-hitting and decidedly modern musical attack. That signature style has been present through the decades, baked into the grooves of smash hits like 1996’s Bringing Down the Horse as well as more recent and exploratory fare like 2012’s Glad All Over. True to its title, Exit Wounds is an ode to people — individual and collective — that have, to put it mildly, been through some stuff. Jakob Dylan says, “I think everybody — no matter what side of the aisle you’re on — wherever we’re going to next, we’re all taking a lot of exit wounds with us. Nobody is the same as they were four years ago. That, to me, is what Exit Wounds signifies. And it’s not meant to be negative at all. It just means that wherever you’re headed, even if it’s to a better place, you leave people and things behind, and you think about those people and those things and you carry them with you. Those are your exit wounds. And right now, we’re swimming in them.” Dylan continues, “I’m the same writer I’ve always been — I was just also writing during a time when the world felt like it was falling apart. That changes the way you address even the simplest things, because you have panic in your mind all the time. You have anxiety. And you also have hope. And it’s all in there.” Exit Wounds finds Dylan surrounded with a fresh cast of musicians, which he is quick to point out is not all that unusual. “The Wallflowers have always been a vehicle for me to make great rock ‘n’ roll records,” he says. “And sometimes the lineup that makes the record transfers over into touring, and sometimes it doesn’t. But my intention is always to make the Wallflowers record I want to make, using the musicians I have beside me.” Dylan assembled a backing band of musical associates — “people that I’ve wanted toplay with or that I have played with through the years...This was not the type of thing where it’s a rotating cast and you call a different drummer for each song, or you pull out the Rolodex and ring the local session guys,” Dylan says. “The record was made as a band - the five Wallflowers. It’s just exciting to have guys playing in a room together. That’s how you get the one plus one equals three factor. That’s the magic.” For Dylan, Exit Wounds is the next chapter in a career devoted to chasing — and capturing — that magic. Dylan has repeatedly stepped outside of his band, first with a pair of more acoustic and rootsy solo albums, Seeing Things (2008) and Women + Country (2010). Most recently, he executive produced and starred in the acclaimed 2018 documentary film Echo in the Canyon. The film found Dylan collaborating with a host of artists classic and contemporary, from Neil Young and Brian Wilson to Beck and Fiona Apple. Echo In the Canyon was also the last on-screen appearance by Tom Petty and was the ninth biggest theatrical documentary released that year. The Wallflowers’ overwhelmingly successful single “One Headlight” was prominently featured in the Judd Apatow film The King of Staten Island last year and continues to be a massive hit, topping Billboard’s “Greatest of All Time Adult Alternative Songs” chart.

Aaron Lee Tasjan has been on a shapeshifting musical journey his whole life. From his glam rock roots, when Jimmy Iovine told him “guys in make-up don’t sell records” and when Lady Gaga would open for his band in NYC, to his legend- hopping guitar sideman days, Tasjan has traveled the globe, collecting road worn tales like doing mushrooms with Bono in Ireland. His search for a musical locus and geographic wanderings began in his early teens. His travels took him from Delaware, to California, to New York, to his current home in Nashville. He moved there in 2015 to play guitar in a band that imploded on his arrival. Through dumb luck, he quickly landed a record deal with New West Records and became an established musical entity, releasing a diverse succession of critically acclaimed albums that drew the attention of everyone from NPR Music to Rolling Stone. Tasjan’s fourth album and most current recording, “Tasjan! Tasjan! Tasjan!” was released February 2021 via New West Records and is a masterclass in the sonic amalgam of vintage pop, 90s Anglophilia, glam and 21st Century psychedelia. Tasjan uses unique studio technique, to boldly blends the current and the classic, making his most musically daring and critically acclaimed album to date. He examines sexuality, mental health and dedicates the album to the alternative kids who felt “other” growing up.