August-September 2019 • Nebraskaland 35
"We would work and then spend 3 or 4 hours
a day practicing. It was a big commitment,"
Aaron said, "I toured and made money, had a
record deal." For 12 years, this was Aaron's life
in Seattle.
Then an opportunity to go to New York
presented itself, and Aaron and April moved
to Brooklyn to continue to play music
professionally. The restaurant business was
always there by default – the band toured as
much as six months out of the year – and it
was the kind of job that suited a musician's
Schroder shot this rooster pheasant in January 2015 on
Dakota County CRP ground.
schedule. For a time, Aaron worked at Mario Batali's Lupa.
"So many people opened up doors and we continued to play,"
Aaron said. "I remember we were touring in Scotland, and some
musicians from Germany were discussing why we were doing
what we were doing. One guy said, 'It's just adventure. I want
adventure.' And it just struck me," Aaron said. "That's the whole
root of why we're doing this."
It wasn't about the money – there was never really much of that.
Instead, playing music was a cheap way to travel and be away
from work. It was a way to go overseas to "meet interesting people
and have crazy experiences."
Then one day, Aaron walked away. A nearly 20-year obsession
– gone.
"I was getting older, and then a light came on," Aaron said. "Jeez,
I was 34 or 35 at the time, and I had been recording and touring
since I was 19. When we arrived at JFK, right then, I knew I was
done. I took my guitar off the airplane and I was like 'I don't need
to do this anymore. I feel satisfi ed.' "
After that, Aaron was free to do what he wanted, and around
the same time, April fi nished her classes at Columbia. The couple
lingered in New York a while longer to fi gure out their next move.
The pivotal moment came when his father-in-law John called
Aaron to go pheasant hunting.
"John is a big outdoorsman and he always called me up to say,
'take me pheasant hunting in Nebraska,' but I never did. I grew up
hunting in Iowa and had dogs, but stopped when I moved away. I
hadn't done it in such a long time."
Finally free from a life of band practice and touring, Aaron took
up John's invitation. He called his uncle Donny in Iowa to set up a
