August 18, 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!I’m half way through reading a book called “Song Man” by Will Hodgkinson. This is a sequel to a book [...]
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July 15, 2008
This morning I was listening to System of a Down — and was tapping into the feelings of music. It was a great outlet. Serj Tankian has such an articulate voice. It’s so sharply focused — it’s like a heavy hammer, but it’s engineered and balanced so perfectly, that anyone can use it to hit [...]
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July 13, 2008
This week, I had a chance to reconnect with one of my close friends from high school, Fred, on the phone.
Since graduation, we had spoken once over the phone during college. Considering that, we enjoyed a great conversation — it was amazing how we still related to each other after all these years. It appeared [...]
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July 8, 2008
It’s one of my pet peeves. It used to be worse in the 80’s but it still happens often enough in pop music.
Fading out a song at the end.
There are millions of ways to begin a song. The most common way is to play a riff or the main chord progression — sometimes [...]
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June 30, 2008
Yesterday, I had a peer mentoring session with a good friend of mine who’s looking for a job.
And in the conversation, I realized that there’s a huge common ground between job hunting and promoting a band.
It’s all about identity.
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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 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 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 10, 2008
It’s funny how you don’t understand what you have in your hands.
When I put together my music, I knew that there was a theme to it. I hesitate to call it a “story” but I am seeing a few roles and a sense of progression — something happens to them over the course of [...]
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