To Ariel Bellvalaire, the electric guitar isn’t just an instrument. It’s her muse and motivation. It’s her heart and soul. The guitar is also what puts her own rock twist on pop music. Think Avril Lavigne with a hint of Van Halen. But it’s her high- energy performance, aerial gymnastics, and shredding creativity that makes Ariel like no other artist you’ve seen. The girl from the quiet town of Windsor Connecticut, has been making a lot of noise around the world as a solo artist, lead guitarist and singer for the Michael Jackson “I Am King Experience,” and as the lead guitarist of the all- female Guns ’n Roses tribute band, Paradise Kitty. Coming from a gymnastics background, Ariel is also an accomplished aerialist and can be seen combining her aerial hoop routines with guitar playing which lead to her creating an act called “Shrednastics” which first debuted on ABC’s “The Gong Show.” Beyond her impressive musicianship, Ariel showcases her songwriting on her forthcoming album. Songs like her debut single “Elastic” show off her catchy pop melodies and storytelling lyrics. We recently convinced her to unplug and put her guitar down for a few minutes recently so that we could talk to her. We were curious to learn more about her background as well as what’s ahead for this talented young guitarist.
So going into this, I have to ask. I know of two of ways of pronouncing your first name. There is the little girl that was the mermaid…
Ariel Bellvalaire: Yup. (laughing) I’ll give you a hint, the mermaid is not the one. It’s all good.
“R-E-L Bell-va-laire” and Bellvalaire everybody gets wrong.
Gotcha! I knew I had a 50/50 chance and didn’t want to get it wrong.
I think the worst name mess up was “Oreo Blueberry” and I’m not even kidding. He was dead serious.
What?
I know, right?!
So, question. I’m curious about the aerial gymnastics. How old were you when you got into the guitar? Were you more into gymnastics in school?
I was! Growing up I was a competitive gymnast. Before I even discovered music, singing, the stage, any of that. I was kind of always flipping around. You couldn’t keep me out of the trees or keep me off of a trampoline. So when I finally did discover music, it kind of just fell hand in hand. You put me on stage, I would naturally do a split or something crazy. Mid solo and the audience would go nuts. So I would always try to find these new crazy tricks I could do and add my guitar to it.
Aerial had actually come later on after I had been touring. There’s actually an aerial circus work out class I tried in Los Angeles and they had all of the aerial equipment there. I was like “oh my gosh, this is so much fun!” It’s a lot like gymnastics so I was naturally pretty good at it. Naturally the next step, when I was hanging upside and thinking this is fun and easy. Can I add my guitar? So I happened to have at the time a little guitar strap that went around my waist. And it’s actually meant to keep the weight of the guitar off your shoulders so you don’t have any back issues. And I just thought I’m going to do the opposite of that and try to hang upside down and do crazy stuff with my guitar. And it worked! I didn’t hit myself in the head, and my guitar stayed in place.
After that, the aerial guitar act was kind of born.
Wow. That’s amazing. I was just thinking “she’s the Tommy Lee of guitarists.”
(laughing) Totally!
I thought of two things. Number one, I thought of Pink when I saw you doing that. Then I thought of Tommy Lee. Both great music references right there.
I’m obsessed with both of them too! So that’s great to hear!
So in doing all of this, I have to ask – were there ever any injuries?
No. The funny thing is, I have never once hurt myself doing any crazy stunts. The only time I ever hurt myself was doing stupid things. Like cutting myself doing the dishes or tripping while taking out the trash. Household chores, those are the dangerous ones. Otherwise I’m fine. I’ve been lucky though.
Okay. So “Elastic” is your debut single and video?
Debut of both. I’ve done singles through out the years, but nothing big. Just kind of dabbling as a solo artist. Now I’m just full on ready as a solo artist.
So what made you go from sticking your toe in to just jumping straight into the deep end?
I’ve actually always wanted to be a solo artist. That’s always been my number one goal. But I didn’t necessarily know how to do it before. It was one of those things where I would dabble, I would try, then I’d get hired on someone else’s tour playing guitar. And I thought okay the time will come and I’ll figure it out.
But the thing is, the time doesn’t come, you have to make the time. You have to decide we’re just doing it. We’re going to do it right and do the best we possibly can and just put it out there. And that’s when it starts to happen really.
So how nervous were you going into launching this debut?
The funny thing is I wasn’t actually too nervous. Just because this all kind of happened during Covid. At that point, all of my shows were gone, I’m not touring at all, I don’t even feel like a working musician anymore. I have nothing to lose. (laughing) It kind of brought my spark back too in the way I always wanted. As horrible as it was losing all tours. At least I was able to find sight in my solo career. I was like “This is it. This is where we’re going. Just dive in and go.”
