Past Life

For nearly a decade starting in the 90s, Aaron Stroessner wrote, sang, and played guitar in the band Dead Left, playing regularly in New York City rock clubs CBGBs, the Continental, Pyramid, Spiral, Living Room, Knitting Factory, Arlene’s Grocery, Cutting Room, the Bitter End, Mercury Lounge and others. The band released four CDs, three of which are available online. Below are links to Spotify for:  A Wishful Life (1998), Dig This! (1999), and Up and Atom (2002).  All three releases feature Zeke Zima on guitar, Bob Roe on bass and Brian Delaney on drums.

At the time, A Wishful Life seemed to garner the most attention from college radio, music critics, and bigger labels, who categorized the sound as “Adult Alternative,” whatever that meant.  A Wishful Life is clearly a bit softer than the others. Aaron says that the artwork reflected that A Wishful Life was written for girls, while fan favorite Dig This! was written for boys, as in more distortion!  Aaron took on a lot of styles as a songwriter, describing the band at one point as “country-punk-grunge-pop”

Some songs from the Dead Left collection have resurfaced in other projects, but they are no longer a part of Aaron’s performing repertoire. In many ways, the spirit of Dead Left continues in Aaron’s newer compositions, tuneful melodies embodying a wide-ranging emotional and stylistic palette.