The Campbell Apartment has been in existence for 20 years now. The group, fronted by Ari Vais, was formed in NYC and later relocated to San Francisco. Their music - impossibly catchy, twisted little songs that often clock in at 2 minutes or less - has been lauded by such outlets as Rolling Stone, Magnet and CREEM magazines, and such luminaries as Danny Goldberg, Chris Collingwood (Fountains of Wayne), Badly Drawn Boy and Ben Deily (The Lemonhead), who all count themselves as fans. Ari Vais has released and published about 120 songs in the last 35+ years. (510), The Campbell Apartment’s most recent LP, out now on Mint 400 Records, is the group’s 8th release and its 5th on Mint 400.
Q: In your opinion, what are the essential qualities that make a “good songwriter”?
I don’t know if you can be born with something that others might not be born with - people often tell me they wish they could make oil paintings like me, and I always say I don’t know what I’m doing and just learned by doing, and they counter with the word “talent” which can’t be learned - or whether everything is a matter of practice and non-give-uppery. But I think a good songwriter, to me, has to have an inherent sense of melody, where the melodies are not reused, of course, so that the songs are undeniably melodic and hook-laden, and therefore accessible, without repeating melodies that have already been written by others. Also, non-crindge-worthy lyrics. I know this is a low bar, but writing lyrics that no one could in any way be embarrassed by, it’s not easy. Of course, if one can avoid cringe-worthy lyrics, they should strive for good lyrics, which is even harder because being too direct or emotionally manipulative - telling people how to feel and in Creative Writing we were taught to show, not tell - those are traps that so many writers fall into. Finally, being completely honest. Honest from an indie rock perspective in that you are not trying to please any people or corporate entities but rather just writing for the joy of writing as though it’ll never be heard anyway…. But also honest in that the emotions are not artificial, but really how the writer was feeling at the time of the writing of whatever song. I enjoy writing (and listening to words about) real places and people and things, like I am being let into the writer’s world, or an inside joke the writer has with her or his bandmates, even if I have no idea what the references are - especially then.
Q: What is the basis for writing attention-grabbing music in this day and age?
Showing plenty of skin or generally being hot. Honestly I don’t know about this day and age, but generally either hard hitting lyrics that cannot be ignored, and I don’t mean profanities, they’re too easy and a bit cheap, I mean lyrics a passive listener can’t ignore even if they’re just daydreaming and folding laundry or driving and is not a “lyrics person”, but also an undeniable hook. That’s just me. Is the song now stuck in your head? For days? Are all of that artist’s songs like that? That would grab my attention. I think that’s my talent I was born with - the gift of melody - and writing very catchy but non-grating songs is my gift, even though that sounds arsy. Having that superpower, it’s why I will never stop writing songs - it’s like, I have no right to stop because music is a spiritual, celestial matter and I am just a man.
Q: Can you pinpoint some specific songs and songwriters that changed the way you write music?
Changed I don’t know about, but informed how I write? Sure. I have countless infuences. I like how Amy Winehouse married incredibly soulful singing (singing can in fact improve throughout one’s entire life and so soul can’t be faked, but it can be enhanced as far as how a person sings) with really depraved and generally hella dark words. I love all contrasts like that - when the music and the words are at odds with each other, maybe unconfortably so. The Beatles first and foremost but, the older I got, the more John Lennon’s singing style and even vocal production choices. Liz Phair for the same penchant for sticking really raw, sometimes shocking lyrics underneath the pleasant, innocuous lyrics and underneath the cute, girl next door facade. Tom Waits and Sonic Youth and Flaming Lips for being weird - weird isn’t always artistic, but it can be argued that artistic is always weird, especially for people who don’t know from art. And then Lou Reed and later Julian Casablancas for being true to who they were in real life, and their effortless, unstudied “cool”. I could go on for hours but my influences are almost infinite and most of them are sub-conscious. I have lyrical nods to people I love that I don’t even know about, sometimes I do not realize until years later. It just dawned on me that my hit song “Sand and Glue” from last year, that’s from a lyric from the Bowie song “Song for Bob Dylan” from Hunky Dory, and here I was for the whole year and change since the song came out telling people honestly that I don’t know what sand and glue means. Also, our third record, “Sundogs”, which was an EP and easily from a decade ago - the song “I’m Free” which has the refrain “Don’t let it bring you down” - that was directly stolen but completely unconsciously from “Strangers” by The Kinks, which has a similar refrain with the same lyric! I adore Ray Davies. So mischievous and yet so heart-achingly beautiful, that soul of his, same with Paul Westerberg.
Q: Do you find it hard to be inspired by your peers? Can you name any new artists you find inspiring?
Hard only because I tend to listen to classical music, oftentimes piano chamber music. Jack Adamant over in Sweden is making some noises I love, has been for years. I also love the hard-rockin East Bay bands The Bonstones and Stone Dog. If I am forgetting about your band, I apologize. Lately my mind and time are occupied by solo parenting and honing my standup comedy skills since there’s a show coming up!
Q: For your new album, what inspired the lyrical content, album title, and overall vibe?
Well (510) was to remind myself to stop wondering where I’m from or where home is, to stop having this existential thing missing from my life. Everyone knows where they come from or where home is but for me, moving around my entire life starting with age 9, I could never answer that question. And I was okay with that because only the present is real, the past and future are just conceptual and in my opinion not worth thinking about much. But now that I live in the East Bay, and the (510) contingent is a very proud group of people, yet a small enough group where there’s actually a pretty awesome rock n roll music scene that, through sheer stick-aroundery, I am a part of now, and because I can’t go anywhere for the next 12 years because of my custody situation, the album title just came to me - like, this is now home and I think I like it.
