Rock is Not Dead

Jake Linder and Matt Bolling of Aberdeen is Dead help redefine the modern rock scene.

Kevin

The story of Aberdeen is Dead—a promising new rock band, reminiscent of 90s grunge—is only beginning. Aberdeen is a shining example of the liberating power modern artists have—the power to operate and succeed independently. However, with this power comes a highly demanding workload.

The duo—Jake Linder and Matt Bolling—make up the entire marketing, production, and merchandising team for the band. That isn’t an easy feat for any band, especially with all of the complexities that go into writing, producing, and actually playing rock music, which is famous for its wild presentation. Oftentimes, rock is a competition to see which band can build the most irreverent reputation, which inevitably attracts more people to witness any ensuing chaos.

Having only started in 2019, the Texas-based duo already has over 5,000 subscribers on YouTube, almost 47,000 followers on Instagram, and 49,000 followers on TikTok. Music-wise, they have over 39,000 followers and 100,000 monthly listeners on Spotify alone. Their TikTok page already has a whopping one million likes, with multiple videos having over a million views—and they’re doing it all without a huge marketing firm or record label behind them.

They definitely understand that forming connections on social media can have a staggering effect on popularity, no matter if it brings positive or negative attention to the band.

“As far as social media goes, the more engagement you have, the more people get to see your music. So hate comments turn into reaching more people on the algorithm,” says Bolling.

Linder adds, “there [are] tools like TikTok and Instagram out there for free, and all you really have to do is work at it . . . there’s no reason you should sign away a bunch of your stuff just for some advertisement, you know?”

Linder’s weariness in this department is valid. There are an abundance of instances within the music industry where promising musicians are approached by labels with deals that would be enticing to anybody, let alone a small band. The band is offered something incredible: promotion, fame, a higher budget, and the resources to create their music without the stress of having to fund their journey all alone—all to be neglected—despite being forced to sign away the ownership of their music in return for what they hoped would be an extra boost in popularity. Even the famous singer, Prince, had issues with record labels in the past, claiming record deals are comparable to slave contracts—even going as far as protesting his deal with Warner Bros by writing of his face during a public appearance.

Despite the numerous pitfalls of signing to a label, maintaining independence in an industry with huge corporations backing many artists— some even posing as possible competitors—is a gutsy move. Not only does the burden of promotion solely rest on their shoulders, but they also have to pay for everything from instruments and microphones to the time spent recording. It’s a huge investment in time and requires a massive commitment to the craft.

Bolling elaborated, “we kind of realized that, everything we need to do right now doesn’t require a label.”

This realization occurred when they were almost signed, and in Bolling’s words, “we didn’t get an email back or a call back from them. And then we kind of realized like, okay, we’re kind of surpassing like everybody else that’s signed by them, so why would we even need one in the first place?”

Linder offered some additional reasoning for their independence, saying, “I also want our band to be an example that you can start really small and be independent throughout most of your career, if not all of it,” and “it’s a little extra work, but the rewards are always better.”

While labels aren’t always leaches, in many cases they can be just that: a corporate entity siphoning the creative blood from an artist. But unlike many signed acts, Aberdeen has creative freedom—so much so that every song goes through an extensive lyrical review process where they add or remove lines based on how they feel about the initial draft, without outside influence. Furthermore, Bolling describes Linder—the main lyricist—as “an insane writer,” with some unexpected pop influences in his work.

“Adele. I freaking love Adele,” says Linder. He continued, “vocalists like that inspire a lot of the vocal melodies that we put into our songs, because of how every line that they say sort of sounds like a hook. It’s all catchy. You could take any single three words out of a Michael Jackson song and it’d be more catchy than anything on the radio right now.”

Inspiration: It’s what every artistic endeavor needs. Everything is derivative to some extent. Inherently, everything in the imagination is based on prior experiences. Aberdeen’s inspiration may seem quite bizarre, however, some more apparent influences within Aberdeen’s music are Alice in Chains, My Chemical Romance, Pink Floyd, and of course, Kurt Cobain of Nirvana. Cobain’s legacy is especially influential to Aberdeen’s music—given the band name is literally derived from Cobain’s birthplace.

Linder even explained how that inspiration carried over to the creation of their music, saying, “I don’t think Nirvana would’ve happened without the city of Aberdeen. You know, with where Kurt lived originally, because there was nothing to do there. And he wasn’t exactly very wealthy at the time. And I think a lot of the horrible things that he went through kind of, in a way, created one of the greatest rock bands of all time.”

