Today we’d like to introduce you to Ari Welkom aka AVATARI.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Ari. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I started loving and playing music when I was young. I grew up in a musical family. My dad’s a guitarist and my parents are huge music lovers. They took me to my first show (a Grateful Dead show) when I could barely walk.
Also, my parents exposed me to all kinds of amazing music from a very young age: The Beatles (of course), Little Richard, The Beach Boys, David Bowie, The Doors, Pink Floyd, Marvin Gaye, etc…
Although I played piano and picked up some guitar, I never thought of it as any sort of full-time endeavor or career. I loved sports growing up so I was more focused on that and going to school.
When I got into college (Harvard) that changed. Everything flipped. I had a sort of quarter-life-crisis where I quit the football team and joined a band. I was majoring in economics but I knew I didn’t want to pursue that as a career. I wanted to do something creative and artistic. I spent a summer in LA and I loved it. I made plans to return after graduation, which I did. And I’ve been based here ever since.
My career has taken me to a lot of different places. I’m an actor as well as a musician. At first, I tore my hair out trying to decide which career path I wanted to go down. Now I’ve finally surrendered to the fact that I love both and that they can work together hand in hand. I’ve been able to work on various Movies and Television shows (most recently The Rookie on ABC). I’ve also been able to tour all over the US and play major festivals (Bonnaroo in Tennessee, the Outside Lands Festival in San Francisco, Life Is Beautiful in Las Vegas, SXSW in Austin). I’ve also had songs licensed in major TV shows and for commercials (my song Legacy was licensed in a Rolls-Royce campaign for their Ghost model car – I got to star in it with my lovely wife who is also an actress).
So ultimately my music career and my acting career are feeding one another – both creatively and business-wise.
As far as my musical journey, since moving to Los Angeles, I met a guitarist on a movie set (I was playing a vampire – I seem to get cast as vampires and villains quite often. I tell my mom it’s just something about the way I look.). We started a band together and made a few albums. We got to tour and play festivals and have a lot of fun. But we never really cracked through and found a way to sustain.
The band broke up (as bands ultimately do 99% of the time). And I decided it was time to take the leap into a solo project which had been brewing in my mind for months. Maybe years. I’d been too scared to take the leap. I needed a nudge.).
I found a producer – Casey Sullivan – through a friend whose work I loved. At the time, Casey was working out of his bedroom (now he works in a fancy studio in North Hollywood – 111 Productions). I brought a song to him I’d been working on for a few weeks. It had come to me on a road trip with friends. I was a month away from becoming a father. My wife was pregnant with our soon to be son Rumi. And while I was in the van with my friends, the words “What’s your Legacy” kept running through my head. Followed by “what’s your destiny” and “whose the enemy, it’s inside of me.”
This song “Legacy” would be the first song I’d record for my solo project. At the time, I didn’t have a name for the project so I just went by ARI.
I recorded ten more songs with Casey over the next year or so and a couple of tunes with another producer (named Wolves – he’s incredible as well). I was in the middle of a full on creative explosion. Workshopping my new sound.
When I first met with Casey, I told him that I wanted the production to be at the level of Imagine Dragons and Twenty Pilots. I was skeptical that it was possible, but I figured “why not. Shoot for the stars!” I’ve since been blown away at what a talented producer who understands his craft can make happen nowadays. It’s really mind-blowing.
I was enjoying myself in the studio so much – seeing my songs come to life. But I also felt myself hiding out a little bit. In retrospect, I’m so grateful that I spent a couple of years recording without putting any music out, and I’ll tell you why in a second.
Eventually, it was time to launch my new sound into the universe. I was gearing up to release my music and start playing live in LA for my friends and family and whoever else would listen. I was going to do things the way I’d always done them. A way that had led to the ultimate demise of my previous band. Playing tons of half-empty haunts around the Los Angeles metropolitan area.
