Ari Hest planning to make his mark as he plays Campbell’s

Brooklyn-based songwriter Ari Hest plays Campbell’s Tavern this Saturday, April 20. Last year the singer, whose music spans the folk-rock genre, released his seventh album, The Fire Plays, which he feels is his best so far.

“I think any artist would say that right after they release an album that it’s their best,” he says. “I feel that for a couple of reasons. One is that it’s the newest material, so I guess it’s the truest music to the way I feel about life.

“But also I think years and years of songwriting have made me hone in on what my strengths are, and what my weaknesses are. Finding out the spots where I need to get rid of this line, or emphasise that one.”

The Fire Plays opens with the line ‘I want to do right by my mistakes’, taken from the song Untitled Part 2. Was Ari looking back when he wrote those lyrics?

“I wrote it in the first person but I was thinking about an inmate in a jail,” he says. “I had just passed this jail on the way to a gig, and I started to think about what it’s like to live in that particular space; what someone mentally has to deal with who’s just stuck there, and wishes he could get out but knows what he did was wrong. He’s come to a peaceful place with it but still is stuck there. I was thinking about that more than myself.”

In 2008, Ari, whose influences range from Bob Dylan to the Beatles, James Taylor and Pearl Jam, embarked on an undertaking known as The 52 Project. Every week, he would write, record and release a new song, which he sent to people on a subscribers list. Did he feel under pressure that year, or did he enjoy himself?

“Both!” he laughs. “There was certainly pressure, but it was self-imposed. I got into a groove with it; I really enjoyed it. After about the 20th week or so, I started to look forward to it more. Instead of ‘oh, I’ve got to write another song’. It was more so ‘I’m excited about what’s going to happen next week’

“As it went on, it got a little bit more experimental as regards instrumentation and production. I think it was good for me, and I think when I stopped it set me back some. I had to re-learn how to write a little bit.”

Surely, with such a project, there must have been some concerns about quality control?

“I came to term with the knowledge that there was no way that I was going to get through 52 weeks without writing some duds,” Ari says. “There were going to be a few in there that was not really what I was hoping for. That knowledge helped me and it took a little pressure off.”

One of the highlights from this year-long workshop was Cranberry Lake, a duet with LA based singer Amy Kuney.

“We wrote that song together,” Ari says. “I sent her the music and she wrote the bulk of the lyrics. So she came up with Cranberry Lake. In America, there’s a few different Cranberry Lakes that I’ve come across, some of them are similar to what she describes, and then some of them, not at all!”

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.