Armed with a growing national fan base, 24-year-old singer-songwriter Ari Hest aims to tell his own story with his third effort, . The album, produced by David Rolfe (Burlap to Cashmere, Rufus Wainright), is a beautifully crafted travelogue of love, life and discovery. The collection of likable, shamelessly melodic tunes may not gratify those looking for the next Jeff Buckley, but is sure to satisfy fans of Jason Mraz and John Mayer. The Daily Cardinal recently spoke with Hest about songwriting, his influences and Leonard Cohen's \Hallelujah.""
When looking at your lyrics, it seems that you really try to tell a story when making your point instead of just saying something blatantly-there's really a vivid picture painted. Is that something that you try to focus on in the songwriting process?
Yeah. I don't write well when I haven't gone through whatever it is I'm writing about myself or at least when I am close to the situation. I don't write well when I'm writing about something that I'm imagining.
You write a lot of songs about love. What, in your opinion, is the perfect love song?
[Laughs] Man, I don't know what the perfect love song is in terms of something happy, in terms of good love, but I think that Leonard Cohen's ""Hallelujah"" is a song that to me is a great love song. It's about love that didn't really work, and I think that's the best song I've heard about love.
When you're writing a song, how does the idea come up? Do you sit down and say, ""I'm going to write another Ari Hest song,"" or do ideas come to you at random times?
They come to me at random times. The music sits with me for a while, and the lyric is the thing that comes at random times. I don't come up with things on the spot like some musicians might be able to do, but when something comes up you have to just go with it and start writing. Last winter I was on an airplane coming into Chicago and I felt the need to write so I wrote on a barf bag. It's a song that I've been working on and luckily there was something to write on, otherwise I would have been in trouble.
What is your personal favorite song on and why?
I think that my favorite song is probably ""When Everything Seems Wrong."" I'm very close to that song, and like I said, what I've written on the record is very much autobiographical, especially that song. Also, the chord changes within that song musically is some of the best stuff I've done. I'm happy with that one the most, probably.
Who are some of your main influences, and how, if at all, do you think they show up on the album?
Some of the main ones don't really show up as much. Rufus Wainright and Jeff Buckley are two big influences and you don't really hear any writing like theirs. At the same time, the way they inspire me is that I love their music so much that I want to be able to write as good of songs as theirs. The Beatles started me off on guitar. I was 15 or 16 years old and my mother played me some records and I got into playing guitar after that. And Paul Simon. There's a wide range of stuff.
There definitely seems to be a large mainstream singer-songwriter movement going on right now. Did you do anything in recording the album to try and distinguish yourself from that group?
You try not to get caught up in the trends when you're actually writing and recording things because you've got to stay true to what you're doing, and I look at making that record as trying to take a step forward for myself. I wasn't really thinking about how I would fit in with the rest of the singer-songwriter world. I wanted to use more instrumentation. I wanted to write better songs. I wanted to have better performances. That's all I was focused on, and that's what I think we did.
You've spent a lot of time on the road building a fan base. What's more enjoyable for you-recording in the studio or being on tour?
There's merits to both. I think touring is hard aside from the shows itself. The shows are great, to finally get to the end of the day and you can play music and let people be a part of that, which is really really fun. But recording is a totally different experience. You get to take your time a little more and be patient with what you're doing and make sure that every part is the way you want. If not, you can go back and do it again. Touring is just about being in the moment, doing your thing. I enjoy both.
Is there a grand scheme in your career? Is there anywhere you strive to be in five years?
Not really. Of course I'd be lying if I said that I didn't want to hear myself on the radio one day, but it's not like I have to or else something bad is going to happen. I'm really happy with the way things are going, and if they continue like this, then great. Otherwise, It'd be fun to see where it ends up. And that's why I keep doing what I'm doing.
What can we expect from you in the near future?
Well, that's a good question because I have recorded some new material. I don't know how it's going to be released yet. I have more songs that I haven't recorded that I haven't even played for my band yet or played for anybody yet. So I think I'm definitely with every record going to change a little bit, but it's still going to be my voice and my guitar, and maybe some piano. Who knows? I'm trying to get better at that. We'll see. I don't know when I'm going to have a new release, but I'm still touring in support of . We'll see what happens.