I’d literally had one rehearsal with my new project when the pandemic struck and the lockdown happened. All of a sudden – playing shows was off the table indefinitely.
I racked my brain – what was my next step going to be?
I reached out to a great friend of mine – Savannah Pope (an amazing singer and songwriter) whose career had seemed to take a big leap of late. I remembered that she’d taken a digital marketing course called Modern Musician. When we spoke she was effusive about her experience in the Course and after our call, I went and signed up.
The skills I’ve learned over the last six months from Modern Musician have been completely game-changing. It’s everything that an “undiscovered” indie musician should be doing for their career to promote themselves and discover their true fans.
It’s all about connecting with fans, engaging, providing value through live streams and content creation. It makes the whole business side of music that I’d always dreaded – fun! I even discovered my artist name during the first week of the course. AVATARI. I’d wanted something that was true to me but large enough to contain and transmit the sound I was creating. AVATARI combined the words Avatar (Hindu for a “released soul manifested in physical form” and my real name – Ari).
Essentially, I discovered myself. And by doing so I’ve also discovered a whole world of amazing fans who love my music. This is almost entirely online. And I’ve created a private Facebook Group called The Avatars for a community of my most devoted fans (one of whom – an amazing photographer from Phoenix named Cheryl Dunn – referred me for this interview). This began with my music, but it’s turning into a culture of Peace, Love, Tolerance, and support. Kind of like a summer of love free spirit revival for the year 2020. It’s taking on a life of its own. I do a livestream every Sunday which we call a “Love-stream.”
And all that time I spent in the studio recording songs has turned into a total blessing. Because of the pandemic and the lockdown, it would be near impossible to spend hours in the studio at the moment with producers, engineers, and musicians.
I’ve recently released my first song in over a year. A song called “Raised at Night.” The chorus says, “I was raised at Night, put my gun down raised my voice unite.” It’s about raising up during the hard times and using your voice – not violence – to connect.
This is the core message of AVATARI. Finding Peace, Love, Empowerment, and supporting your fellows (slash fellas). It’s the path of the free spirit. Getting free and helping others to get free.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The road has been anything but smooth.
But the main struggles have been internal. Am I good enough? Am I a good enough singer? Am I a good enough songwriter? Can my voice and my songs penetrate into the marketplace?
The cool thing, as an artist, you get to take all of your biggest struggles and fears and pain and sadness and self-doubt and turn them into gold. You get to write about them, sing about them, paint about them, and share them with the world.
That being said, there are plenty of external factors that make these internal struggles more challenging. I.e., the massive wave of musicians in the marketplace. The fact that now, anyone (and their mother) can create music and release it (and they are!). The fact that the record business as we know it has collapsed right in the middle of my musical career. And the fact that no one really tells you or teaches you how to market yourself or your music (well actually, there are a few people/places that do, but you really need to put your ear to the ground to find them).
The struggle to find myself as an artist has been a winding road. As I said – I moved to LA knowing that I wanted to play music and act. Unfortunately, I didn’t really know how to act nor what I wanted to sing about – yet. I’ve discovered those things (and continue to discover them), but that’s only half the battle. Then there’s “how do I do these things for a larger audience?”
The flip side to all of the modern day challenges of being a musician are all of the amazing tools for self-promotion that are available to every indie artist. It used to be that you needed a record label to breakthrough. Now, you can create a self-sustaining music business on your own. You can advertise, you can automate, and you can monetize. Then, you can draw the right record company to you. And when you do so you can make them your partner, rather than your savior. This is my goal.
Oh yeah, the other big struggle has been one of growing up. When I first got to LA, I was blinded by some of the bright lights (it’s an old story, but very real for me). I was young and wild – so I needed to get that out of my system. I also needed to learn that to do what I wanted to do I needed to take my craft SERIOUSLY.
I had an acting teacher – Diane Castle – who said that if you want to succeed “you need to treat your acting career as though you’re an athlete training for the Olympics.” This resonated with me and still does. She’s absolutely right.
