Aaron Frazer Announces New ‘Corners’ EP

Aaron Frazer releases his six-track EP Corners today via Dead Oceans.

When Frazer released his first solo album, Introducing…, in January 2021, circumstances for musicians were very different. He was taking a break from his longtime band Durand Jones & The Indications while much of the country remained under COVID-safety lockdowns.

“My first solo album, it was super cool to put it out at a time when there wasn’t actually a ton of other music coming out — and so it spent a lot of time in the spotlight,” Frazer says of the 2021 LP produced by Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys. Since then, Frazer has released two Indication albums and a second solo set.

Frazer draws musical inspiration from soul, R&B, funk, disco, and hip-hop. Although he is a prolific artist, he wanted to slow down for his latest collection, which delves deeper into the rhythmic roots of the 1960s and 1970s.

“My initial plan was just to put out 12 singles — because I feel a certain level of, I guess, frustration that when you look at album streams, and you take away the singles, you see a linear decline from the first song to the last song,” he explains. “People don’t finish albums, and the stuff that I put on the at the end of albums, I don’t put it there because it’s my least favorite.”

Corners runs for 19 minutes and is led by the groovy slow-jam single “It’s a Shame” and the call-and-response ballad “Paint a Picture.” The EP serves as an experiment in releasing independent music during the streaming era. “That’s the other thing that’s so hard about trying to tweak any sort of formula – there is no control group. Every single variable is changing all the time,” Frazer states.

Frazer chose not to alter his sound. While his other projects explore various genres, Corners centers on the style he knows best. Like the recent 2025 Indications album, Flowers, the EP steps away from modern flourishes to focus on the simplicity and sincerity of vintage soul.

“Rather than always pushing into a new chapter, I wanted to go deep and see if I can put the lessons that happen through this iterative process of an album cycle, apply them to the thing that is at the core of what I do, which is late 60s into 70s soul music,” Frazer notes. “It’s like how people say, ‘It takes a lifetime to learn how to paint like a child.’ You start, and you have this totally free sense of exploration, and then you learn, and then you’re like, ‘Oh God,’ and then you’re in a box for a while. Then you can come out the other side and realize you can make simple choices and the simple things can be elegant.”

Frazer styled the visuals for Corners to match the same era. Acknowledging that he has never considered himself a dancer, he collaborated with director and choreographer Camryn Eakes on all three music videos for the project, taking private dance lessons with Eakes to learn the routines.

“I’ve spent my entire musical life on my butt,” jokes Frazer, who primarily plays drums. “Soul culture is super laid back. It not super high energy. There’s an aloofness sometimes, so to be vulnerable and do a box step or whatever, it’s something that has been missing. It’s nice to fill in some of the corners of this chapter of soul music that aren’t being addressed.”

For the videos, he drew inspiration from The Hy Lit Show, a nationally syndicated dance program that Frazer describes as a public access version of Soul Train. Frazer and Eakes reviewed numerous old recordings to replicate details such as lighting effects, wardrobe, 1970s tube cameras, and lip-syncing.

“I’ve spent a decade watching these videos, and then all of a sudden, I’m in one, which is fun,” Frazer concludes. “It’s not avant-garde, pushing art into like new territories. I’m just a student, and I love to learn.”

Aaron Frazer’s Corners EP is out today via Dead Oceans.