The overall vibe is brutally honest, almost uncomfortably personal, though the lyrics are obtuse - or dreamy - depending on whose side you’re on - so as not to be obvious, it’s got gorgeous, stunning production but is at the same an understated album because it was written so quickly that all of it is stream of consciousness, especially the lyrical choices and themes. It’s all literally what I was feeling the morning of that particular sesson. “30,000 Days” was based on a conversation I had with my friend Karen who suggested writing a song about all the quirky ways I measure time - like garbage day Thusdays. And then hearing somewhere or reading in a book that we all get around 30,000 days to live, on average. But the song is pretty cheerful and almost Beach Boys-esque in terms of vocal harmonies, that it masks the fact that it is about life. “In My Dreams” is pretty open about wishing I could be with my daughters full time and my aversion to the corporate world, all of it through an “I imagine” or “in my dreams” lens. Being forced into a sabbatical two years in a row makes a guy re-assess the idea of working for an entirely for-profit entity, how little love there is there. “Tululah Says” is about a local barista because I’d come into this coffee shop called The Island Savoy where I live, to write the album or look for work, and I needed one more song and she was right there, has a cool name that I “reappropriated”, and the lyrics are literally things she has said to me like “room for cream”? “Ambulen” was about those years when I was addicted to heavy drinking while taking Ambien and not going to sleep, and the psychedelic trip it created. Easy to write about all that stuff now that I’m sober going on 5 years and can look back on my past insanity through a clear lens and a clean soul. And on and on like that. “Grudge” and the other grunge song are about my seeminly neverending divorce and the anger that’s served up with, as a foul side order. Getting those songs off my chest by writing and recorded them magically made the toxic, triggered feelings go away. On the other hand they are now immortalized. “Words With Birds” are about my children and how painful and existential life is when they are not with me. The song “What’s Goin On” is funny because I was trying to capture what it felt like to suddenly become single immediate when Covid became a thing, in March of 2020, and how through Covid and even after, my social life was literally non-existent, so when my far away friends asked “What’s goin on? What you up to”, I’d honestly say “I’m not up to much”, which all made it verbatim into the song, and the other bits about dogs seeing in the dark or octopuses having 3 hearts, that’s just from watching the nature channel or reading novels. “Winter 2028” cracks me up, especially “no more Nancy getting rid of Joe; no more Jill Stein dealing earth its fatal blow, isn’t it ironic? Don’t you think?” is obviously about the election as well as my shameless attempt to meet and hang out with Alanis Morrisette who lives very close to me. “Life On An Oil Rig” was title first, and I used ChatGPT to learn what life IS like on an oil rig, and used the snippets of answers as my lyrics, but it’s about isolation.
Q: Do you find that you ruminate over writing songs and hold on to them for a long time before including them on a record? Or do you prefer to write them, release them, and be done with them? Do you ever re-visit old material to do a re-write or once it’s done it’s done?
Yes, yes and yes again. I don’t think I ruminate exactly, but like most songwriters, I’ll use Voices Memos to capture an idea to fiddle with later. The song “Alone In The Bar” from (510) is a melody I feel has been circling in my brain for my whole adult life, but I never even cosidered figuring out what the 4 chords were until it was time to write (510) and then it took me a mere second. Likewise the pretty word-salad that makes up the entire song were just couplets that were running through my mind for ages. We eliminated in post-production a ton of other couplets I sang, to make the songs not feel endless. On the other hand, when I write them - and I’m not apologizing for this - I record them fairly quickly, and then never touch them again. If TCA is gigging, I have to learn - or re-learn at least 10-20 of them, but I have 120 songs. Once I write and record and release them, though, they almost don’t feel like they’re mine anymore, not anymore than a cloud is mine, or an oil painting I made that someone else now owns. They belong to the universe now and it just doesn’t give me a lot of joy to sit around playing through them. Maybe that’ll change.
Q: Were there any lessons you learned in the writing and recording process for your current release that you will take with you into your next project?
Oh definitely. My songs have always had - and I never intended this - irregular patterns or no patters, and chords changes that were next to impossible to figure out and, if you figured them out, almost impossible to remember how to play. That’s how I write but I am also extremely sensitive to not sounding obvious with my music or words, or like anyone else may have sounded. But the songs are nevertheless very accessible. And that combo - that’s what I do. In the case of (510), though, my producer Chris Dunn and I were between jobs again, and I told my record label that I’d be submitting a new LP by the end of ‘24, and only started writing and recording it sometime into September. So what I learned is, that freestyle writing is very flattering to the music! Who knews? So these new songs are not impossible how to figure out how to play, but I learned that is not necessary to be original - and not overthinking my creativity IS necessary to be the most honest yet the most artistically viable that I can be. It’s that letting go of control. The words on this new album - I did not go over and edit any of them - they just came to me - there was simply no time and I am a lazy lazy man. Although to be fair, writing this way, not worrying about sculpting a perfectly wrought, perfect little pop song and just sitting down at the piano or with a guitar and getting on with it, I don’t think I could have done it without 30+ years of writing under my belt. It’s a confidence thing like, even if I don’t try too hard - especially if I don’t try too hard - the results will be really strong. It’s like Picasso couldn’t paint all that crazy shit he painted and that he is known for, without first knowing exactly how to draw the perfect horse.