Jaron Gulino is the bad-ass bassist for the bands Tantric and Heavens Edge. While most of us were hunkered down during the recent quarantine, Gulino was in the studio recording what will be the latest offering of original music from Tantric.
Tantric is currently on tour in the U.S. and has dates that go through the end of the year, all the way to February 2021. Jaron Gulino took time out of his busy schedule to talk with Rockbandreviews.com about the current tour, his new bass guitar, and, " The Sum Of All Things".
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JARON GULINO INTERVIEW 8/11/2020
Q: Hey Jaron, how are you?
A: I'm awesome, man. Thank you for giving me some time to chat.
Q: I got your voicemail and was stoked to hear that you are at Mount Rushmore right now.
A: Yeah, I am litterally at the edge, the closest you can possibly get to the Monument as we speak.
Q: That is epic. have you been to the Monument before?
A: Yes. We were here, I guess, last November, and there was a freak snow storm. We went up there and there was like two feet of snow. Mount Rushmore was pretty epic, so to see it in the summertime is great.
Q: You and the band are currently in Norh Dakota at Sturgis where you performed there this weekend. It is so great to see that you guys are on the road again.
A: Yeah, man. Were just hanging out here right now. We played Kickstands on Sunday and went to Full Throttle last night to hang out with some friends. Went over to see George Lynch play and we will probably head back over there for the rest of the week.
Q: With Covid-19 out there, Sturgis is known to attract very large crowds of people. Since you arrived there a few days ago, how are people handling the Coronavirus situation?
A: Since I have been here, there were some poeple covered up, but I would say that the vast majority of the people here are not wearing any masks. I think out here in the whole mid-west, people are less concerned. We were recording in Detroit and a lot of people were covered up there, I guess it just depends on the area. The attitudes of a lot of peple are different about it, so... I guess you just gotta go with what you think is the best for you.
Q: Tantric has a new album coming out soon titled " The Sum Of All Things". Is there a tentative release date yet?
A: There is not not a release date yet. I am not sure if we are going to hold it for the top of the year, or release it towards the end of this year. It's really close to being done within the next week or so and then and then it will be up to Cleopatra Records when it will come out.
Q: What is the story behind the title of the album?
A: That might be a good question to ask our singer Hugo. From my understanding, he feels that all his years with Tantric, through various line-ups, and the 20 years of history that this is where he is now and it's the sum of everything the band has become. You can expect to get everything that Tantric can give you.
Q: Will this album have all original recordings or will there be some covers as well?
A: I think it will be eleven originals, and then we are doing remakes of "Down N Out" and " Breakdown". Thirteen tracks.
Q: There is a great video of you on your Facebook page that shows you playing bass on a hill top doing a remake of Gary Clark Jr's "When My Train Pulls In" with Mike and Dan from Mother. You guys certainly did this social -distancing performance justice in the fact that I think you guys have out-performed the original. I can't help but watch this video everyday.
A: Yeah, it came together very nice. It was my first time doing anything like that, through a laptop. I am usually just old-school. I'll usually just go to a studio. I went home on a quick little break from the Tantric recording and while I was there I only had my computer and a bass that I didn't take on the road.I walk out at the lake all the time, and always thought it would be cool to do something out there. It ended up working out pretty well.
Q: My great friend and Rockbandreviews.com photographer, Chris Schmitt recently sent you a custom Mountain Dew bass guitar from Hirsch Guitars. There is a video of the unveiling on your Facebook page, along with a quick, unplugged demo of some bass licks. What do you think of the guitar?
A: It's pretty noisy, man. It is made of aluminum cans and tin so it is really loud. I just need to have it set up. I need to put some insulation in it to get the sound cleaner and some tone out of it. I'll take it on the road and get it up on stage once it is all set up. It has a really big, fat neck on there so , yeah Ideally it would be awesome to have on stage. I don't have anything like this bass. I love it!
Q: When are those Mountain Dew endorsements gonna start rolling in?
A: I don't know, man (Laughs). At this point, i'm like, hey it works for me and I will just continue to support them and if somebody wants to throw me a couple of bottles... I am happy to accept.
Q:Tantric has tour dates that are confirmed all the way through December right now. Any plans on coming down here to Florida?
A: We had something booked for this month, which fell through, but we're pretty much booked all the way through February pretty solid. At the end of the day, a lot of things keep getting resheduled and postponed so we don't want to put too much out there too soon, just a couple month's at a time.
Thank you very much for taking the time to talk with me today. Safe travels to you and the band. Please stay safe out there.
Q: Thank you. I appreciate that! Just let me know if you wanna come out to anything, wherever and I will always hook you up. I'm excited to get back down there (Florida), get a tan, and have some Mountain Dew's with Chris.