Biography
Aaron Dilloway ranks among the most inventive, productive, and respected artists working in the experimental and noise underground of the American Midwest. His live sets and recorded output draw on rhythmic loops sourced from eight-track cartridges, spontaneous vocal passages, scavenged audio fragments, and on-site field captures. Through contact microphones he produces abrasive, feedback-saturated textures, occasionally inserting the microphones inside his mouth to generate grotesque, distorted vocal timbres. Although these constructions channel raw and aggressive forces, they are equally shaped by a playful, absurdist wit that turns each appearance into a disorienting yet compelling exercise in Dadaist performance. While his tenure with the Michigan noise unit Wolf Eyes remains his most visible affiliation, Dilloway has sustained a far-reaching solo practice that encompasses hundreds of limited-edition cassette releases issued under his own name and under the alias Spine Scavenger. He has also issued collaborative and split recordings with an array of experimental figures that includes Kevin Drumm, Prurient, John Wiese, Lucrecia Dalt, and Body/Head. In addition, he operates Hanson Records, an enduring experimental imprint that maintains a physical storefront and mail-order operation in Oberlin, Ohio.
Born in 1976 and raised in Brighton, Michigan, Dilloway began attending basement concerts in nearby Ann Arbor in the mid-1990s. Exposure to the local noise-rock ensemble Couch along with the experimental art-rock groups Caroliner and Sun City Girls prompted him to assemble the raw, lo-fi rock project Galen, whose debut performance served as an opening set for Couch. He later joined Couch itself, contributing drums to a West Coast tour and to a 1995 7-inch single. Galen’s first 7-inch EP appeared jointly on Bulb Records—founded by Couch’s Pete Larson together with Magas—and on the newly established Hanson label. Hanson also documented early cassettes by Andrew W.K.’s project Ancient Art of Boar, with which Dilloway participated as a recording collaborator. Together with Galen’s Steve Kenney he began exploring tape loops, synthesizers, and delay effects under the name Isis and Werewolves. After relocating to Ann Arbor in 1997, the label issued an experimental collage cassette by Nate Young under the moniker Wolf Eyes. Young and Dilloway performed several early shows as the Michigan Wolverines before shortening the name to Wolf Eyes. Dilloway simultaneously became a member of Universal Indians, an improvisational noise collective shaped by both free-jazz and hardcore-punk traditions. When Universal Indians’ John Olson joined Wolf Eyes, the group’s sound shifted from the punk-inflected industrial rock heard on its 2000 self-titled Bulb EP toward a more open, improvisation-driven approach to noise; Olson and Dilloway nevertheless revisited their punk roots in the skateboarding-themed hardcore band Violent Ramp.
Wolf Eyes documented its activities with dozens—and eventually hundreds—of limited cassettes and CD-Rs, most of which appeared on Hanson or on Olson’s American Tapes imprint. The 2001 albums Slicer and Dread attracted wider attention within the independent music community, leading to the 2002 Dead Hills EP on Troubleman Unlimited. A tour alongside Black Dice resulted in a split LP released by Fusetron in 2003, after which the group signed with Sub Pop and issued the notably harsh 2004 album Burned Mind. Dilloway departed Wolf Eyes shortly thereafter, citing exhaustion from relentless touring; his final contribution was a Peel Session taped one week after John Peel’s death in October 2004. He temporarily relocated to Nepal, where his wife Erika Hoffmann—vocalist for Godzuki, Saturday Looks Good to Me, His Name Is Alive, and other Michigan indie-pop acts—was pursuing studies, and Hair Police’s Mike Connelly assumed his place in the band. While abroad he amassed extensive field recordings, later released as Sounds of Nepal—a collection of location recordings and Nepalese pop songs—and as Radio Nepal, a series of captures from local radio broadcasts; these materials subsequently informed his solo work.
Around 2007 Dilloway settled in Oberlin, Ohio, where he began working with local artists including Emeralds and Robert Turman. In early 2012 he issued the long-gestating double album Modern Jester, whose rhythmic constructions earned widespread critical praise and frequent designation as his strongest release. That same year he partnered with Jason Lescalleet on the drone-oriented album Grapes and Snakes, issued by Bill Kouligas’s Pan label. In 2013 he contributed to Wolf Eyes’ album No Answer: Lower Floors, again cited among the group’s strongest efforts, and opened the Hanson Records retail location in Oberlin. The further Lescalleet collaboration Popeth appeared in 2014. Subsequent projects included partnerships with Bill Nace and Dylan Nyoukis. In 2017 Dais Records released the full-length The Gag File, positioned as a successor to Modern Jester and featuring vocal manipulations reminiscent of his live performances. Amid the steady stream of limited tape editions, Dilloway spent portions of 2019 and 2020 working with the German abstract electronic artist Lucrecia Dalt; their joint material surfaced in July 2021 as the album Lucy & Aaron on the Hanson imprint. That November he joined Kim Gordon and Bill Nace of Body/Head for the recording Body/Dilloway/Head, a hypnotic weave of drones and edits issued by Three Lobed Recordings as part of the label’s twentieth-anniversary series.
