Hey guys get ready to embark on a music journey with GUITARI, the creative genius behind “Elon’s Musk.” This collaborative masterpiece is not just another track; it’s a symphonic odyssey that blends GUITARI’s intricate guitars with iLL Gates’ mesmerizing drums.
“Elon’s Musk” isn’t your typical song; it’s a vibrant fusion of progressive and classic rock, reminiscent of Tipper’s intricate style. With over 40 sound layers, including live guitar and cellos, this track creates a multi-dimensional soundscape that takes listeners on a unique auditory adventure.
We’re diving deep into the heart of “Elon’s Musk” with Guitari himself. From the inspiration behind the track’s creation to its evolution as a spatial audio experience, Ari shares insights into his artistic process and musical influences.
Join us as we uncover the stories behind the music, from his childhood memories of music to his vision for the future of the industry. It’s a conversation filled with passion, creativity, and a whole lot of soul.
So, tune in and get ready to be inspired by the magic of “Elon’s Musk” and the artistry of Guitari. It’s time to let the music take you on a journey like never before!
Watch Elon’s Musk below
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What is your stage name?
Do you ever think about names, and who silly they are in a way. Aren’t we all connected somehow? Part of me wants to just take every name that ever was and just be one big unit, sharing art and energy. I am the oracle lol. Yes, I have gigged under a few names, for the EDM thing, I often go by Guitari, and for most other music, it’s Ari Joshua.
Is there a story behind your stage name?
Guitari was like a novelty at first, it was a nickname. My friend Carlos made a logo for me with the Atari logo and furnished a guitar neck in the middle. It was amazing! Those were those years where you really got into a lot of fun stuff.
I kept with it. I want to make a product line, I actually made my own custom guitar picks which I have been using for like 20 years that have the logo there. You can buy some at my store at www.arijoshua.com. I think slippers are the most popular item, bu there is a whole bunch of cool items to buy. Ari Joshua is my first and middle name. There isn’t a story there that I really want to go into. I think I just wanted to have a cool name that looked good on a poster. I love rock posters and poster art. Maybe some day I’ll add a few more names.
Where do you find inspiration?
I get my inspiration from the nights I spent under the stars away from the city lights, pondering how it all fits together. I get my inspiration from the pain I have from childhood pain that in some ways will never be resolved but some how that is ok.
I get my rock n roll fuck it feelings by tapping into that time period which really wasn’t my fault—divorce. I get my inspiration from seeing how much humans seem to miss the mark in society, how both we can see ii, and in so many ways we all just turn the cheek.
I get my inspiration from those that stand up and speek the truth. I get it from being heard and seen and from thinking about my dream of sharing my feelings and connecting with others. To explain it all in an interview, even with a library’s worth of words I can’t begin to finish my inspirations list. I get inspiration from sharing my ideas in interviews, and I get my inspiration from reading interviews with people that I respect, admire, love, and from finding layers of truth in their words, and wisdom in their actions. I also get it form kids, and from all the artist I grew up impacted by.
What was the role of music in the early years of your life?
I love this question. I grew up singing a lot. We had weekly get-togethers with families before the days of the internet, before cell phones, and we sang songs every week. That was from age 2 to age 10, and I have memories of banging on tables and singing. By 12,
I was obsessed with the blues, jazz, and rock n roll. I was exposed to some really amazing records, and I had a library up the street that let me check out albums. Also, I would go down to Cellophane Square and Tower Records and other stores to listen to new music that was coming out, and you know, I had an allowance for doing chores at my mom’s house. Not a lot, but enough.
A funny memory is there was a Sunday school that my family wanted me to attend, and I didn’t find anything there for me to learn about, I was a well informed pre-teen year old. I wanted to learn about music. I was 12 years old, maybe 13, and they decided to hire me to teach a class on music. I made $15 per class, and the deal was I could buy a new record each week with that money.
