 Hip Hop music is everywhere. Today, it's starting to seem like everybody rhymes or makes beats. Despite all this, it's not hard to distinguish Arson Optics from the crowd. Start with the fact that Arson was performing in clubs alongside major acts by the age of 15. He dropped his first full length album at the age of 16, and by then accumulated enough buzz to earn him a spot in the second largest music festival in the world (SXSW). Whoa. Too much to swallow? Let's start from the beginning. Arson Optics, real name Aaron Krueger, was born in Pittsburgh, PA in 1984. Raised by a musician & music lover, the pulse of rhythm was genetically encoded in the infant. Coming up, Arson was exposed to his father's jam sessions in the basement, and constant recording at the house. His pops would claim Arson made his first recording at age 2. Experimenting with an old Roland drum machine, and his vocal chords, it is not hard to see where his talents were honed. At age 8, Arson moved with his family to Austin, TX. As Arson continued to progress as a musician, he began studying the drum set and percussion in general. He was labeled a prodigy on the kit by prominent local musicians, and became proficient enough to eventually recieve scholarships to Boston's Berklee College of Music. But that's getting ahead of ourselves. "I always loved playing the drums," a confident Arson Optics notes, "but I always pictured myself in the spotlight." It was around 1998 when Arson overran his dad's Alesis keyboard, and began crafting some of his first compositions. "My first album was Life, Rhythm" Arson remembers, "Those were some of my very first recordings as an MC." The ATX Hip Hop community easily spotted a budding talent in the young artist, and embraced his music. "I started doin tons of shows, I was about 15, and that really started sharpening my skills." Improving with each set, Arson followed up his debut with the impressive Based On A True Story. "That album showed a lot of growth," says Arson, "in the production and in the rhymes. I was speaking on some real shit, I still had some tongue & cheek joints on there, but overall it let people know that I was really doin it." Local college radio picked up on the album, and it remained in top 40 rotation. The album also marked the birth of a relationship between Arson and local MC veteran Mirage. "He had been hearing some things about me, and just reached out." Arson humbly states. "I was flattered, and invited him to come through the studio." The result was one of the album's stand outs, "Hold Us Down". The duo had an immediate chemistry, and it wasn't long before they were in the studio recording Mirage's comeback album, Bonafide. "After we did Mirage's record, we were in the same veign. It only made sense to form the group." The group Arson is speaking of is Soul Odyssey. It was the official incorporation of Mirage & Arson Optics. The two have been in the studio ever since, cooking up an ecclectic, soulful offering of Hip Hop music due out early 2004. The album is rightfully entitled, The Offering. |
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