London's Aaron Wallis gives us a look at the DIY punk scene

Header image for Interrobang article CREDIT: DARAGH HAYES
Aaron Wallis shredding it on bass during a Manager set.

Aaron Wallis hails from the town of St. Thomas, 20 minutes south of London. The musician, having moved from the small town after high school, is now an active member of London’s DIY punk scene.

Playing bass in the three-piece noise rock outfit Manager for the past year, Wallis is also credited in Supervisor (Manger’s “B” band), a multimember project in Toronto by the name of All Girl Knife Fight, his own solo noise project I Benign since 2007, as well as picking up the guitar for hard-core group Poison Spur. In addition, Wallis is credited for the graphic design and artistic content in most of the bands he plays in.

But despite the vast output Wallis doesn’t think of himself as outgoing.

“I like to be helpful but I don’t like to be too involved because being too involved can be annoying.”

If anything he credits himself as boring, “I kind of just do what needs to get done... I want to draw as little attention as possible, that’s kind of my thing.”

When asked about his favourite venues in the city to watch and play shows at, Wallis was quick to answer with two of the cities smaller venues.

“I really like Vibrafusion because it is so eclectic and they let anybody play, there’s selective venues in this town where if you want to play a [hip hop] set you’re probably not going to be allowed to [but Vibrafusion] they let you do anything, and Out of Sound House is really good for that too.”

Aaron added that the environment in both is comfortable with supportive staff, which made both independently run venues better.

The Vibrafusion Lab played host to a music festival over the previous two summers called Collateral Jamage, which Wallis said was his favourite memory of London’s music scene.

“They literally brought out 90 per cent of the London music scene because there was such an eclectic mix of music, I think both of those fests were just great.”

Both Vibrafusion and Out of Sound have played host to Wallis’ favourite local groups as well, which he stated were the Syndrome, I Smell Blood and Child Leash.

Wallis was vocal in support for Child Leash.

“We play with them all the time, they are insanely supportive of everything we do, no matter how weird it is or how loud it gets, they’re always there.”

Wallis echoed the same sentiments for the Syndrome.

“Great members, great band, an insane live band…and they’re nice people, that gets you far.”

When talking to Wallis, a theme central to being respected in London’s music scene was about the attitude you bring.

“This town is great because you can really make it far if you’re not a dick, it’s just super easy to make it if you’re not a curmudgeon”

Playing live shows for the last half of his life, Wallis said the stress and anxiety of a musician’s life is no longer an issue.

“I’ve always had a very strong sense of ‘the show must go on’… I know what to expect, so I know how to prepare for it now, I had to go through a lot to get that, but now every thing’s pretty smooth because I know what to do.”