Heavy Culture: Ayron Jones on His Upbringing, Fusing Music Genres, and Parenthood

Liz Ramanand
·7 min read
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The post Heavy Culture: Ayron Jones on His Upbringing, Fusing Music Genres, and Parenthood appeared first on Consequence.

Heavy Culture is a column from journalist Liz Ramanand, focusing on artists of different cultural backgrounds in heavy music, as they offer their perspectives on race, society, and more as it intersects with and affects their craft. The latest installment of this column features singer-guitarist Ayron Jones.

Singer-guitarist Ayron Jones kicked off 2023 by performing on the ShipRocked music cruise for the second consecutive year. More recently, he announced a new album, Chronicles of the Kid, set to arrive on June 23rd, while also releasing the LP’s lead single, “Blood in the Water.”

We caught up with Jones while on ShipRocked, and he spoke candidly about his family roots and being a parent to young children. He also talked about his influences and combining the gospel music he grew up on with his love of heavier rock and grunge.

Jones also discussed his 2021 album, Child of the State, which landed three songs in the Top 10 of the Mainstream Rock chart, and hinted at plans for his next album, which at that time had not been announced.

Read our full interview with Ayron Jones below, and catch him at a number of 2023 festivals, including Welcome to Rockville, Sonic Temple, Aftershock, Rocklahoma, and more. Pick up tickets to his upcoming shows via Ticketmaster or StubHub, and pre-order his upcoming album, Chronicles of the Kid, via Amazon.

Tell me about your cultural background …

Ayron Jones: My mom is from Seattle, but her mom’s from Oklahoma. So I have people in Oklahoma originally, we’re all Black. Based on our DNA, we believe that our people were owned by the Chickasaw Nation as a tribe. We were slaves owned by the Chickasaw. My three-times great grandmother spoke full-on Muskogee (Creek), she didn’t speak English. They had this call, this rule that was basically like if you didn’t have a certain percentage of blood, so if you were a slave in the tribe and you didn’t have the blood, you would never be accepted.

After they lost a Civil War, the Chickasaw fought with the South in the Civil War – they were supposed to absorb the slaves into their tribes into the nation. They created this rule to ex-communicate any slaves from their tribes. Isn’t that crazy? Yeah. So that’s, that’s on my mom’s side.

My dad was adopted but he’s mostly Native American and part black, so when it comes to his background it’s more of a mystery. But he was adopted by a military man. I didn’t know my parents super well, they both kind of struggled with drugs and alcohol, so I didn’t really see them. I was emancipated when I was seven years old. Over time, I’ve gotten to learn more and more about our background.

Now that I have kids, you see it in my kids. [Laughs] Some of my kids have curly hair and others have completely straight hair.

How has your background affected your approach to music? When you saw or heard the guitar as a kid, was it automatic for you?

Oh no, it was a white kid who really did it for me, honestly. I went to middle school with this kid and he was already playing violin at the time, which I was never good at. But I could always pluck at it and that felt more natural to me. So I met this kid who lived down the road from me. He had a guitar at his house and we just jam on the guitar all the time. That was my dude, he got me into guitar, his name was Matthew. From there, I just went down this rabbit hole of influences. Of course, being from Seattle, grunge is a huge influence.

Growing up in Seattle, was there a specific show you went to that inspired you?

AJ: It started with gospel music for me. We used to go to these gospel concerts, and I think that’s what it was for me. Just the energy, especially that old-school Pentecostal Baptist Church. We would have these big concerts in a pretty big church. I just remember the power that was commanded on the stage. It was amazing. So that’s where it started for me.

Then as I got older, I saw bands like Incubus and Velvet Revolver, free shows at Tower Records. I’m hanging out with all these suburban white kids and they’re teaching me about the era of grunge and all that. So I got these two worlds colliding together, and that’s really what did it for me.

It made me realize I wanted to do something, but not just anything. I didn’t want to just take the white influence of grunge music or just gospel and do one or the other – let’s mix all these things together, that’s why my, my sound is the way it is. It’s kind of industrial, kind of punk, but it still sits in that gospel, blues and rock.

Can you talk about the title Child of the State and what it means to you personally?

AJ: If you look at Child of the State, you’ll see this lettering on the cover of the album. And that lettering is the letter that my auntie received where the state let her know that she was allowed to adopt me. She became my guardian at that point; I was seven years old. The state had to emancipate me from my parents because they weren’t around. No one was around to sign the papers off in order for me to move on to a foster system or be adopted. So they emancipated me with the condition that my aunt would become my guardian. I was raised by my auntie as a kid, but I don’t have parents from a legal standpoint, you know? Obviously, I have parents, but if you go look it up in the state records, they’re not there.

So that’s, that’s where [the title] comes from. And for me, it was just kind of something that I really identified with. And for that record, it was so important to put it all out there. This is really who I am, this kid. I had to overcome a lot.

What did your aunt and family think about you wanting to be a musician full-time?

AJ: They were always supportive of me in music. I think, everyone said, you’ve got to have a fallback job. I used to think that for a long time, and then there was one day, like 12 or 13 years ago, I was like if I’m always like creating a safety net for myself, I’m never going to jump. And so I just had to do it.

They’ve always been really encouraging though. They never tried to deter me from doing it. They were always just concerned about my wellbeing. I quit my job 12 years ago and that was it. I was broke and poor. I worked odd jobs like security, a bouncer, bartending. I haven’t worked a day job in like 13 years. So it’s been a long time but my family was always really supportive.

As a parent yourself, do you have little musicians in the making?

AJ: [Laughs] My kids are so vast in their musical taste. My three-year-old loves rock. My seven year-old loves more classic old-school rock – he’s like an old-schooler. His mom, she’s really into older music, kind of blues and rock stuff. My oldest, my daughter, is into in the pop, she’s 10. But they’re all musically talented – they have gifts that they can utilize if they want to.

My son, my three-year-old is a bit of a rebel. He gets mad and throws tantrums and then tells you he loves you and then runs away. [Laughs] But there’s a fine line — as a parent you want them to keep that spirit but also provide an environment of discipline, too. Always do you and question people, but also remember that rules exist for a reason.

Along with striking that balance as a parent, what does the rest of the year have in store for you?

AJ: I got a record coming out pretty soon and just touring and getting right back at it.

Heavy Culture: Ayron Jones on His Upbringing, Fusing Music Genres, and Parenthood
Liz Ramanand

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