A Chat with Ariyel (29.07.25)
There’s a quiet intensity that runs through Ariyel’s music. The kind that doesn’t beg to be heard but lingers long after the song ends. With roots in the rain-soaked forests of the Pacific Northwest and a creative rebirth in the wide, open skies of Colorado, Ariyel crafts alt-pop that feels both intimate and expansive. We chat with Ariyel about her new single ‘sister sister’, the healing power of music, how living with CPTSD shapes her creative process, and more below.
OSR: How has your background from the Pacific Northwest and now living in Colorado influenced your music and artistic identity?
Ariyel: Something about the mossy, foggy trees and the nature makes you want to wax poetic, and I had the best experiences doing that, listening to Carrie and Lowell daydreaming with the rainy car window. You have to, the environment is too perfect. It kept a lot of my writing internally focused, I think. Reflective. At the moment, there is a lot of open sky here in Colorado. I feel like a kid who went to the mountains because I had consumption, and the environment here helped me open back up and write and produce again after I stopped and gave up for a while. I thank Colorado for that, among other things.
OSR: What was the first moment you realised music could be a tool for healing and self-expression?
Ariyel: Poetry came first, and that always felt cathartic and healing. I had a shitty Tumblr poetry blog at 15, and it was fabulous little Y2K journals when I was 11. Music is the same to me, but you make more physical vibrations and scream about it. Best processing ever.
OSR: How does living with CPTSD influence your creative process and the themes you explore in your music?
Ariyel: It’s in my bones and in most things that I do, in good ways and in bad. I gave up on writing this album two or three times. I had everything but my vocals recorded at one point, and I just stopped for six months ’cause I got too tired and too scared. I’m reading the book Trauma and Recovery by Judith Herman (super slowly), and it talks about finding a survivor mission. This album is an unflinching emotional look at all of my processing – and sharing it with people who may benefit is exactly that for me. It had been before I knew what a survivor mission was. I think my CPTSD is one of the more difficult and interesting things about my brain, so I write about it a lot. But sometimes I don’t. I have songs about cutting fruit and regular vibes. They just aren’t coming out yet.
OSR: How do you define alt-pop, and what does that label mean to you personally?
Ariyel: Genres elude me, and you caught me. I googled it one time. I think it fits. I like Sabrina Carpenter, and I like Sufjan Stevens. I think sometimes I sound like a mash of my favourite alternative and pop artists, so alt pop feels like a perfect place for my songs to hang out.
OSR: What inspired you to write ‘sister sister’, and how does it fit into the larger concept of your upcoming album?
Ariyel: This whole album I’ve been writing for four years now is processing the experience and loss of a damaging, co-dependent relationship. There are allusions to the “other woman” early in the album, but it is a subject mostly skimmed or mentioned in a song about something else. I processed a lot of stuff about myself and the main player first. Inspiration for this came after I literally had a dream about an “other woman” figure reaching for my hand, and I think this is a great exploration of the world, a little bit outside of two destructive people. How did we move on? How do we fit in the world and in the history of these archetypes?
OSR: You mention that this song helped you let go of anger. Can you talk about that emotional process and how it shaped the track?
Ariyel: This was a great way for me to figure out how I felt about a complicated relationship. The entire chorus is just me stating things that felt important and complicated, and confusing. I didn’t go on to say what they meant exactly because I still have no idea. But the music lets those confusing moments be important as they are, very messy, maybe a little angry. All the thoughts I had trying to make sense of them are the verses that hug the chorus. It feels like a slice of time honouring me, trying to figure the “other woman” out. Feel it and release it.
OSR: How did collaborating with Emily Sangder and Joshua Evan Lee influence the final sound of ‘sister sister’?
Ariyel: I’ve worked with Joshua for like 7 years, and he has been producing my vocals and writing BGVS for almost every song on the album. Josh knows how to find my voice and make it the most effective and clear emotionally. He gets the sound I am going for, and he understands the impact small details can make. When we tried to do the background vocals together for this song, I really wasn’t feeling it and thought something was missing. Emily was a no-brainer. We have sung together since age 12, she has watched me write all this music in real time, and she is often the first person I show a voice memo to. If soul connections are real, I definitely have had one with Emily since we were kids, and this song needed to have a shimmer of that connection. I am so happy she decided to sing on it and killed all of Josh’s crazy vocal acrobatic BGVs like it was nothing.
OSR: Can you describe your songwriting process? Do you start with lyrics, melodies, or production?
Ariyel: Lyrics and melodies are always wrapped up in a little bow together for me. For this song, I had tried a few half songs of Greek myth references and mentioning a dream where someone is reaching for your hand – often I work through a lot in different iterations, and then I sew it all together. Those two ideas were floating around when I sat down with my guitar and wrote through the verse. I’ll play my favourite already written parts on a loop and only add in the next bit if it feels good when I sing through it. I like it so each bit feels tasty to perform and say as the song evolves.
OSR: What do you hope listeners take away from ‘sister sister’, especially those who might be going through similar emotional struggles?
Ariyel: This music is an exploration of my point of view and the way it shifts and changes. I really like sitting in songs and harping on things you aren’t “supposed” to feel. So by no means does everyone need to give a big hug to all women and never beef again. I have my songs for when I feel the opposite, and it is all justifiable. I think every emotion deserves a place to be acknowledged and explored. This song is here for whenever it feels right. A shout in the void about the cyclical nature and the pain it causes. We really are all the same, and SO many emotions are universal. That’s what the song taught me.
OSR: Outside of music, what other creative outlets or practices support your mental health and artistic growth?
Ariyel: Last year, I went through a book called The Artist’s Way for a second time, and I discovered a love of nail design! I mostly just do gel on myself whenever I feel like it, but physical art has never been a strong suit for me. Being able to experiment with colour and little designs and holographic powders is SUCH a fun little activity. One time, I free-handed a little rabbit – one of my best moments.
Many thanks to Ariyel for speaking with us. Find out more about Ariyel on her Spotify, Facebook, Instagram, and X (formerly Twitter).
