June 29, 2008
Welcome, new visitor! My name is Ari, the man behind Aries9. Here I share my thoughts on music and life, so you can get to know me and my music. Thanks for visiting!There is a charity organization called Songs of Love.
It’s an organization who enlists songwriters, and invite children struggling with major illnesses [...]
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June 25, 2008
I’m a pretty unique individual. But yesterday’s post made me think about how I still don’t know how to use my assets.
It’s like owning great tools that you don’t have the manuals for.
One such asset I have is the fact that I am Japanese. I am completely bilingual, both linguistically and culturely.
There aren’t many successful [...]
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June 25, 2008
All of us do this to some extent.
To show the sides of our personalities that are appropriate in any given situation.
You may not swear as often in the company of your parents or grandparents.
Or maybe you do.
On your best behavior on your date? Or talk trash on stage, between songs, like you’ve seen [...]
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June 23, 2008
I wrote about this before, but I’ve been rather surprised by how different my listening choices have become, now that outside is sunny and warm.
In Flames and other heroic, aggressive, heavy music gave way to gentle, optimistic and comforting music, like Sarah McLachlan.
The change is so drastic that I find myself wanting to load my [...]
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June 22, 2008
Derek Sivers is a celebrity in the indie music world.
He’s the founder of CDbaby.com.
He recently released a free e-book for self-promoting musicians. I downloaded and read it, and understood why he succeeded.
The man is a genius.
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June 18, 2008
I know, labels aren’t what matters when it comes to music.
But I just realized that I have all forgotten about the term “hard rock.” When I described my liking of heavy music, I generally use the term “metal.”
But really, I can’t say my music is metal. There are bits and pieces influenced by [...]
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June 17, 2008
It’s been my observation that lyricists write about whatever his/her primary concern is.
Well, of course, that makes sense. We don’t feel compelled to write about something that’s not on our mind, do we?
Now, I don’t know if there’s been any formal studies done on it, but I would say in popular music, love, or [...]
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June 16, 2008
I’ve noticed that now that it’s gotten warmer, I’m listening to a lot more of mellower music.
Not as much metal. More of folkier music and “sunny day rock.”
One of the way I think of music is that it’s a sound track to the movie that is your life.
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June 13, 2008
My heart goes out to the victims of the recent Akihabara stabbing spree in Tokyo.
Like the school shootings in US, the random acts of violence are on the rise in Japan.
This is turning into a vicious cycle. It goes like this:
A freaky murder/tragedy happens
Media goes frenzy over the coverage, scrutinizing everything
Government or community officials [...]
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June 11, 2008
Obviously, the most powerful thing about songs, as opposed to plain music, is the marriage of music and words.
When they work in cohesion, there’s nothing more powerful.
But that doesn’t happen that often, at least in my opinion. Rock n roll with filled with fluffy lyrics that really don’t capture the life-affirming force their music [...]
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