“If you’re not reaching as deep as possible when you’re playing, you’re not fully being yourself. Finding your voice is not being afraid to let out exactly what you’re feeling”: Ariel Posen on telling the truth through music
The Canadian virtuoso explains why the guitar is his safe space, and how he used it to tackle toxic people, broken relationships and forgiveness on latest album Reasons Why
(Image credit: Future)
This article is part of Guitar World's series of interviews and features with artists addressing and raising awareness around themes of mental health, particularly as they relate to musicians.
Virtuoso, genius, monster soloist – over the years these titles and more have been attached to Ariel Posen’s name, and rightly so. But while he’s grateful for the recognition, he was never about clout-chasing or being heralded as a guitarist’s guitarist. Music is much bigger than that in his world.
“I wouldn’t be here without what the guitar has done for me and how that’s helped get my name to where it is,” he says. “I definitely want to cater to those people. A lot of people come to the show because they want to hear guitar playing.
“They also want to hear the songs, but they really want to hear some guitar playing. It’s the old saying: ‘less is more.’ I just want it to be accessible so that it can be for everybody to enjoy.”
Posen sees himself first and foremost as a songwriter, using that medium as a means of communication, expression, and even therapy, with his songs as composite sketches of life experiences. It’s evident on his latest album, Reasons Why, where he explores mental health.
It’s not his first foray into this landscape, but it is his most comprehensive. “I've written about the same topics on previous records,” he says. “This one was a clearer way of talking about it in a way that wasn’t super-specific about anything or anyone.
“Most of the songs were written out of my own experience, but some were written from other people's stories that I felt compelled to write about. It just felt like the right time. Those are the topics that felt natural to me. Nothing is more honest than writing about how you feel and talking about that.”
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You’ve been gigging since age 14 and you have a remarkable resume. In addition to creative fulfilment, does the guitar provide an emotional and mental outlet for you?
“It definitely helps. It’s certainly a thing that I can just grab and it shuts everything else out. I can easily forget that anything else exists. In a way, it feels like a safe place when playing the instrument. At the same time, it’s not even what I do; it’s who I am.
The emotion, the topic, whether it’s the music or the lyrics, is all connected. One is not more important than the other, and you can’t do one without the other
“With that – and fellow artists will know what I’m talking about – there’s a lot of meetings, emails, admin work, and planning: a lot of things that most of the time have nothing to do with music or guitar.
“I realized at the beginning of the pandemic lockdown how burnt out I was. A lot of people realized the same thing. We’d been going hard, not taking any breaks, and not having the balance that is so important in everyday life.
“I’m finding that when I don’t have balance, everything kind of goes down the drain. I don’t want to play music. I don’t want to do anything, because I physically can’t. I just don’t have it in me. I appreciate and enjoy everything so much more when there's close-to-perfectly distributed time with it.”
Does the guitar sometimes speak louder than words in expressing what you’ve described as “inner struggles”?
“Outside of singing and writing lyrics, the guitar is 100 percent my tool for self-expression, and a lot of emotion can definitely come up on the guitar. In fact, often more so than singing.
“Everything I do, musically and artistically, comes from an authentic and honest place. If you’re not reaching as deep down as possible when you’re playing, you’re not fully being yourself. Finding and accepting your true voice as a musician is not being afraid to let out exactly what you’re feeling, because people want to connect and feel that, too.”
How do you go about opening up on those struggles?
“Most of my songs start with a musical idea. I’d say 85 percent of the time it’s a chord progression, riff, or some kind of musical thing that I then write lyrics to. The other 15 percent would be a lyric attached to a melody where maybe I don’t fully know what I’m saying yet.
“But oftentimes a lyric speaks to me and makes a lot of sense, and it’s a matter of finishing a song around that and writing the rest of it. So the emotion, the topic, whether it’s the music or the lyrics, is all connected. One is not more important than the other, and you can’t do one without the other.
I think you can be in a good place, but still have a darker side that you’re always thinking about, or that affected you before
“I’d be lying if I said that the music part didn’t come easier to me. Finding emotion in how chords sit, and how tension from certain harmony can make you feel, is a huge part of my writing process. The music can make you feel so much emotion, and it can be really beautiful.
“That’s why I usually start there, because it’s what comes most naturally. I’m not the type of writer that has a journal and is always jotting down ideas. If I have ideas, I’ll typically say them into my phone as a voice memo so I don’t forget.
“But when you have a melody in mind, and you have chords, and you have to write lyrics to that, it’s a lot harder placing words within something that already exists. So I try to do them at the same time, once I have an initial idea, because I find it so much more natural to get it going.”
Describing Reasons Why, you said, “There’s songs about relationships, forgiveness, pushing toxic people out of your life, mending, broken relationships. There’s also songs about mental health and the way we have a perception about how we feel the inner struggles we don’t always let out into the world.” What made this the right time to deep-dive into those topics?
“There’s a lot under the mental health umbrella that people struggle with – anxiety, depression, all these things. Most of the time, I think it’s better than it’s ever been in terms of awareness and normalizing these things.
“But we still have this tendency to really struggle with something, and not want to burden people with it. The song Broken But I’m Fine is a perfect example. It’s that idea of ‘How’s everything?’ ‘Well, I’m a disaster right now; everything’s bad because of this and this, but it’s fine, whatever.’
“We push things off all the time, maybe for the sake of not burdening other people with it, or just not wanting to get into it.
“So it’s alluding to that, but also alluding to how a lot of people might think they’re broken because of these things. It’s okay to not be okay. You can work on yourself, but you don’t have to let anyone else make you feel worse for whatever you’re going through, however you go through it.
“At the time, I was dealing with anxiety and stuff, and I had this image of someone looking in the mirror with that echo chamber you can fall into, ‘restless by design.’”
It’s always great to find forgiveness and a positive outcome in every situation. See the good in everyone and in yourself
You could have left it to listeners to interpret the songs as they wish, but instead you made it clear that you are addressing mental health. Why was that important?
“It’s a topic that felt honest and natural to me, and it’s what I felt compelled to write about. I didn’t really put any other thinking towards it. It was a mixture of what I thought were the best songs in the collection I had, and topics I stand behind, want to talk about and want people to connect with.
“If they feel similarly, maybe they can get something out of it that makes them feel better or makes them think about it in a different way.
“Self-reflection is a very honest way of songwriting. It’s stuff I’m always thinking about. I think you can be in a good place, but still have a darker side that you’re always thinking about, or that affected you before. I think it’s like that for everybody. Maybe not…”
And finally, you address forgiveness – not only forgiving others, but also forgiving ourselves. Sometimes that’s the biggest challenge.
“Absolutely. The song Choose is about forgiveness; the song is an internal question. It’s always great to find forgiveness and a positive outcome in every situation. See the good in everyone and in yourself, try to better people and yourself, and all that stuff.
“But the song is just a question – there’s no answer that comes out of it. I like to let it be for other people to decide, with all the points that are made in the song, to figure out what the right answer might be. And if you find out, let me know!”
Alison Richter is a seasoned journalist who interviews musicians, producers, engineers, and other industry professionals, and covers mental health issues for GuitarWorld.com. Writing credits include a wide range of publications, including GuitarWorld.com, MusicRadar.com, Bass Player, TNAG Connoisseur, Reverb, Music Industry News, Acoustic, Drummer, Guitar.com, Gearphoria, She Shreds, Guitar Girl, and Collectible Guitar.
