Aarktica came into being in 1998 after the band's one constant member, Jon DeRosa (the singer , guitarist, bassist etc for the band) permanently lost hearing in one ear. This loss eventually became less of a handicap and more of a new way of listening. Aarktica became a way for him to execute his new life in mono. The first album No Solace in Sleep was recorded on a dying 4-track cassette recorder in various NYU dorm rooms and released on Silber Records in 2000. Following this came Morning One (an out of print EP). For their next release Aarktica signed to Darla Records and released Or You Could Just Go Through Your Whole Life and Be Happy Anyway followed by Bliss Out v.18 in 2002 and Pure Tone Audiometry in 2003.

The music combines lo-fi electro, shoegaze and modern ambient into a sort of drone pop hybrid. DeRosa calls it "atmospheric pop." Initially a solo project the band gradually evolved into a collective with a revolving membership that has recently included Chris Carrico, Greta Cohn, James Duncan, Mike Pride and Seth Misterka.

The band's fourth full-length, Bleeding Light was released in April 2005 on Darla Records and their latest Matchless Years as released in November, 2007. The project moved from New York to Southern California in 2007.

We started talking about the guitars DeRosa uses.

"I'm not the guitar horse I used to be. Mostly because I can't afford it, and also because I have moved around a lot and these things get broken, stolen, dented, damaged. I pretty much only play a Gibson Nighthawk these days. I picked it up about five years ago and have played it exclusively ever since," he says. "I like it because -- well, for one it looks very cool and no one really plays these models. They only made them for a few years, weren't particularly popular for whatever reason, but I think they're great. It's got a great tonal range, it's really diverse, and it has the playability of a Les Paul, but it's much lighter and a little smaller."

There were three versions of the Nighthawk, the Standard, Custom and the Special (plus some special editions). The Special was special in that it was the cheapest of the models (mainly due to decoration rather than function). The guitars were also unique because of the push in tone knob on some versions. This allowed a player to switch from the normal Gibson Humbucker sound -- when the knob was pushed in--to a single coil sound when the knob was pulled out. Some liken this to making your Gibson sound like a Fender by pulling knob. These models were discontinued in 1999.

When Aarktica first started the recording was mainly DeRosa himself. Eventually, as most will, he began to find this limiting.

"In the studio I was pretty much playing everything myself, and live it was just me, or me and one other person. Sometimes [it was] me and a minidisc player or laptop. And that was limiting, sometimes interesting and different, but I felt it wasn't doing the songs justice. I used to feel guilty. Because as a fan of live music, I think the spark happens on stage when you have several people mentally synced up with one another making magic happen, " he says. "Not one person playing thin renditions, skeletons of what the songs could be. And as I finally started to find my sound over the years which really started happening in 2003 when I started using LESS effects pedals and including MORE live instruments, and scoring for horns/strings. I realized that the only way to make the live shows exciting and interesting and worthwhile to me was to have six or seven people on stage playing everything live. And so the shows during the Bleeding Light-era (2005-2006) were like this and among the best I've ever played with any project."

When recording these days DeRosa has a secret piece of gear -- a producer. In this case, Charles Newman.

"He's great. Even though I went to school for Music Technology and have a lot of input on the recording process, I am an advocate of having someone you trust around to do the recording for you or with you. I just think it helps you get outside yourself a little. I can't hear out of my right side, so mixing has always been tough for me," he says. "I've worked with Charles since I lost my hearing (we used to play in a band called Flare together), and so we kinda have a good relationship and friendship and have learned how each other hears things."

DeRosa's pedals, like his guitars, have been reduced in number since the early days of the band. As you go one in music you can either acquire more and more or realize it is more practical, in some cases, to scale back.

"Right now, I primarily use a ProCo Turbo Rat, an Akai Headrush, a Line 6 Delay modeler, an Alesis Nanoverb and a Gibson digital Echoplex. When at home, and if I'm just playing clean, I'll play out of my 1970 Fender Vibrochamp -- best sounding small amp in the world," says DeRosa. "For live, I used to play out of a Fender Deluxe (new model), but I recently sold that during my move from NYC to California and am in search of something new."

DeRosa says that there are probably better effects than he has but that he uses what he uses because of the ever present issue facing all musicians who do not live in their mom's basement -- money vs. usability. How well does it work for the money? How well does it hold up over time?

"I've always liked these pedals/units. In the early Aarktica days, where I was doing really slow, droned out, ambient guitar pieces," he says. "I'd be using all different weirdo units and shit guitars and effects to get cool sounds. And eventually, when I started writing more 'song'-oriented pieces, I realized that all these pedals were just creating noise in the signal chain and giving me anxiety during live shows (i.e., they work during soundcheck and not during the performance 10 minutes later)."

DeRosa says the Echoplex is his most trusted piece because he uses it to write.

"I loop the chord progression and write a horn part over it," says DeRosa. "Or loop the bassline and write the chords over it. It's great."

DeRosa is starting a new, heavier, project in California called Indian Creatures. He hopes to release the soundtrack to a film he scored (Apology) in 2008 following the release of the film.