Great to have you with us, Ari.  I’d love to start by getting a sense of where and how you started out, and how you got involved in the film music space?

Great to chat with you! So, I actually started out in the early music space as a viola da gamba player, which is not the typical path for those involved in film music. If you know a bit about the early music community, it might make more sense that someone like me ended up here, because we’re all a little odd and tend to have a lot of esoteric knowledge of music-related (and non-music-related) topics. But the reason I’m a session singer is because my friend and collaborator, Stephanie Economou, originally hired me to do some additional production for a show called “Step Up: High Water” a number of years ago. I sang on one of the cues she gave me, and ever since that day, she’s hired me to sing and play viola da gamba on most of her scores. I still produce music, too, and I’ll do some early music consulting or text-setting in Latin or Old Norse when that work comes up, but in the film music world I’m mostly hired as a vocal soloist and viola da gamba player.

You’ve been incredibly prolific with your creative pursuits from vocal work, to viola da gamba (a niche Baroque string instrument) performance, to music production.  I am curious how you approach creative endeavors of different types?  Does the process change at all, or does your style/process transcend medium?

I tend to approach my own music very differently from my collaborations with composers. With composers, I have a lot more room to explore, play, and come up with new ideas, since I’m not focused on producing the music. I think I’m much more inflexible when I’m producing an album of pop music, for example. And when it comes to building sample libraries, I’m at my most rigid–I treat it like I’ll be receiving a grade, because essentially I will be.

You are known around town as an ace collaborator- would you mind speaking to us about what collaboration means to you, and what you bring to a collaboration?

When composers call me, it’s usually because they feel they’re missing something on a cue or a score, so I try to create whatever it is that’s missing. Sometimes I’ll hear a cue and think, “this is already fantastic, how could I make that any better?” So it becomes a challenge, finding all the ways to expand on it or decorate it. I give them multiple layers, variations, melodies, harmonies, and textures to work with and build off of, and they can then rearrange the stems, loop them, or discard them as they see fit. I’m only tapping into what’s already great and giving them options to broaden or polish their work. Of course, sometimes I’m asked to do some of the heavier lifting, like being given a drone and told to improvise in a certain style. Usually in that case, it’s not a one-time collaboration on that score, and we’re helping build a sound together. It’s an honor to be part of both processes.

At this point in my career and life, collaboration is what matters the most to me. I spent most of my creative time for many years sitting in a dark room making albums on my own, or in a practice room learning études by myself. I went to a conservatory because I wanted to play music with people, but outside of ensembles and classes, it didn’t happen as much as I had hoped. Now I finally have what I always wanted, but it’s even better because we’re making our own music! 

I’ve heard you sing on projects, not realizing that it was you singing!  Your stylistic range, and your literal vocal range itself are very impressive.  Can you speak to the training you’ve done, and influences you have for your vocal work?

I honestly haven’t done a lot of vocal training–my training is mainly on instruments. I started with piano at 7, then violin, then baroque violin, and my degree is in viola da gamba. I think this is where most of my influence comes from, too. My viola da gamba used to be my main musical voice, and that instrument makes so many unique sounds and timbres, so sometimes I sing in a way that sounds, at least to me, like my gamba. Aside from that, I’ve been listening to music from all over the world for a long time, so I’m sure there’s influence there. A great deal of my inspiration comes from the sounds of nature and animals, too. My animal noises finally came in handy recently when I got to sing and make rattlesnake and bird sounds for Sara Barone and Jacob Shea on the score for “Planet Earth III”.

I started singing on my own albums in college because I couldn’t afford to hire a singer–I think this is a pretty common story. The more I sang, the more I enjoyed it and wanted to pursue some level of mastery. I’m still working on mastering my voice, but I’ve developed a lot of technical knowledge on my own by practicing and experimenting with it. Doing this in a vacuum for a while is probably part of why my approach is a bit different. I did get a vocal coach for a couple of years, as I recorded an album of renaissance motets in 2017 and ended up injuring my voice from my lack of technique. Working with the coach and seeing a voice therapist helped me get to know my own body’s instrument, so thankfully I haven’t injured my voice since.

You have an exciting new creative effort launching on October 4th 2024- your “Fever Dreams” extended technique vocal sample library for Kontakt!  Can you tell us more about the library, the inspiration, the process of creating it, and the possible uses?

Fever Dreams is an extensive, deeply human vocal sample library containing over 100 triple-tracked patches of my favorite extended techniques. It’s got lush, morphing textures, ethereal whispers, otherworldly chants, and other pitched, non-pitched, rhythmic, and non-rhythmic vocal instruments. It’s already beloved by my collaborators, who have used it in their scores, to mock things up for me, and also as an inspirational tool. I think every composer will want to check this out, as I can safely say there is nothing like it out there.

My goal when I started this project was to collect all of my most-used techniques in one big palette that composers could use as a creative playground. I feel I’ve accomplished that. It took a very long time to make it because it’s so large, but it was such a rewarding process, from the first ideas I had to designing the GUI to doing the walkthrough with Steph (Economou) in her beautiful studio. I’ve involved all of my collaborators and friends in the whole process, having them beta test multiple times so I could make it as intuitive and fun to use as possible.

Sometimes you can’t afford a soloist, but you can afford one sample library that will cover the ground you need for that score. This covers far beyond that, because the applications for a product like this are endless. You could use at least one patch from the library on any given score, because it’s so diverse and broad and so many patches could fit into any style. There is a lack of vocal sample libraries with all of these different elements combined, especially one that was made by the artist and is being sold directly by the artist herself, so I really hope you all consider checking it out! You can find it at feveraudio.com.

Going forward, what kind of work are you most excited about doing?  Are there projects you hope to be involved in be it genre, style, or medium?  Any recent projects you’d like to mention? 

I get excited about most work, especially when it’s an opportunity to try something I haven’t done yet. Lately I’ve been singing on a couple of alien-themed scores and some horror scores. I got to sing some beautiful melodies and play viola da gamba on a second season of Castlevania: Nocturne (Trey Toy & Trevor Morris), and that’s coming out soon–I love working on that show’s score because I get to experiment a lot with different vocal textures and play early music. It is so rare to be able to do both on one score!

Making Fever Dreams has been very meaningful to me, so I’m hoping to build another vocal library soon. In the meantime, I look forward to seeing how composers use Fever Dreams in their scores. Hopefully it will help some future collaborators find me, too. All the work I get to do is very fulfilling. I can’t wait to see what’s next–every project is a new adventure.

Interview by Connor Cook.

Check out the directory for Ari Mason!