Call it cool, crazy, stressful, inventive. Ari Hest was on a creative streak in 2008. He wrote, recorded, mixed and released one song each week on his Web site, www.arihest.com.

“The idea grew out of coming off a major label experience that was less than stellar and knowing that I can write a lot of music and thinking I’d have to do something unique to really get people’s attention now that I’m independent again and there’s less financial backing,” the singer-songwriter said. “I came up with the idea to do 52 songs in 52 weeks.”

Ari Hest

For a $20 subscription fee, Hest fans found instant gratification each Monday.

And they offered feedback and voted on their favorite tracks. The result: “Twelve Mondays,” which will be released March 10.

“Along the way, [fans] were allowed to comment on the Web site; they could say what they liked and what they didn’t like,” Hest explained during a phone interview from New York City. “My picks were not exactly those [12], but they were close.”

Columbia Records signed Hest in 2004. The 29-year-old left the label last year after his fifth disc, “The Break-In.”

“I’m a bit of a control freak,” he said of the decision to be on his own. “These songs are like my kids or something; I don’t want to have them doctored in any way.”

For “52,” still available online, he found inspiration everywhere.

“I tried to look outside myself more than any album I had done before,” Hest said. “I would look to my friends, I would look to people that I didn’t even know that I would see — I used the experience that they had to fill out some of the lyrical material because it was too difficult to write just about myself.”

“Dead End Driving” is likely to be the first single from “Twelve Mondays,” he said.

“That is really a song about trying to do things yourself. It’s sort of the story of my musical career, but also I think in times like this when things are very troublesome with the economy and people are losing their jobs, then you start relying on yourself more and that’s a good thing.”

Hest will perform at 8 p.m. March 19 at The Ark in Ann Arbor. Tickets are $15. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. Singer-songwriter Tim Brantley, touring to support his debut, “Goldtop Heights,” will open the show.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 6th, 2009 at 12:00 am and is filed under Arts and Life, In Concert.
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