Music was always very special to me. Maybe not in a traditional way, like I played from a young age; it was more like an outlet and something I thought was beautiful and inspiring.It kind of blows my mind that I moreless have been the same person since I was about 11.
Why did you choose this as the title of this project?
I have been working on this batch of EDM music forever. I found some seeds from this track ‘Elon’s Musk’ going back to 2010. There really are at least a few albums’ worth of seeds, but I would need to probably find a way to finance the completion.
I spent probably 100, maybe as much as 500 hours on this one, I just can’t quantify it. I was going through a phase of trying to find my voice with Ableton Live, and I wanted that progressive sound I heard from artists like Sixis, Tipper, The Glitch Mob, and Bassnectar.
I was going to Burning Man and really having some divine inspirational moments. I heard in my head a sound where I could mix the guitar and compositional ideas in there, and I knew the cats making that music often didn’t have that sensibility, so I was all in for a few years, honing a craft. I would print and reprint using guitar pedals, fx, and plugins to emulate those sounds.
There wasn’t a lot in the way of tutorials back then. I was never a tutorial person anyway, unless to solve an issue I was stuck on. It was sitting in an almost finished state forever, and I have been doing this vault thing where I am sharing new music from the vault. In 2021, I reached out to iLL Gates, who works with my bestie KJ Sawka from ASD. Don’t worry, I am bringing this home here; iLL Gates runs a mentor, coaching program for EDM producers called the producer dojo.
I immediately felt a connection to him because I have a music school as well – The Music Factory, and frankly, iLL Gates is a genius and he is full of potential and wisdom! I asked him if he could help with the process of finishing some of my EDM tracks, and he was super sweet about it. He offered to bring me into the dojo and have the dojo remix the tracks, something I still want to do!
Anyhow, iLL Gates ended up graciously mixing the song and putting his drums on there to glue it all together, and what he did was subtle and perfect. It totally made the whole thing slap harder. The song was always about space and time travel. It was always about spaceships and spacetime, but with iLL Gates in there, it had to go with the name Elon’s Musk. It was on a few drafts, and it just is perfect.
Also Elon is my South African connection club, I was there the same time he was, he was a bit older, but when I was a toddler he was probably a teen. Being born in Africa is a vibe. I wish I could articulate that but the title is great. Love it.
What are your plans for the coming months?
I have been trying to book some shows and build some systems to get the right folks to hear the music. Also, we are queuing up more releases, spending more time in the studio, getting summer camps and other school-related things in order, as well as considering a second location for the school.
I try to let the muse take me between my art with the label and The Music Factory on the education side. Also I plan to play Cuphead, my new favorite video game and spend time with my family out in the woods.
Do you have any artistic collaboration plans?
Always. Working on some affiliations for new works and also this fabulous crew of people are all over the soon-to-be-released stuff I am working on in the studio all the time. Joe Doria, Barrett Martin, The Benevento Russo Duo, Reggie Watts, Robert Glasper, ill Gates, Skerik, Russ Lawton, Ray Paczkowski, Delvon Lamarr, Marco Benevento, John Medeski, Billy Martin, Joe Russo, Jason Fraticelli, KJ Sawka, Andy Hess, Eden Ladin, John Kimock, and more. These cats are all over my hard drives, and I can promise that it’s coming, more music is coming I promise you. if I am breathing, I’m working on it.
Are you from a musical or artistic family?
My grandfather and his lineage of the family were all singers. More than singers, they were cantors, like they would lead services on holy days in the temple. It’s kind of a whole history that I need to save for another interview, but I feel that presence in my music, in my spirit, in my soul.
My maternal grandfather dreamed of being a jazz pianist, but his family and he were all fishermen. He would come visit from Cape Town and record the radio to take home with him because they didn’t have any programming like that. When he passed away, he left a suitcase of cassette tapes for me, a little bit different there, but we shared that passion in a way.