Can you give our readers some background on your music?
I’m a musician. A singer/guitarist/performer/songwriter. I make rock and roll music for the year 2020. I guess you could call it Epic Alt Pop Rock. Playing music is a spiritual practice for me. It allows me to be my deepest purest most expressive self. Sometimes that can be a hard thing to try to monetize. But to sustain and support yourself (and now my wife and child) it’s necessary. I also want to reach the most people possible and play on the largest stages. I want to share what I do with anyone and everyone that might want to hear it.
I’m very proud of what I do. I make music that I hope makes people feel not alone. For me, it’s all about providing value to my fans and my listeners. I really try to focus on that. My business mentor Michael Walker (who created Modern Musician – a course for indie musicians to find their fans and grow their fanbase and sustain) preaches that. “Provide value” and the rest will follow.
I really try to focus on that. For me, my value comes from my songs, my music videos, my live performances (including live-streaming), and the culture that is growing around my music through an awesome community of fans. I think what sets me apart in terms of what I do – is that my main goal is to truly connect with my fans. On livestreams, I like to ask them “how they’re doing?” But I really want to know “HOW ARE THEY DOING?” And then we talk about it. I don’t necessarily have answers, but I like to listen. Because there’s one thing I know as an artist – is that the number one thing most people want – is to be heard. And if I can provide that for people – I know I’ve achieved something.
So now that I say that – those are the two things I try to do as an artist and an entrepreneur (because in today’s music industry, you need to be both) – I’m trying to be heard AND to listen.
And my music, I believe is all about that. I try to make songs that convey how I feel. And I feel a lot. I always have. So the themes and the lyrics and melodies in my songs tend to be anthemic “Legacy” “Rebel Soul” “Superhuman” (that’s a song that I’m releasing soon. I was able to shoot an amazing video for it involving puppets directed by my friend and colleague David Maurer. It’s an 80s throw-back video (a la Goonies, Back to the Future). We submitted it to Sundance. Stay tuned!
I write songs with big themes because I write from my emotions. I want to write songs that help give people the power to face life (whether it’s celebrating the best of times or forging through the darkest, most harrowing times).
Oh yeah, and I’m also an actor. I’ve been able to act in Network TV shows: The Middle, The Rookie, Days of Our Lives; and I’ve been in movies with Joseph Gordon Levitt, Vince Vaughn, Giovani Ribisi.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
I would’ve spent much more time, way earlier on my career, learning how to market myself.
I’ve always found it really easy to work on my crafts (as a singer, songwriter, and actor). I can lose myself in that and be very disciplined. Because I love creating.
But, and I don’t think I’m alone in this, on the contrary I think it’s the modern day artist’s greatest challenge – learning to market myself, and creating a real strategy to do so, is the LAST thing I spend time on.
For years I knocked around Hollywood, taking classes, doing auditions, playing shows. But I didn’t have a clear structure or game plan for how I was going to make my dreams come true.
In all honesty, I think I was hoping someone would just come along and do it for me. An agent, a manager, a record label, SOMEBODY. And I did get a lot of those things. But it never really worked. Because when you have an agent or manager, you’re one of many clients. When you have a label – you’re one of MANY bands on the label.
The massive shift I’ve had lately is the idea that there is no-one that will come and “discover” me and “make me a star.” I’ve let go of that. Do I still want an amazing record label? Absolutely. But I’d prefer to make that first break on my own. Discovering my brand, discovering my audience, and cracking through the marketplace.
But then when the label comes along, they won’t need to “discover” anything. They can just pour gasoline on the fire.
Contact Info:
- Address: AVATARI
1920 Hillhurst Ave. #1344
Los Angeles, CA 90027 - Website: https://www.avatari.world
- Email: [email protected]
Image Credit:
Personal Photo – Anna Azarov; Photos: Abigail Welkom, Anna Azarov, Jonas Mohr, Tyler Miles
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