Album Notes

All songs written by Ari Scott
(c) 2001 Guera Music/BMI
http://www.ariscott.com

ari grew up surrounded primarily by opera and european rock in her early youth and then, as a pre-pubescent, progressed to top 40 and pop music. she never took a piano lesson but instead played songs off the radio by ear and taught herself basic theory on her casio keyboard. her love for piano, singing, and writing grew even stronger in college, where she began composing songs. inspired especially by the sarcastic humor of morrissey, the piano prowess of tori amos and the creativity of madonna, ari spent most of her time in piano practice rooms honing her skills, and moved to new york city two weeks after graduation. over the last few years ari has been developing as a musician, writer, and performer at venues such as the bitter end, the baggot
inn, acme underground, eureka joe, the c-note, and the dark star lounge, and has developed a steadily-growing loyal fanbase in new york.

after many requests from fans, friends, and family for a full-length album, ari made the difficult choice of choosing eleven of her many songs, and recorded "i was only just a chorus girl" in 2001. "i wanted to keep things as simple as possible," she explains. "based on my lack of recording experience as well as monetary funds, i wanted to produce it myself and keep the number of instruments to a minimum." ari sought the expertise of asw studio's in-house engineer savvas karamalis and says that "savvas was extremely helpful during the recording process." ari sang and played piano on all the tracks, incorporating keyboard into some and enlisting the help of the only other musician on the album, djembe player sanjay kaul. karamalis also managed to obtain the talents of steve vavagiakis (kid creole and the coconuts, academy award-winning documentary "american dream") of bang zoom productions to master the cd. photographer michael chong and graphic designer sang-jin.bae were also instrumental in the design of the cd insert. the cd release party was held in june of 2002 at the famous new york city venue the bitter end to a packed house.

ari's early songs were admittedly left of center. "the first few years in new york, i wrote a bunch of silly songs with odd structures, not really intending to write 'radio friendly' material." several songs on iwojacg reflect this somewhat quirky nature. two of the more popular songs on the album are "i lie," a song about lies she told as a child to gain popularity ("i can't quite figure out how they could like me for who i am / how pathetic is my life?") and "here lies a woman," a hopeful eulogy for herself ("here lies a woman who knew right from wrong / here lies a woman who knew all along / she would have a positive effect on those who surrounded her / here lies a woman loved by those around her"). her song topics range from the typical, such as love ("connection") and death ("haunt me," "a boy"), to the more original, such as waiting tables ("bad day") and her dream home ("my adobe house"). fans have compared her to many singer/songwriters, but the one word used most often to describe her is "unique." as one fan stated, "i don't know what to compare her to, she's an original."

since the release of the album, ari has created herself a website, www.ariscott.com. updating the site with news, photos of shows, and reviews from fans has become a daily ritual. her first press review was one she came upon by accident: bill bolton of the catamount country chronicles was at ari's cd release party to review the singer amy jo johnson, who was slated to appear after ari. bolton saw ari's set and mentioned her in his review of amy jo, stating that "ari has a very beautiful voice and great stage presence."

ari has written a slew of songs, both before and since the recording of "iwojacg," and is eagerly awaiting the time when she can return to the studio. "i've got the material. at this point, it's a matter of funds," she says. ari admits she's getting a bit tired of doing everything
herself and is currently seeking label support.

ari is a member of BMI, the national academy of popular music (NAPM), and the songwriter's guild of america.