Meet Aarav Arikara

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Aarav Arikara. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Aarav below.

Alright, so we’re so thrilled to have Aarav with us today – welcome and maybe we can jump right into it with a question about one of your qualities that we most admire. How did you develop your work ethic? Where do you think you get it from?

I always thought it was important to be the best at what I do. Whether it’s music, studies or languages, I feel like I should do everything well. Back when I was in school, I always wanted to be on my teachers’ good sides, so I would do all of my work on time just to create a favorable impression. To this day, that’s still what drives me to do well. It gave me a sense of self-discipline. I also just always wanted to be “the cool one who does everything” in the eyes of my friends and my family.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I am a producer as well as an instrumentalist. I spend a lot of time just behind the scenes or in the back of the stage while I support my friends who take their place in the spotlight. What I enjoy is the ability to use my creativity to make things come together and to be able to collaborate with other people to make art for everyone’s consumption. As a producer, I realize that my position in a song is quite powerful. I get a lot of creative decision here, whether it’s in the recording or the mixing process. Being an instrumentalist as well is quite helpful as it helps me understand how I want things to sound and how to achieve that. There’s a bonus part to it too – getting to play in bands and having my moments on stage where I get a little bit of the spotlight as well. It’s been very rewarding to hear the cheers of the audience as soon as I go on stage and to hear that I did well after each performance, knowing that all of my efforts have paid off.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

I would say that my knowledge of music theory was a big part of being able to get to where I am now. It helps a lot more than I would have thought. For example, I write a lot of the charts for the bands that I play in and I use my knowledge of theory here to write them as accurately as possible. I can’t say it necessarily makes me play better, but I can say it has helped me understand what I’m playing or why the thing I just played makes sense. I’ve seen so many people underestimate this skill, but it does so much more than you could imagine.

It’s also been helpful to just be able to adapt to the situation. If someone in my band wants me to play exactly what they ask me to, I could do that. But if someone in another band wants me to challenge their ideas and come up with my own, I can also do that. Being well-rounded in different genres is a plus. It opens up so many opportunities for what I can do.

Actually being interested in what I do goes a long way. I come from somewhere where music is considered a rather unconventional career or unstable, so most people, especially a lot of my classmates back in school, picked stuff that would make them a lot of money, like being a doctor or an engineer. But I knew that I didn’t want that for myself because I was passionate about music. I didn’t want it to just be something I did on the side.

Any advice for folks feeling overwhelmed?

When I feel overwhelmed, I talk it out with my friends. Just talking and having someone listen can take a huge weight off. Distractions and keeping my mind off of it helps for smaller things. If it’s a giant task and I don’t have a lot of time, I break it down into smaller tasks. I plan everything out to be done according to a certain schedule. Keeping myself organized stops me from feeling stressed out.

Contact Info:

• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aarav-arikara-ba0bb0300/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@aaravarikara6688
• Other: Bluesky – @aaravarikara.bsky.social

Image Credits

Casie Lindemuth, Ella Moser, Tavish Sharma, Kim Garcia