Cobain’s experiences helped to form one of the most influential bands of all time, and the music Nirvana created has carried those experiences into the creative marketplace to this day. Based on this formula, one might think music would exponentially improve over time from compounding experiences adding value to the field itself—but there are other variables that hinder this natural progression.

Since music’s slow evolution isn’t as much of a money maker for the music industry as is reintroducing some fad every decade to a new audience, the creative formula is disrupted. Innovation isn’t encouraged when the industry knows it can profit off of the same thing repeatedly since it remains fresh to new listeners. Despite this, Aberdeen is Dead is making a rare attempt at innovation.

Linder “want[s] this band to be an example for people who are starting out, that you don’t have to sign, you don’t have to give your money away, and that if you want to be a musician and you wanna be in a band, then you need to make money,” which is something many bands don’t seem to understand, with him adding, “I feel like they’re allergic to money. Like . . . they’ll go and tour across the country and lose thousands of dollars to play their music for nobody.”

As sad as that sounds, hopefully, those acts do it for the thrill, not the money. However, this does demonstrate the most trying disadvantage of being independent: that being the cost. If you aren’t making money from your passion and contributing to the marketplace of ideas then you are only permanently scarring your image— making your act seem unprofessional—and nobody wants to invest in something they won’t see a return on.

Bolling’s view on their legacy, however, proves a bit different.

“We need to . . . break a lot of stigmas within society and just kind of get people back to the whole idea that they can love other people. They can talk to other people regardless of their ideologies and work things out, and that . . . at the end of the day, we’re all just . . . human. And we shouldn’t really be separating ourselves for no reason at all. Like we’re all pretty damn similar,” he says.

This mentality is a necessity for finding success. Specializing in a highly saturated genre is something different and difficult, and Aberdeen is working to form its very own niche.

“I mean, there’s plenty of duos out there, but kind of a lot of people think we’re a full band,” says Bolling. “We are a full band live on stage, but it’s pretty much just me and [Linder] behind the scenes working on everything. I think that’s pretty unique in the fact that we haven’t really had anybody help us a whole lot and we just kind of had to figure things out, like trial and error shit.”

Linder’s musical journey first began with the drums. Once he learned the drums, he began messing around in GarageBand, making EDM music. When he became a master of his craft in GarageBand, he moved on to even greater endeavors, learning how to create grunge rock music.

Linder says, “and that’s when I picked up a guitar. And then really when I met Matt [was] when I got an interface and started self-recording rock music together. And after a year or two of making horrible music together, we figured out how to make okay music together.”

This is how their first album, Lamb, came to fruition. Bolling says, “I was playing guitar for a lot longer and Jake was doing drums and other musical stuff,” and “it wasn’t ‘til 2020 when we really put out any music. So it was just kind of for fun, like, in his room—just like playing around on Logic Pro X, just making anything really.”

Now Bolling and Linder expressed how serious they are about turning this into an actual career. Linder explained, “we’re kind of in that middle section where we’re almost able to pay most of our bills and everything and live month-to-month just from music.”

But the duo seems to appreciate the struggle.

“My car doesn’t have [an] AC right now,” says Linder. “And it hasn’t for pretty much the whole year, and we live in Texas. And it’s hot! It’s very hot, and countless of other people have been through much worse. But that’s my point . . . I feel like I’m really good at just rolling with the punches and not fighting the current.”

Songs that can tell a riveting story, transporting listeners directly into the consciousness of the writer. Linder says, “I love songs that kind of take you into like a different head space . . . when it takes you to a different universe, or a place while you’re just sitting in class, or while you’re just doing something boring. Those songs are the best.”

He adds, “hopefully our band name serves as sort of the same metaphor, that like, all this shit that you’re going through is the story that you’re gonna be referencing a couple years from now . . . ‘at that moment that was the worst and best thing that happened to me,’ you know?”

On the topic of being such a new band, becoming known is one of the hardest first steps, and one of the best ways to establish an initial fanbase is to perform nearby and build an intimate connection with fans, which they have poured plenty of work into. So far, the story of Aberdeen is Dead feels inspiring. They have already made it pretty far in the industry—with successful concerts, a growing social media presence, and an ever-expanding community. This proves that artists can thrive in a cutthroat industry without the backing of insanely wealthy record labels, given enough determination.

Maybe it suggests rock can make a comeback. And, most importantly, it demonstrates music’s ability to bring people together, regardless of their beliefs, lifestyles, or identities; all they need to do is pick up a pair of headphones. This tale of two young musicians pursuing their dreams and overcoming obstacles proves that rock is, in fact, not dead; it’s just evolving.