My mom and dad were not musical, but I looked at them and even at a young age, I thought about what it would be like for them if they did more music. My sister and I loved our music collections, though, and I had lots of friends that did as well. I never met my paternal grandfather but I met his little brother in France. He was a painter and I learned a good deal about the family from him.
Who inspired you to be a part of the music industry?
Chronologically Hendrix, old blues guitarists, all Seattle rock like Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Nirvana, then jazz, then Grateful Dead, then Phish. That takes me up to about age 14 or 15. That was enough, really. There was so much other music in between, but that was the roots. Also my high school jazz teacher Scott Brown, and all the kids I made music with and all the teachers I had from ages 12 -22.
How did you learn to sing/write/to play?
I learned to make music directly from the records. I used to play along with the radio and play a game to see if I could get it by the end, or figure out if I could add a part to it. I would love when a song would come on 2x in a day or a week cause I would have a head start on it. When the music got more complex, I would dive deeper into the nature of what made it speak to me.
Songs on rock records and blues came faster as I learned to pick apart Miles Davis, Coltrane, and Thelonious Monk. I always wrote my own music. In fact, if I had more projects, I would write more. I enjoy writing a lot; that was always baked in. Basically it was 99% trial and error with lots of grey area for what was an error, and what was rock in roll, or a happy mistake. The play pause stop buttons where pretty worn out on my stereos. I had a music problem I guess you could say.
What was the first concert you ever went to, and who did you see perform?
It’s a bit foggy what was when. I mean, I saw a lot of music before I went to concerts on my own. I saw Sesame Street on Ice in MSG as a kid. I can still remember it, actually. We took a bus from Hershey, PA, and it was an adventure. I met Big Bird! But yeah, outside of that, Pearl Jam’s Drop in the Park was a big one.
Around that time, there were a lot of little shows. The Dead Milkmen at the OK Hotel was a great time, and Nirvana was great to see; we saw them a few times as kids. I did see a lot of music though! My dad took me to a Stevie Ray Vaughn show among other stuff.
How would you describe your music?
My music is coming from my heart and soul. It’s expressing how I feel in the moment, and it’s a frequency that comes from somewhere else and from inside me at the same time. The music is a mixture of all the music I have ever heard and that has impacted me. It’s part of the story of who I am and what I have lived through.
It’s a freeze frame of what it feels like to be alive in the moment that gets captured in real-time by those in the room and on recordings for future enjoyment. I think describing the art is for other folks to do. I really feel like it is just what it is because I don’t even want to start to put it in a box. If I am playing with someone that plays in a certain style, I want to have my music fit with theirs, but I want to do it in my way.
Describe your creative process.
It really depends on what day it is, what week it is, what time of day it is, and who I am working with. If I am working with someone I really admire, I want to bring out the best in what they have, and I try to focus on that sometimes. As an overview, if I have a purpose to compose for, any purpose, I sit down and start to write.
About 1 in 100 ideas will ever get out to the world. This part of the process is relatively natural but requires presence and focus and purpose. Once the ideas are there, depending on the timeline, I either record them as an idea for later, or I develop them. Then I go to play with a band or in the studio and flesh out the form and the feels.
Once that is done, we either record a basic version, and it evolves in the studio, or I hold on to it, and like I said, about 1 in 100 or maybe less than that even gets out of my personal sphere.
What is your main inspiration?
Nature.
What musician do you admire most and why?
Currently, Stone Gossard. He has taken the time and energy to share advice about my music school and the industry, and I had a year to watch how he manages things, and I was truly impressed by his essence and integrity. He has something I was able to learn from and that I would love to learn more about, that ability to keep things moving and keep growing, both as a family person and as a business person, and as a creative person.
As well as John Medeski and Billy Martin, two folks I got to work with last year who have such a prolific body of work that is just so brilliant to me. The way they really just put their art first and approach the moments. Really, between those three, that’s what’s up for me right now.
