In this first single from her upcoming album, Arielle Silver recalls a harrowing season in California as gunshots ricocheted through a country bar and the surrounding hills ignited with apocalyptic wildfires. With chomping acoustic guitars and layered harmonies, Silver’s lyrics paint a picture of life’s unspoken deceits. Her thought-provoking lyrics question “what really matters” in the face of life’s ups and downs. “I wrote “What Really Matters” in autumn 2018,” explains Silver. “It was a massively terrible week in SoCal – the news cycle was still reporting the tragic Thousand Oaks shooting at the Borderland Bar & Grill when, a day later, the Woosley and Hill fires erupted.” Silver recalls how “Northern California was on fire, Southern California was on fire. Many of the Borderland survivors of the shooting were among the wildfire evacuees, as were many others in our community. With smoky air and everything covered in ash, a lot of people were scraped down to the bone. From that this song emerged.”
Produced by Shane Alexander, “What Really Matters” features a sterling cast of players with credits from Lady Gaga to KT Tunstall to Lukas Nelson: Denny Weston Jr., drums; Carl Byron, keyboards; Darby Orr, bass; Jesse Siebenberg, steel guitar; and Mike Mullins on mandolin. Michael Gehring tracked the project at Secret World Studios in Los Angeles in the famous Sound City Studios complex, and GRAMMY-winners Brian Yaskulka and Hans DeKline mixed and mastered, respectively. A loyal group of supporters funded the recording through a Kickstarter campaign.
Arielle Silver is no stranger to the music industry. But ten years ago, with three well-received releases accompanied by national tours, she lost sight of her future as an artist. “Though my heart still ached to write songs and sing, I found that I couldn’t do it,” she recalls. She put away her guitar, moved to Los Angeles, and landed a job behind the scenes in the music industry. She penned and published essays and poems, and was nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best New Poets. She baked innumerable pies. Everything changed in 2018, when Silver fell back in love with songwriting and began to perform and create music again. She hopes to inspire people not to be afraid of coming back to their dreams, no matter how winding the path.
“What Really Matters” is the first single off of Arielle Silver’s upcoming album, A Thousand Tiny Torches, which is expected to be released in the summer of 2020. The song is now available to stream and download on digital music platforms worldwide. Stay up to date by visiting ArielleSilverMusic.com.