Health, Mission & Love: Why Arielle Eden Decided To Return To Music
Entrepreneur Naval Ravikant once tweeted: “Three things in life – your health, your mission, and the people you love. That’s it.”
Out of all the stories I’ve shared about musicians, Arielle’s stands out as the epitome of this statement.
Arielle Eden is an indie singer-songwriter who loves performing and connecting with people through music. But life has challenged her with obstacles that at one point would have made it impossible for her to pursue music. If not for these three essentials in life – health, mission, and love – we may not have the privilege to hear her latest song “Love’s On The Run” released after the rebirth of her music career.
Read on for more, or watch highlights of our conversation in this video:
“While I’m here, while I can do it, I want to put my music out into the world.”
Health
Arielle Eden’s journey as a musician has been a circuitous one. Some time between 2013 and 2015 (her announcement on Facebook was made in early 2015 and she believes the track was made available in 2013), Arielle released a single named “It’s Alright to Cry” under the name Arielle. Even before the song was released, she had started experiencing health issues. “When I think back to the ‘It’s Alright To Cry’ release,” she says, “I remember being in the studio and just really not feeling at my best. I’m sure that served as an obstacle to some of the momentum that I could have had.”
Having children also shifted her focus, and her health took a turn for the worse especially after her second child was born. “There were times when it was difficult for me to move,” she says. After many consultations with different doctors and lots of searching for answers and treatments, she was finally able to regain her health from an autoimmune condition.
And soon after she started feeling better, she made the decision to return to music. This time, she’s releasing under a new name – Arielle Eden.
Mission
Her latest single, “Love’s On The Run,” is part of a collection of songs she’s planning to release, and represents her reaction to the recent ups and downs in life she has experienced. “I don’t know what’s going to happen,” Arielle says, “but what I do know is that while I’m here, while I can do it, I want to put my music out into the world.” She also remembers a clear moment when she decided to call her producer Daniel A. Weiss (who used to play keyboard with her at her live shows) and told him “we need to record.”
I ask her how she describes her music and her writing process, and she reveals another part of her life as a psychologist. “Things have always started from an emotion,” she describes. “Usually I’m trying to figure something out when I’m writing. I’ve had the experience where after I’ve written a song, something in life makes sense.” She realizes the psychologist in her is now analyzing the process, and she chuckles about that, but goes on to explain that through writing music, “you [as the songwriter] find a place for it, for the experience. I’m redeeming something that needed to be redeemed. From a creative perspective that’s where things start. And I hope it does the same thing for other people.”
Love
Before we jump to the fun topic of her new song where she becomes a love detective, I ask her if it ever crossed her mind to stop singing or recording music. Life, as we now know, has presented her with difficult challenges. Her response starts with: “I definitely had a period where I was questioning: Am I going to do this? Should I just let it go?” but without hesitation, she shares the one constant motivation that has kept her going.
“I actually have my brother to thank,” Arielle says. “He lives in California and he would come once a year to New York and perform with his band (Arielle’s brother, Jon, plays with the band Hints), and he would always have me open for him. If there’s one thing that always kind of got me back, it was that show and preparing and performing and remembering what that feeling was like of sharing my music…I really think that kept me in the game.”
What’s Next?
Arielle’s “Love’s On The Run” single is available now (snippets of the song and dance moves are all here in this video) and she has already announced the upcoming release of her next single “Till The End of Time” to signal her commitment to sharing music with the world.
I thank Arielle for showing us that with her regained health, a mission in music and love around her, there’s reason for her and for the rest of us to seek light at the end of the tunnel even when life can seem impossible during the darkest hours.
Interview conducted and written by Louise Lau. Connect with her on social media @offstagetunes
Watch video highlights of this interview
Listen to Love’s On The Run on Spotify