After college Aaron moved back to San Diego. He soon realized that a friend had borrowed his first guitar while he was at school and it had been stolen. His friend took him to Buffalo Brothers to replace the guitar and it was here that he saw a resonator guitar (or Dobro) and thought it would be fun to try one. Soon after he joined a country rock band (The Western Set) and played with them between 2009-2012 with several musicians from San Diego's hardcore scene. It was during this time that Aaron decided to make the move to pedal steel guitar after seeing Brawley and Dave Berzansky at Bar Pink in North Park (now Part Time Lover). Within a month or two Aaron was playing the pedal steel with the Western Set and also began recording for other bands on the dobro and pedal steel.

Around 2013, Aaron had other life events that took him away from the steel guitar and music in general. Around 2018 he started playing backup acoustic guitar with fiddler and banjo player Clinton Davis who had just started focusing on Old Time music (following his time with G Burns Jug Band). During the pandemic in 2020 Aaron took out his pedal steel that had been in the garage more or less since 2013.

In the spring of 2021 Aaron would get a cold call from the music director at Moonshine Flats asking if he would join their house band on pedal steel gigging regularly. This was the calling that started quite a fire and turned his life direction around where he would leave his career of 15 years to focus on the steel guitar. He would play with various country bands and Americana acts in the San Diego area for a few years. In the spring of 2024, Aaron would have a foot injury that temporarily stalled his pedal steel playing. That opened the opportunity for him to pick up the lap steel guitar and begin his next life as a steel guitarist in the Hawaiian, exotica/tiki, jazz arena.

Since the spring of 2021, Aaron has performed and recorded with dozens of bands, played over 400 gigs (as of October 2026).

San Diego Music Awards
Alex Bergan - Unpromised Land - Winner, Best Folk or Acoustic Song (2024)
Midway - Silver Linings - Nominee, Best Country or Americana Album (2024)
Birdy Bardot - Nominee, Best Pop (2015)
​The Midnight Pine - Awake Now - Winner, Best Local Recording (2013)