Coziness, Vulnerability, and Academia: A Conversation with aron!

Image Credit: Isabel Crist

Last week, I had the opportunity, thanks to °1824, to attend a press conference with aron!, an upcoming singer-songwriter who’s already making waves with over 300,000 monthly Spotify listeners and 160,000 Instagram followers. A recent graduate of the University of Miami, aron! is carving out a sound all his own, blending jazz, bedroom pop, and a touch of indie into something refreshingly original. It’s innovative, intimate, and unmistakably his. I was lucky enough to ask him a few questions about his latest EP, cozy you (and other nice songs), and more.

Q: The EP is called “cozy you (and other nice songs)”. What does ‘cozy’ mean for you emotionally, physically, or musically?

A: “Cozy goes with vulnerability. This is something that I was recently thinking about, because you can’t be cozy and be invulnerable at the same time. Cozy is your most comfortable. I was really cozy this morning when I was rolling around in my bed sheets. And I guess that was vulnerable. It’s interesting, it’s sort of a buzzword now. I wonder if the next project will have a new word…The mindful answer is vulnerability. For me, the non-mindful answer is the sound that I’m into right now. Who knows how long I’ll be the cozy boy?

Q: You recently graduated from the University of Miami–congrats! As an artist and student, how did you balance your career and your schoolwork? Has academia largely influenced the content of your music?

A: So, I went to music school, which was cool. Frost School of Music…I was talking to my parents recently, and apparently there was [a time] where I thought I was really cool…from 10 to 14…where I was anti-school because “I already knew everything! I don’t need teachers!” But I dropped out of that [mindset] when I got to college, and there were classes that really offered cool things. I think that for a lot of people, music school is much more than the curriculum, more than the classes, more than the teachers, even. It’s the friends you make along the way, and being forced into this bubble [where] everyone around you is making things, and you can join that, or not. And that was pretty exciting to join that community of people. But academia, I have a weird relationship with, but I used to love books…Music books specifically. I wanted to be a music theory person, and that was my first love, actually, before music. I just loved music theory. I loved the math of it, just figuring things out. And then I got into music after that. Academia is cool. I don’t know if I see myself as a professor at any point, but it’s cool stuff. 

In both his music and his words, aron! exudes a soft, quiet confidence. It's thoughtful, vulnerable, and entirely his own. He brings a kind of mindful sincerity to music that feels rare and new. As he looks ahead to newer projects and evolving his sounds, one thing is clear: aron! isn’t just chasing trends, but he’s crafting something personal, intentional, and lasting.