Dan Campbell: A Character Study

by Dylan Hewitson-Bevis

A question I often bring up in music discussion is this: Should songwriters deserve the same amount of praise as storytellers and writers? Well, I have a follow up question that might answer that for you. Have you heard the tale of Aaron West?

Dan Campbell’s very own character, one of tragedy and not much comedy, stars centre stage in an album, follow up EP and single and spins us a story of love, loss and standing the fuck up even when the world tells you to stay down. While the similar vocal delivery and occasionally similar instrumentals may give it away, I don’t think you could be held accountable if you didn’t connect the dots between Campbell’s Aaron West project and his pop punk band The Wonder Years. The similarities stop at surface level. It’s once one digs deeper into Campbell’s subject matter, what he chooses to address and sing about with each project, is where the differences begin to get interesting.

Poster by Rob Mattsson

With both projects he plays a character, an exaggerated version of either himself, someone anonymous or possibly someone entirely fictional. One character is torn up by tragic divorce and the resulting despair and one is an upward-punching, fuck-the-man-and-his-dog-too suburbanite. There are parallels between the two characters that Campbell leaves us to uncover through lyrics, an underlying current of love and loss driving these two different fictional men forward. What I find most interesting about this is how both of these characters feel like actual, real extensions of Campbell, as if he were drawing from his real life rather than simply telling us a story.

This article will heavily focus on the Aaron West and the Roaring Twenties project, as Campbell has openly admitted to crafting some of the more personal lyrics found in Wonder Years songs around his own experiences, such as battles with his mental health and coping with the loss of friends to similar mental illnesses. The intriguing part behind the Aaron West project, however, is how ambiguous Campbell leaves the words he writes for it. We, the audience, are left to form our own opinions based on how Campbell sings and performs each track, what topics he covers and the anecdotes he creates. It’s up to us to decide whether Aaron West’s character is fact, fiction or a mix of both; Campbell mixing life stories with a bit of hyperbole or falsehood.

Artwork by Livvy Mitchell

My main focus here isn’t to expose Campbell using the Aaron West moniker as a vehicle for catharsis, but rather to highlight and compliment his genius. The Aaron West project still has me entirely stumped as to how much of it lays on both sides of the fact or fiction fence. It baffles me that a man can have so much intimate knowledge on a character and for it not to be an entirely first-person retelling of certain events.

It’s easy to tell a story, one of a man skipping his rent at a motel at 2am because he can’t afford it, or one of an unborn child tearing a marriage apart. it’s another task altogether to gift the audience with insight into the soul of West himself. The two examples above both come from songs featured on We Don’t Have Each Other, the debut album under the Aaron West name, and both heavily compliment their respective tales with lyrics that carve out a deeper understanding of West. We’re told that while he may be skipping out on his rent, it’s only because of his earlier encounter with a homeless man who made West feel pathetic and worthless. We’re told that while West’s marriage did in fact fall apart and the loss of a baby factored into this, so did the constant coughing fits caused by his smoking addiction.

It’s commendable that one man can use music as what it is, an art form. Campbell doesn’t craft stories, he paints them. He provides us with a highly detailed mosaic of stories and details interwoven to bring to life not just a character but a living, breathing man. Much as we commend storytellers such as Stephen King for conjuring up such vivid scenes of life and fantasy, I feel the same credit is deserved of such highly talented songwriters like Dan Campbell.