ARI, the singer formerly known as Daniella Watters, says her new persona signals a change in her sound and her musical direction as well as her desire to get away from writing pop standards.
ARI means lion in Hebrew, it’s Nordic for eagle, and her personal name, Daniella, from the story of Daniel in the lion’s den, completes the metaphor.
“I wanted to steer away from singing too much about love topics, to go to another level or emotion, and be very visceral and honest about other experiences,” she said, speaking on the telephone from Los Angeles. She will be in Toronto later this month for Jewish Music Week.
READ: JEWISH MUSIC WEEK FEATURES SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE
In her six-track debut EP, Tunnel Vision, recorded in Toronto, ARI balances dark, melancholic elements, some from her own experience, with light, empowerment and strength.
“Without going through pain in my life, I wouldn’t be able to channel it and turn it into art,” she said.
Teachers, a recently released single and video from the EP, addresses the sexual double standards between men and women. “It’s an empowerment song, calling out the differences in how men and women are treated and how boys and girls are brought up,” ARI said. In their formative years, guys get the message, sometimes from their fathers, that it’s alright to be promiscuous, she said. Meanwhile, fathers are telling girls, “Don’t wear this, don’t do that,’” she said, while encouraging the boys “to get those girls.”
When they’re dating, men are allowed, stigma free, to have many sexual partners, while if a “girl’s numbers are too high, the guys are turned off,” she said, adding a “lot of shaming goes onto women because men want to be the only key to the lock.”
ARI stresses she’s not advocating promiscuity in the video. Rather, “there shouldn’t be such a heightened shaming, making people feel bad about who they are,” she said. “We’re all human, we’re all sexual beings. Slut shaming and blaming women for being too provocative need to end.”
Another recently released single and video from the EP, PLV (Pretty Little Villains), stands up for anyone who’s been abused or taken advantage of.
“I had my own experiences being taken advantage of, just as many people, men and women, children and adults, have, and this song came out of that,” she said.
ARI was motivated to write PLV after reading about a human-trafficking incident in Toronto, close to where she lived. She sings PLV while sitting in her bathtub, with thick (school) paint, symbolizing bad experiences, oozing down her face.
“It’s going to fall on your head, it’s going to get all over you, but you can’t let it be you,” she said. “What happens to you isn’t you. That’s something that’s just happened to you and you can wash it away.”
In contrast to the serious tone of Teachers and PLV, Tiny Bubbles, a single from Tunnel Vision, released earlier this month, is a lighthearted tune with somewhat comical, satirical lyrics that reflect on the drug culture. ARI’s sound has gone through a transformation, from pop soul and R&B with jazz inflections, as Daniella, to minimalist indie pop with an electronic hip-hop cadence. ARI’s vocal delivery is less soulful and more indie sounding than Daniella’s, but “I think the soulful will always be a little bit there because it’s just the nature of my voice,” she said.
You can hear selections from the EP Tunnel Vision, to be released next month, at Maison Music!, a B’nai Brith Young Professionals event that’s part of Jewish Music Week. ARI’s band, keyboardist Dean Aivaliotis, drummer Jeremy Morgan and guitarist Robb Cappelletto, will play on top of a track to produce the electronic sound their instruments can’t make. The music will sound very much like the EP, ARI said.
ARI performs at Maison Music! at 8:15 p.m. (doors open at 7 p.m.) on May 31 at EFS, 647 King St. W. The music continues with the orchestral indie rock band, Common Deer, followed by a kosher midnight barbecue. For tickets, click here.