Born in 1976 and raised in Brighton, Michigan, Dilloway began attending basement concerts in nearby Ann Arbor in the mid-1990s. Exposure to the local noise-rock ensemble Couch along with the experimental art-rock groups Caroliner and Sun City Girls prompted him to assemble the raw, lo-fi rock project Galen, whose debut performance served as an opening set for Couch. He later joined Couch itself, contributing drums to a West Coast tour and to a 1995 7-inch single. Galen’s first 7-inch EP appeared jointly on Bulb Records—founded by Couch’s Pete Larson together with Magas—and on the newly established Hanson label. Hanson also documented early cassettes by Andrew W.K.’s project Ancient Art of Boar, with which Dilloway participated as a recording collaborator. Together with Galen’s Steve Kenney he began exploring tape loops, synthesizers, and delay effects under the name Isis and Werewolves. After relocating to Ann Arbor in 1997, the label issued an experimental collage cassette by Nate Young under the moniker Wolf Eyes. Young and Dilloway performed several early shows as the Michigan Wolverines before shortening the name to Wolf Eyes. Dilloway simultaneously became a member of Universal Indians, an improvisational noise collective shaped by both free-jazz and hardcore-punk traditions. When Universal Indians’ John Olson joined Wolf Eyes, the group’s sound shifted from the punk-inflected industrial rock heard on its 2000 self-titled Bulb EP toward a more open, improvisation-driven approach to noise; Olson and Dilloway nevertheless revisited their punk roots in the skateboarding-themed hardcore band Violent Ramp.
Wolf Eyes documented its activities with dozens—and eventually hundreds—of limited cassettes and CD-Rs, most of which appeared on Hanson or on Olson’s American Tapes imprint. The 2001 albums Slicer and Dread attracted wider attention within the independent music community, leading to the 2002 Dead Hills EP on Troubleman Unlimited. A tour alongside Black Dice resulted in a split LP released by Fusetron in 2003, after which the group signed with Sub Pop and issued the notably harsh 2004 album Burned Mind. Dilloway departed Wolf Eyes shortly thereafter, citing exhaustion from relentless touring; his final contribution was a Peel Session taped one week after John Peel’s death in October 2004. He temporarily relocated to Nepal, where his wife Erika Hoffmann—vocalist for Godzuki, Saturday Looks Good to Me, His Name Is Alive, and other Michigan indie-pop acts—was pursuing studies, and Hair Police’s Mike Connelly assumed his place in the band. While abroad he amassed extensive field recordings, later released as Sounds of Nepal—a collection of location recordings and Nepalese pop songs—and as Radio Nepal, a series of captures from local radio broadcasts; these materials subsequently informed his solo work.
Around 2007 Dilloway settled in Oberlin, Ohio, where he began working with local artists including Emeralds and Robert Turman. In early 2012 he issued the long-gestating double album Modern Jester, whose rhythmic constructions earned widespread critical praise and frequent designation as his strongest release. That same year he partnered with Jason Lescalleet on the drone-oriented album Grapes and Snakes, issued by Bill Kouligas’s Pan label. In 2013 he contributed to Wolf Eyes’ album No Answer: Lower Floors, again cited among the group’s strongest efforts, and opened the Hanson Records retail location in Oberlin. The further Lescalleet collaboration Popeth appeared in 2014. Subsequent projects included partnerships with Bill Nace and Dylan Nyoukis. In 2017 Dais Records released the full-length The Gag File, positioned as a successor to Modern Jester and featuring vocal manipulations reminiscent of his live performances. Amid the steady stream of limited tape editions, Dilloway spent portions of 2019 and 2020 working with the German abstract electronic artist Lucrecia Dalt; their joint material surfaced in July 2021 as the album Lucy & Aaron on the Hanson imprint. That November he joined Kim Gordon and Bill Nace of Body/Head for the recording Body/Dilloway/Head, a hypnotic weave of drones and edits issued by Three Lobed Recordings as part of the label’s twentieth-anniversary series.
Albums
