Today we’d like to introduce you to AJ Peacox.
Hi AJ, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I’m from San Diego, CA & went to USC for Pop Music Performance. When I graduated, I joined math-emo band Weatherbox (Triple Crown) on bass and started touring throughout North America. Through Weatherbox I met other bands that I toured with including Future Crooks (Bad Timing), Sundressed (Rude), Oso Oso (Triple Crown), & The Front Bottoms (Fueled By Ramen).
I met Mike Pepe while recording a Sundressed record, leading to frequent writing sessions. Since then I’ve written with multiple producers, artists, and have ran my own sessions, too. Some notable artists I’ve written with include Eve6, MOD SUN, Charlotte Sands, & others. I’ve had multiple releases with notable artists such as LiL Lotus, Olivver the Kid, Justus Bennetts, Jules Paymer, Sam Short, Kit Major, Tiny Stills, & various others. A full list of recent releases is on my website ajpeacox.com
My latest endeavor, the LP “We Really Felt Something” by Tiny Stills, is the first full album I produced, in addition to writing, recording, & performing. “We Really Felt Something” drops June 7th on our tour with Dikembe & Aren’t We Amphibians next month.
In 2020, I started a solo project called Glow & the Dark purely to relieve anxiety amidst the pandemic & BLM protests by doing something I love. I sent my only self-produced single “Sunshine is Boring” to Daniel Charlson of Dark Horse Coffee Roasters because I knew they had a small record label, Dark Horse Coffee Records. That partnership lead to the recording and release of the “Glow & the Dark” S/T EP and the single “I Don’t Want to Skate” in 2021, as well as my latest ep “holy shit” in 2022.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I consider myself incredibly lucky to have had the opportunity to tour, write, & play with some of my favorite artists in the world. The challenges I’ve faced are pretty typical for musicians these days; juggling touring & writing sessions with side hustles & part-time jobs to pay the bills, prioritizing mental health in a profession where there is no end to the work to be done, & trying to make a name for myself in a world where major labels, Spotify, LiveNation, & Ticketmaster have a chokehold on fair payment of royalties & ticket sales to songwriters & musicians. I’ve had labels promise to pay me for writing & recording songs for their artists, only to never hear from them again after they release the songs. Music can be a punishing industry, but it’s the only job that I love enough to endure.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Since the “end” of the pandemic, I’ve been engaged in daily writing sessions with artists from all over the world, including some of my favorite artists like Olivver the Kid, Tiny Stills, The Plain White T’s, Eve6, and dozens of others. Many of these songs have been released by artists such as “Nosebleeder” by LiL Lotus, the “Alligator Death Roll” EP by Olivver the Kid, “No Fun” by SENSES, & “Naked” by Jules Paymer, just to name a few.
I’m most proud of my upcoming LP with Tiny Stills, “We Really Felt Something,” which I co-wrote, recorded guitars, & produced. It comes out June 7th on our tour with Dikembe & Aren’t We Amphibians this June.
As a touring musician, the biggest highlights of my career were the two tours I did playing lead guitar in The Front Bottoms filling in for Erik Romero. I performed at the Champagne Jam in 2021 and 2022, as well as the tour dates surrounding them. The Front Bottoms are my favorite band, and they’re great friends of mine. Any opportunity to work with them has yielded some of the proudest moments of my career.
Co-writing with so many artists means you have to quickly learn & adapt to the styles of each individual writer. My project “Glow & the Dark” is my ultimate form of self-expression, breaking many of the conventional rules in my writing sessions. The songs can be as short as 90 seconds, with odd time signatures, instrumental choruses, amorphous song structures, & veiled lyrical content about anything from crashing bikes to breakup boxes. Anything I can’t get out in writing sessions is reserved for Glow & the Dark.
Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
I’d love for readers to check out the Glow & the Dark music videos, some of which I filmed and edited myself, others were filmed by the incredible Mikey Charlson of Dark Horse Coffee Records. They only have a few views, but they’re some of my favorite pieces of art I’ve been a part of.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.ajpeacox.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/glowandthedark
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@glowthedark2549/videos
- Other: https://dhcrrecords.com/band-glowandthedark
Image Credits
Main image by Candace Whalen (@backwardzrakker) Images 1-3 by Candace Whalen (@backwardzrakker) Images 4 & 5 by Geffen Shichor (@geffen_shichor) Images 6 & 7 by Ryan Levy @ryanlphotos Image 8 courtesy of Tiny Stills (@tinystills). Photo by John Corgi (@john_corgi), Album cover layout & editing by Dylan Wachman (@dylanwachman).
