Introducing Arlie: Nashville-Based Psychedelic Pop Instrumentalist on the Rise
Photo by Gabe Drechsler
[UNPUBLISHED:] As a multi-instrumentalist, what is your favorite instrument to play and how do you think it reflects in your songwriting?
[ARLIE:] Lately, it’s the piano. When I’m at home playing around with new ideas, it’s usually on a keyboard these days. Since I’m not as good at it, I make a lot more mistakes, but I know enough music theory to consistently turn those mistakes into something that makes sense and often those are the parts I love the most. I also love the multiple voicing capabilities. I can have four moving lines/voices on piano. I like to compose in moving voices rather than in chords like I tend to do when I’m writing on guitar.
[UNPUBLISHED:] Congrats on the new single “findaway!” What was the writing process like while writing “findaway” in comparison to your last full-length project, BREAK THE CURSE?
[ARLIE:] BREAK THE CURSE is a lot of the writing was done solo with a few co-written.
“findaway” was a collaboration with a new person I’d never worked with before, his name is Doug Showalter. We first got together and built a third of the instrumental track. Enough to be inspired and feel like we were onto something. started with me hitting the keys of my saxophone as a percussion track. then I went home and wrote the melody and lyrics on my own. Then went back to Doug and recorded vocals. He's got the background as an engineer so he gets really high-quality sounds quickly in the studio. Then took it home again and took it to a sonic world that had a lot of analog synths I was borrowing. changed the structure a bit, modified the bassline, and layered in some more backing vocals and drums. Then I took all the new stuff back to Doug and recorded a bunch of acoustic guitars on top. and then once again took it back to my place and honed in the vision till it was done. a Back-and-forth process between solo and collaboration which was different and I loved it. it worked well for me. Doug’s sonic precision and attitude towards the creative process worked well in tandem with what I do. And as far as comparing to BREAK THE CURSE — almost every song on BREAK THE CURSE went thru multiple distinct phases of what could be considered writing and composition and production too, so in that sense it was similar.
[UNPUBLISHED:]“findaway” can be interpreted in different ways, which is the beauty of art! Sometimes we all love to stick to our interpretations as the truth. Do you have a favorite piece of media (song, art, show, movie) that you think gets misinterpreted by the public?
[ARLIE:] The Bible, hands down
[UNPUBLISHED:] Congrats on the U.S. tour! What has been your favorite tour experience so far?
[ARLIE:] Playing shows with Nordica freeze was ideal. Freeze is my roommate and one of my best friends and one of my favorite live performers to watch (we have a collab track coming soon)— especially this one show in Memphis where we were running hella late because we had two flat tires happen in a row on our way from Atlanta, but thankfully it was friends opening and they stalled for us and kept the crowd energized till we finally showed up at 11 pm. Jarren Blair opening 1st of 3 (another friend from Nashville who is incredibly talented and we have a collab coming out soon as well) and then Freeze on 2nd, who stretched out his set and even called me from the stage and held his phone up to the mic so the crowd could hear me announce that we were going to make it after all! then the show ended up being great and it was the last show of summer tour last year we all went home to Nashville happy.
[UNPUBLISHED:] Speaking of tour, how has your experience changed with The Wrecks help prepare you for your own headlining tour?
[ARLIE:] We learned how to use tech flex to clean up our mess of tangled cables on stage, learned not to rent a bandwagon for travel because you can’t sleep while it’s moving, learned that our tour manager was a superhero. learned that you can save your voice a little during long sets and long tours by holding the mic to the crowd and it kills two birds with one stone because audiences love to participate. learned that you can take a dog with you on tour if you’re really determined to.
[UNPUBLISHED:] How do you think tour has influenced “findaway”?
[ARLIE:] I wrote it fresh off of tour. It was the first full song I wrote after summer tour. Sometimes I crash emotionally after a tour but this time I was in an inspired and excited mindset and my voice was in shape from singing every night so that helped the delivery feel easy. I just saw a lot of different ways people live their lives across the country, noticed a lot of similarities and differences, and wanted to write about themes that felt universally human.
[UNPUBLISHED:] Do you think growing up in Nashville has influenced your sound and style? How?
[ARLIE:] I didn’t grow up in Nashville. I grew up in Nova. (Northern Virginia, outside DC). But, my time in Nashville has given me “keep it country” and WwFGLD?” my two mottos for music making. Also, my diet consists primarily of hot chicken and PBR, and that has probably had some influence on my musical output. No but really, it’s been nice being around so many creative people in Nashville. I have noticed a pattern in my life where AI tend to define my identity in contrast to what I perceive to be the norm, not intentionally but more on a subconscious level. so here I got into the singer-songwriter scene and saw everyone co-writing full songs in a single session and then producing separately in studios that cost a lot to rent and going out all the time to social-climb and network while spending all the money they make at their restaurant jobs on drinks at bars, and so when I was building Arlie from the ground up, I gravitated to a solo writing process where songs can take months, sometimes years to finish, and producing diy in my room, as the inspiration came, with minimal gear, saving money by not having a social life. that said, I do feel that learning the deep history of blues and gospel and Americana music here has had a very positive influence on my approach, country music is entirely a different scene and different way of living from how I was raised, but some things about the genre have definitely resonated with me and worked their way into Arlie. and more recently I’ve found a lot of inspiring indie/alternative songwriters/producers/artists and a whole new wave of jazz/soul musicians with incredible improv chops, all of which have brought me fresh inspiration.
[UNPUBLISHED:] What is one artist you listen to that really influences your sound and what is one artist you listen to that you like, but has no influence on your sound at all?
[ARLIE:] The way I see it, we are influenced by everything we hear, whether we like it or not. I don’t think anyone I’ve ever met has the ability to hear something and not let it influence them, but there might be some wizards out there who can do this. That said, I have intentionally drawn influence from the harmonic movement in Brian Wilson’s composition with The Beach Boys. And from the lyrical style of Ezra Koenig. I like Young Thug a lot, but I don’t try to draw influence from Young Thug!
[UNPUBLISHED:] What can we expect from Arlie in the future?
[ARLIE:] Something unexpected something diabolically incorrect. Something so heavy and so light at the same time.The sweetest and the nastiest thing you’ve ever heard. Something that tastes really good and it’s also good for you. Something nutritious that you don’t even know it’s nutritious. A bird out of its cage, spreading their wings for the first time in years. Soaring flying there’s not a star in heaven that we can’t reach.
Photo by Gracie Heart