I am also just feeling blessed to have had that chance to work with all of them. I want to do more music with more people and get more people listening and playing music, and inspire kids to learn, and musicians to teach.
Did your style evolve since the beginning of your career?
My style evolved and is evolving all the time. The only thing I would say is the general public is seeing the evolution in the past tense. For example, a lot of the evolution was already complete by the time I was 25; it’s just been trying to navigate the systems.
Something like Elon’s Musk, this track with iLL Gates and Cory Cavazos that just came out, I imagine would sound totally different than almost any of the music I have shared. There are a few reasons for that, to be honest: depression, and drug use, relationships, so many things, family stuff. I mean, I had an ex-girlfriend take her life.
There have also been some amazing times and revelations and moments of spiritual clarity, times where I was really working hard at the art. I think there are a lot of dimensions to all this. I think it would be more clear if I were able to see that from a third-person perspective. I am not sure I can. My wiring is really made to be in the moment.
Who do you see as your main competitor?
I don’t see competition. Not like that. I think we are all different, and the competition is really more an internal thing. We are our own worst enemies and our own best friends and allies in a way.
I can speak to the business of education, my school, The Music Factory, that has seen competition sneak up in our vicinity in various forms that I really don’t need to mention, but it has taught me that there is more to life than comparing and more to life than being worried about competition. It’s not a good use of mind power, I would say, or rather it has not proved valuable to me to focus on. I also see Gannon from Zelda as my main competitor, Zelda is my spirit warrior.
What are your interests outside of music?
Outside of music, I am focused on education, family, relationships, business, becoming better, learning to focus thoughts, ideas, intentions, and learning how to use time more efficiently. I like to walk every day, and I like to solve problems, and to rest. I also like space I love space. Space is music, music is harmony and rhythm and harmonics and vibration.
If it wasn’t for a music career, what would you be doing?
I would hope I would be a doctor or a spiritual leader. That was always the aim before I started to play. Music seemed to be in the middle. In a way, I had a hard childhood. I had a really hard time, and if I had a better time, I would be out there doing computers, medicine, or building a community somehow. The music just kept me together and gave me a purpose and a mission, so in this lifetime, that’s it. That’s the only career.
What is the biggest problem you have encountered in the journey of music?
The biggest obstacle I have encountered is wanting to make a really special connection with other players, wanting to have a band, and having it not work out. I would say the obstacle was communication. I think I tried in most cases to be the best I could, to really be there, to be there to have the conversations, to work out any issues, and put the music first.
I really value those relationships. I think this time is a time where folks have so many options, maybe too many options, and you learn that it makes things really hard to keep going at a collaborative level. I know I am signed up for it, but I also get it. I am also pulled in many directions. So the problem is both the solution and the obstacle – potentiality.
On the one hand, I see so clearly the vision of what can happen if we all work together, and on the other hand, maybe I have tried too hard to hold on to some of those ideas, but yet on another hand, some of those notions have led to all the great amazing things that have happened as well over the last 15 years.
If you could change one thing in the music industry, what would it be?
Dang, there are 1000 things I would change. I wish I was president; I would run on an artists-first platform. A society that takes care of its visionaries and artists is a society that the rich and the poor and the middle class all appreciate much more. I would change the streaming paradigm, take big tech money and the bank loan money, and be real about how much they are undervaluing the arts.
Give artists 0% loans for the arts, and make an art tax so all artists can get medical, dental, holistic care, and make art and be able not to need a day job. I would also want to get help resonating with new audiences. The industry doesn’t make that easy unless there is some financing involved. I often see that touring acts have at least one member getting love from their families to make it work.
It should be based on the core value the art and artists bring to the world as the driving force. Also I would change mp3’s I get it is convenient but the quality is not as good as flac, or tape.
What message would you like to give to your fans?
It’s a wild world we are in here, but it may be better than we think. I think if there is a way for you to access the better moments in life, honor that way, amplify it, share it.
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