The Review Fix Exclusive: Aurin’s Andrew Wayne and Sarah Anderson Talk ‘Catharsis’

Review Fix chats with Aurin’s Andrew Wayne and Sarah Anderson, who discuss the band’s new album, “Catharsis,” which will be released by Pavement Entertainment via major music retailers on 10/14/14. Discussing everything from their origin to their goals and sound, Wayne and Anderson give us an inside look at what makes the band tick.

Review Fix: What do you think makes Aurin a special band?

Andrew Wayne: A couple of things actually. Aurin has an 50% male to female ratio. Sarah Anderson is on vocals while Linda Medina is on drums. Andrew Wayne is on guitars/background vocals while Joe Palamara is on bass. A comment that we get frequently which is one of our favorites is that fans tell us we are a “female rock group so strong in what we do that we can hold our own with the male dominated world of rock.” Not just our lyrics, but the way the music is written itself is intended to portray suffering from mental illness, losing people to it, bullying, poverty, etc…Music has saved each and every one of our lives and when Andrew originally formed this group, he wanted to make sure that he could convey to future listeners that they are not alone in this world, that there is always a light at the end of that tunnel. We strive as a band to connect to our audience on a very personal level. We hope that we can reach people with our music and have it help them just like music has helped all of us.

Review Fix: What kind of challenges have you guys faced throughout your lives and how have they helped you become better musicians?

Sarah Anderson: We all come from different walks of life. Some of us have grown up surrounded by and/or struggling with our own mental illnesses for instance. If you add poverty, bullying, and low self-esteem into the mix, you start to create the recipe of what would eventually become our music. Music gave us an outlet, a point of focus you could say, to be able to purge and convey our emotions through art to the listener. Hence, the reason for the title of our up-coming album “Catharsis” that drops on 10/14/14.

Review Fix: Who do you think will enjoy this album the most?

Wayne: We feel fans of hard rock, especially from that of the 1990s and early 2000s would be a prime target. But, our music is very diverse and has various different influences. We have been told many times by people of all ages and backgrounds that they were able to appreciate and value our music.

Review Fix: How was “Stained” written? Is there a story behind it?

Anderson: Stained was written between Sarah (lyrics) and Andrew (music) acoustically first before it was brought to the band to work out everything that would make it into the song it is today. Yes, there is a story behind it, but we typically do not like to divulge much of or all of the details because we hope that every listener could be able to take away a different meaning that means something special to them. On the surface though, it is about someone who has gone down a very dark path with their own struggles who uses substances to try to find a way out, but only digs themselves in deeper.

Review Fix: What song on the album do you think is most indicative of your sound?

Wayne: That’s really hard to say as we try to write whatever we feel. That could be anger, sadness, rebellion, and even contemplation or an outside perspective of milestone type events. We don’t think there is just one song where you can go “yep, that’s Aurin’s style.” But, at the same time, we write in such a way that you will know us when you hear it.

Review Fix: What did you learn about yourselves through the creation of this album?

Anderson: We learned that it was okay and even fun to explore different avenues of the creative process. We also realized during writing that we were able to travel further down the proverbial rabbit hole and bring forth some of the darker things in our lives that previously we had not been able to or maybe even willing to access.

Review Fix: How do you want this album to be remembered?

Wayne:  As something that people really enjoyed listening to, but ultimately as something people were able to connect to on a very deep and personal level. If it helped at least one person, then we believe we’ve done our job. Help does not come easy, it never did, and if we can affect just one person in a positive way, it would mean the world to us.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14316 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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