Fifty-two

Although in-person interviews are definitely the way to go, sometimes phone interviews certainly have their perks. This is definitely true for singer/songwriter and DIY pioneer Ari Hest. I had the pleasure of speaking with Hest twice this year, first in February for Stereo Subversion, and again in late October for the Sound Bites Dog E-zine and both times his surroundings made for some interesting conversation.

Ari Hest, rockin' DIY | Photo by Reid Rolls 

For the SBD interview, which recently went live, Hest called me up from one of my favorite places: The Container Store. Details, such as where the interviewee is calling from, can give a bit of a glimpse into that person’s life. Hest is obviously the type of guy who shops at The Container Store, a fun detail I was sad to leave out from the article.

Storage chatter aside, the real reason for the interview was to discuss his year-long project, entitled 52. One of my favorite stories from 2008, Hest sought to record and release one song for every week in the year. For those of you counting, that’s 52 songs for 52 weeks. Songs were then sold in a variety of formats via his website, either as a subscription, per song or in seasonal clusters. The best tracks from the year-long endeavor will be compiled for a proper album in 2009.

In some ways a continuation of the conversation he and I began earlier in 2008 over at Stereo Subversion, catching up with Hest for a Q&A for the Sound Bites Dog E-zine sated my curiosity for how well one of the year’s most interesting projects fared. Read all about it, here.