Aeon Station

Aeon Station is the solo project of New Jersey musician and former Wrens member Kevin Whelan. Known for their smart, melodic indie rock, the Wrens released a trio of well-received albums in the '90s and early 2000s. During the years after their acclaimed 2003 album The Meadowlands, the Wrens struggled to complete a follow-up, leading Whelan to eventually go solo. Repurposing his contributions to the Wrens' scrapped fourth LP, he added several new songs and made his debut as Aeon Station with 2021's Observatory. Along with his brother guitarist Greg Whelan, drummer Jerry MacDonald, and singer/guitarist Charles Bissell, Kevin Whelan achieved a sort of cult status in the indie world. Beleaguered by label issues, missed opportunities, and poor timing, the Wrens earned a reputation as a band whose success never lived up to their critical adoration. After their third LP, The Meadowlands, received nearly universal praise, the group spent the next decade laboring over a follow-up that never quite materialized. Despite signing with Sub Pop in 2013 and delivering a fully mastered record, Bissell ultimately pulled out; he wanted more time to work on his songs. Whelan, meanwhile, had already signed off on his contributions. The situation continued to deteriorate until the decade's end when Whelan decided to pull the plug and make his own album from the bones of his unreleased Wrens material. Naming his new project Aeon Station, Whelan reworked the songs he'd intended for the scrapped Wrens album and wrote several new ones. Released by Sub Pop in late 2021, Observatory features Whelan's former bandmates Greg Whelan and Jerry MacDonald on several tracks.
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