By Ian Pumphrey
She still remembers the day she got her first ukulele.
It was a Christmas gift given to her in seventh grade, and as she battled anxiety, it became a haven.
Her passion for the ukulele would drive her music career, releasing an EP, or extended play, titled Yellow in October of last year.
The EP has helped junior Ariel Corinne channel one of her main influences for making music; mental health.
“People struggle. I struggle. Everybody struggles,” Corinne said. “ I wanted to make music that people can relate to. I try not to make really sad music because, obviously, sad music makes people sad, and I’d rather bring lyrics from my own experiences and make them into something that’s not so sad that you can still relate to.”
Additionally, Corinne has been influenced by an important outlook she’s learned to have.
“A lot of my music’s about not being afraid of the unknown,” Corinne said. “Or about not knowing how to do something, and it’s kind of like getting into other people’s minds to not be afraid of what’s to come.”
Corinne has gained much of her interest in music from the movies she watched when she was younger.
“I had done violin and choir in middle school,” Corinne said. “But [among other things] I watched August Rush, which is a movie about this young, introverted musical prodigy, and I just really enjoyed it and thought it sounded fun.”
Corinne has become versatile with her music efforts, balancing vocals, writing music, and the ukulele.
“If anybody were to ask, I’d say my main thing is the ukulele,” Corinne said. “That’s what I do, and I really like doing that with the singing and songwriting.”
The songs off of Corinne’s EP are not bare-bones though, being much more complex than one audio recording of the ukulele.
“All of the songs on the EP are based off of different ukulele songs that I wrote,” Corinne said. “And I just added onto them over time. One of them is this instrumental called ‘Cloud,’ but the rest of them have words added onto them. The song ‘Not Tonight’ goes way back to seventh grade, when I had written the first set of lyrics to it.”
For production, Corinne received some help.
“I had produced one song with a friend since I didn’t know anything about producing,” Corinne said. “And then for the others, during quarantine I was confident enough to do it myself. To release the music, I had used Distrokid, and that got the music on Spotify and Apple Music and that type of stuff, to promote.”
Self-production was one part of the EP that Corinne thought would be easier.
“I was really surprised by the difficulty of producing by myself,” Corinne said. “When you listen to younger artists and listen to a lot of those trap beats you think it must be easy, but it’s not. There’s so much little stuff that you have to do and think about, especially when you use the cheaper software that I used, which was Studio One 5.”
Corinne’s songs aim toward being more than one style.
“The music’s definitely a blend of genres,” Corinne said. “It’s not just one. There’s something like lo-fi when you want to study it, there’s the upbeat, like rock, and there’s some trap beats in one song. It’s for everyone I would say. You’ve got one to chill to, one to rock out to and then there’s that classic car-ride song.”
Her music’s style has also been influenced by other styles.
“I’ve definitely enjoyed and wanted the vibe of the band Surfaces,” Corinne said. “For the ukulele aspect, mxmtoon has also been a big part of the sound.”
Corinne hopes her songs give a more upbeat feeling.
“When listening to the EP, I want people to feel happy and chill,” Corinne said. “The “no worries” type of thing. One of the songs is literally about being okay and just relaxing, and I think, especially now, that’s a good message to give.”
Lyrics come to Corinne in a number of ways.
“Sometimes it’s just me making stuff up in my head,” Corinne said. “And other times it’s centered around the struggles of teenagers my age, and just the struggle of being young and knowing and stressing that you’ll have to be an adult when you want to stay youthful.”
The lyrics also come when Corinne observes others,
I’m definitely a people watcher,” Corinne said. “I might look around at others and think ‘Oh! that person’s struggling and I struggle,’ and I try to show with the lyrics that everyone experiences that.”
The EP’s title comes from the way Corinne observes colors.
“This may sound weird,” Corinne said. “But I kind of see colors when I listen to music, and so I feel like yellow just accompanies all of the songs together.”
Although having experience in music from a young age, Corinne wasn’t raised by a family of musicians.
“My family listens to music, but it was just country or Selena,” Corinne said. “My dad would say ‘No, you shouldn’t play the violin, just focus on tennis’ but I was into the music thing more. [My parents] definitely weren’t on board at first, but once they saw that people were enjoying what I was doing, they were cool with it.”
The people definitely have been enjoying the music, as Corinne’s success has helped her land new solo gigs throughout San Antonio, showcasing songs from the EP.
“I performed at open-mic nights downtown,” Corinne said. “And it just escalated to more of a venue-type job and now I work at airports as a musician.”
After the process of writing, producing and releasing her EP, Corinne has advice for those who want to do the same.
“Don’t rush the process, but also don’t harp on it,” Corinne said. “Don’t take so long trying to change everything. It’s never going to be perfect, but also don’t say ‘This is good!’ immediately and be done with it.”
Going forward, Corinne plans on releasing more singles before making another complete set of songs.
“I’m definitely going to start releasing covers,” Corinne said. “I’ve also been getting into rock and other styles, because I don’t want to hone in on the current style of the EP since I don’t really know what my style is yet. The EP’s experimental; there’s about four different genres on four different songs, and I just want to branch out more. I’d rather have a crazy album with 20 different genres and not stick to one sound. Other artists may have their own sound, but I’m not a pop singer or a rock singer. I’m just a songwriter, and if it sounds good it sounds good!”
Corinne is happy with the reception she’s gotten from her EP so far.
“I’m the artist, and I will criticize myself,” Corrinne said. “Yet I’m proud; I can finally move on, because I was anxious for a really long time about releasing it, but people have shown it some love. They enjoyed it and that truly makes me happy.”