When I first met Ariel Levine, he was just getting started on a crowdfunding campaign to raise $25,000 to record and release a solo album, titled “Let the Machine Get It.” That was a year ago and the album still isn’t finished.
“To put it bluntly,” Levine, forever a New Yorker, says, “I was able to raise a really comfortable amount of money for it. I was able to get a lot of work done, and then I ran out.”
His campaign on Indiegogo raised $5,221 from 125 supporters. Unlike the Kickstarter platform, which only releases the money if the campaign reaches its goal, Indiegogo allowed Levine to collect the $5,221 and put it toward the album production. When the money ran out, he got a day job.
“After I did the fundraising thing and I went all in on the production and the album, I lost a lot of residual work around me because I was focused on that. So I kinda got stuck and needed to find something. I started working part time at a place called Salvage Custom out in El Cajon.”
There he built custom pedal boards – think of them as vintage-inspired suitcases for a musician’s gear. Now he’s moved into sales and account management for the local company, but don’t call it selling out.
“It’s still kind of in the music business,” he says. “I get to talk to guitar players all day, and I get to play guitar at my job. We get to test out equipment, make sure everything works, sounds right. So I get to play.”
Living in San Diego and working in the music industry in any capacity is a bit of a coup. There are a few record labels, a standard set of booking agents, a couple independent recording studios, Taylor Guitars and smaller shops like Salvage Custom. But local bands who are intent on “making it” often tune up their acts here and then leave for L.A.’s larger industry pastures at the first opportunity. San Diego is lucky if it gets a mention in their bio. Others continue to live what Levine calls a “double life,” trying to balance a standard 9-to-5 with what are considered more creative endeavors. After four years on the grind here, Levine considers it a fair trade off.
“[When] things slowed down here, I was trying to figure out if maybe I should take the leap and move to L.A. where there’s probably more work,” he recalls from the past year. “But the trade off is that I’m going to be competing with a lot more people and it’s going to take a lot longer to get my reputation to a point where I will be steadily working in a place like L.A.”
He says the music community here is tight-knit, and the quality of life is better than his hometown of New York City. And maybe the gigs don’t pay as well, or happen often enough, but Levine is currently in five bands, not including the one under his own name, so he manages to keep the music alive.
This month, he’ll begin performing with his live band, which is just going by the name Ariel Levine Band at the moment. June 22 will mark their first performance together, and San Diego’s first chance to check out tracks from the unreleased album “Let the Machine Get It.” Levine is looking at October for the official release, but he wants to start playing with the live band sooner rather than later.
“I want to have some shows under our belt before we present a big deal album release show. I want to work out the kinks, basically.”
So he chose 11 p.m. on a Wednesday night to make his debut. It’s at The Office in North Park, an intimate stage that Levine is very familiar with from countless performances in their “Under Cover” monthly tribute series. Levine is lead guitar and vocals, with a raspy voice and deliberately plucked riffs. Rounding out the live band is Jesse Johnson, a local pop R&B songwriter, also on guitar; Josh Weinstein, a professor at UC San Diego, on keyboard; Tim McNally, “a busy session guy,” on bass; and Eric Brosgold on drums, “the best drummer I’ve ever played with,” Levine says.
Local musicians know that show opportunities constantly ebb and flow, but this month happens to be a busy one for Levine. Before the big pre-album release show, on June 6 Levine will also take to The Office stage with his tribute to the late Prince. On June 19, at the classic City Heights rock spot Tower Bar, he’ll perform with his instrumental surf rock group Dinosaur Ghost. All shows and album information can be found at ariellevine.com.
