Canada’s metal queen Lee Aaron should qualify as coolest mom ever for the Tom Boy video she made with her daughter.
Aaron’s bespectacled offspring plays the guitar, while her teen friends from a Vancouver fine arts school, fill in the rest of the band in the music video.
Aaron, who performs on July 1 at the outdoor Mudfest at the Tail Creek Race Way in Nevis, said she wasn’t thinking about being a female role-model when she wrote the song. She was just fulfilling a promise she made to her daughter a few years ago, when she was 10.
“She was a tomboy and she asked me to write a song for her. You can’t make a promise to a child and not deliver,” she added. (Her daughter is now 13, is in the eye-rolling stage of adolescence. “It’s sad,” said Aaron, who feels she lost her cool mom status — at least temporarily.)
But she likes that the tune from her latest Fire and Gasoline album celebrates the carefree self-confidence and boundless energy that young girls possess — before they become body conscious and paranoid about what others think of them.
Aaron said she’d like her musical daughter to know “you can grow up and be a strong woman. I’d like her to follow her dreams, but to balance that with family because that’s what I’ve tried to do — although it’s been a struggle.”
Aaron was on a field trip to a water park with her 11-year-old son when she squeezed in this phone interview. She is married to John Cody, the drummer in her band.
During her 34-year-recording career, The Brampton,. Ont. native has gravitated between hard rock, blues and jazz, peppered with pop. Fire and Gasoline is the first recording of new material she’s put out since her kids were born.
Aaron draws on past relationships for some of her song themes. “I’m fascinated by the psychology, now that I’m older and wiser…” She feels her music has benefited because “I’m not putting as many filters on myself.”
Aaron is eager to perform at Central Alberta’s Mudfest, saying outdoor festivals “have a different energy. People are more carefree… and it usually turns out to be a pretty family-friendly environment because people are camping with their kids.”
For more information about tickets, please visit tailcreekraceway.ca.