Aidan Puntes' Prosodic Proficiency

Aidan Puntes’ in Parting is a poetic act. It’s a relatable, true portrait of all that is human and real. It’s a heart on display. In my conversation with Puntes about his debut album (first of many, he adds), it took only a minute for me to realize his brain is just as memorable as any one of his songs.

With the pleasure of autumn and company, 19-year-old singer-songwriter Aidan Puntes and I sat in front of the church while I picked his brain to find the roots of his creative process. in Parting was an ambitious project for the artist, who started the writing process in the fall of 2022, began recording in March of 2023 and released the record on September 20th. Puntes took on the role of writer, engineer, and producer for this project, using both the Horn Gallery and his New York City apartment on Ninth Street as musical caves. For the songwriter, this is symbolic of his relationships with Ohio and New York. “The primary songs, the first six or seven songs, were all done in that way. Drums in the Horn, guitar at home… which is nice because it represents life, you know? It’s split up between Ohio and New York, and so is the sound.”

Puntes’ creative process is heavily informed by this split between two places, which takes the listener on an introspective journey as the album plays out. The artist chose “Dim” as an overture, an emotional framework of sorts, and then balanced sonic and lyrical ideas as he dove further into the record. The earlier songs were recorded in the Horn, where Puntes held ambitious ideas for drums and guitar effects, and the final songs were birthed in New York, where Puntes noted he “made it more about the songs than the instrumentation.”

Every aspect of this record-making process was stained by this physical dichotomy. Though Puntes joked with me about being two different people, it’s an honest representation of what he put into this project considering how he played the roles of both writer and producer for “in Parting”. The production process found Puntes often toiling over a single song, alone, as was the case for “Dim.” He spoke of recording hundreds of takes, which led to a bit of dissociation from the emotion of the song. “At one point or another I have to disconnect a little bit and be like ‘Oh, I want this to be louder.’... I’ve probably heard [the songs] 500 times.” His role as a performer is similar. “I create faces that I think make the sound, so I think about the singing technique a little more than the emotion when I’m [performing].” In this way, Puntes is a bit of a sonic perfectionist, but he’s heavily affected by lived emotions and his production methods reflect this. “When I have [a song] polished and everything is done, I put it on and it makes me sad. Which is good because that was the goal. It retrieves the emotions for me.”

Outside of his role as producer, Puntes is a singer-songwriter who pours his heart into art. Songwriting is akin to therapy for him. The heart-wrenching poetry of this record is made all the more impactful by this medicinal nature of creation. It keeps the album, and the artist, genuine despite all the technical work. In Puntes’ songwriting process, he sets up a voice memo and starts fiddling with an original guitar lick. Emotions purge and lyrics form as he plays. These lyrics are rarely edited after they’re sung. “I usually write a song in one sitting, and honestly, it comes at inconvenient times sometimes. Like, over the summer I wrote another tune that will come out later where I had a buddy who I was supposed to meet but for the last ten minutes before we were supposed to meet, I’d started a song. I was like “Oh my god, like, it’s going. It’s going.” I was late to our whole thing… I’ve written songs many ways, but the songs I think are my favorite, or my best work, are ones that were started and finished without doing something else in between.” Puntes notes that his best songs start with a line from one of his poems. Using this line and building upon it, once Puntes starts rhyming atop his guitar he’ll continue until the song feels finished.

When asked to describe the lyric “I don't care/If the trees don't know you/I imagine that they do” from “A Love Deferred – Ninth Street Sessions,” Puntes said “I hear that and I close my eyes, and I’m there. That was in the living room [on Ninth Street]. The apartment is on the fourth story, and there’s a fire escape. I was sitting there and I was writing that song. I was like, ‘damn this song is so nice,’ but I wanted to end it. I looked out at the trees, and I was like ‘That’s it.’ I saw them waving and I was feeling nostalgic for that person. I imagined that they were aware of that, what I was feeling. That was why they were moving in the particular way that they were – because they knew.”

A lot of Puntes’ intentions come from his past and inform his future, as he tethers himself to familial values and memories to craft an artistic vision for himself. “My biggest influence is my father, in terms of music. I feel like every child has a desire to, if they didn’t like what their parents did, do something opposite, or to do ‘better’ than their parents did at that. I want to have, well I do have, an album that’s out on a way more accessible platform than I have for him. So, that’s nice to feel that.” When asked why he decided to take himself seriously as an artist, Puntes said “The fact that [my grandchild] could hear me and my voice [now] and see me when I’m old… that would be crazy. Because if my grandfather had music when I was a kid I would eat that shit up. I kinda expect that pattern to continue in my family, and so I want that. Once I’m dead, it’s nice that this will not be dead, ever”

These philosophical phrasings were common throughout our conversation. Puntes would mundanely say things like “I’ve learned in a lot of ways how to be happy alone. I’ve learned that you can feel a sense of union, or togetherness… then, you can also feel lonely. My prognosis of late has been that you can feel both of those with people and by yourself,” or in poetic meditations like “ One of my favorite things is to look up at a tree, underneath it. Later in the day, when you can look up and the sun is not in your view but the tree is, that’s great. I’ll just stare at it for a long time.”

Rereading these quotes, it’s clear that Puntes is an artist grounded in a wide array of thematic ideas that come straight from the heart, complex but pure. Whether it be writing the songs or producing them, Puntes has tapped into a genuine expression that’s rare to find at his age, an achievement made all the more impressive by his status as a full-time student and part-time worker at Kenyon. This makes listening to the record a rewarding, introspective experience. If you find yourself needing quiet validation and a poetic pastime, in Parting is the record for you.