We’ve been a little over a year into this and we’ve heard so much negative stuff. But there has been all sorts of artistic stuff that’s come from it, not just music. People have had so much extra time to focus on their craft. A lot of people I think have had time they’ve never had before to work on things.
Right. I’ve had so much time. I’ve had plenty of time to write, I was going to school full time because I never really had time to do that before. It’s definitely a challenging time. But it’s also a time of training and figuring out exactly what you want. So that when the world opens up again, you can start.
You seem so fearless in the video. What was the motorcycle part like?
That was actually pretty scary. I had already done the aerial stuff and I was fully prepared to do that in a video. Then the director, his name is Hunter McCann. He said “What if we put you on the back of a motorcycle? I know we go to the desert sometimes, but what if you play guitar on the back of a moving motorcycle?”
I said “Oh my god, I’m terrified of this. I’m in. Let’s do it.” (laughing) Basically we drove out to the desert and we wanted to get first light for that shot. So we’re driving to the desert at 3 in the morning. We get there and we’re waiting for the sun to come up. I’m sitting on the back of my motorcycle, holding my guitar, the wind is blowing in my eyes. I was so scared. But the second they turned my song on, I don’t know what happened. I was ready to stand up and you know what, I did, and it was completely fine. And it turned out to be my favorite part of the video.
The question is how can I top that for the next one?
See? You gotta keep pushing. Keep raising the bar.
Exactly.
So as far as on the music front goes, and being a full fledged solo artist. Do you have a plan of what your vision is? Are you working on more music?
Yeah. I actually have a full album worth of material. We’re getting ready to release the second single. Probably within the next month or two. We’ve got a couple more lined up. I want to just keep putting music out there. Keep bringing guitar back to pop music. My goal is to tour as a solo artist. So we’re going to keep going and keep releasing until we can get there.
I’m sure you’re itching to get back out. I’ve read some of the Broadway stuff that you have done and after doing some of those shows, I’m sure you’re just going through major withdrawals right now.
Oh my gosh. I feel like I’m addicted to the stage, you cannot keep me off the stage. To not have that I don’t know what I’m doing. I find myself in a split in my living room playing guitar solos. I can’t wait for it to come back.
I read about “Dearly Beloved” and I’m a huge Prince fan. Was that a tribute show to him? What was that like?
That was so cool. We did two shows and it was all of the Broadway stars coming together and playing a different character from the ‘Purple Rain’ movie. So we had the lead actor from ‘Wicked’ playing Prince. One of the actresses from ‘Hedwig’ was Apollonia, we had the amazing actress from the Janis Joplin show that was singing and doing backgrounds, and I was Wendy from the movie. Playing with the talent from Broadway just completely blew me away. Prince songs are hard to do anyway! I don’t think anyone can do them except Prince. But the people from Broadway were just hitting all the high notes and putting on an over the top theatrical show. It was such an honor to share the stage with them.
And I guess we should throw in a mention of the Michael Jackson “I Am King” experience too.
Yeah. That’s really one of my favorite things. There’s really nothing more fun than playing Michael Jackson songs live and they have a full cast of dancers. So you’re playing ‘Thriller’ and there’s zombies on stage. That is the most fun show you could possibly do. I can’t wait for those to start again too.
Did you start out playing guitar or did you start with a different instrument?
I was actually a singer first. I wanted to be Avril Lavigne specifically. So my mom put me in vocal lessons when I was 10 years old. A local studio where I would train at had a program called “Rock Band Jam” where they would take students from different instruments and put them in a band. They have a teacher that coaches you in a band, and I was totally into that. I actually played in my first pub when I was 10 years old. That was my first stage experience and I was hooked after that. The guitar came two years later.
So when did you pick up the guitar?
I think I was 12. I had kind of dabbled with chords, my dad had shown me a few. But it wasn’t until I saw Avril Lavigne holding a guitar is when I wanted to take guitar lessons. My dad had wanted me to get into it for years. There weren’t really too many musicians in the family, so he was totally supportive of having a guitarist in the family.
We started out on electric too, which is really cool because that’s my true love now. So by the time I had been in a band and we’d lost the guitar player, I already knew enough to step in and play basic pop songs. So my first time performing in a band on guitar I had to learn how to sing and play at the same time.
One day I had a random desire to hear metal music and I pulled up Ozzy Osborne and heard “Crazy Train” for the first time. That guitar riff completely blew my mind. And when it got to the solo, it was over. I didn’t want to do Avril Lavigne anymore, I wanted to do Randy Rhoads.
So I started learning some rock solos and we played them out at our little band rock concert and people freaked out! Seeing a little girl play a solo. I felt special like there wasn’t too many little girls that can do this. So it just snowballed from there.
Little girls really have mostly guys to look up to as far as playing any kind of electric guitar. There are female guitarists out there, but they just don’t have as many to look up to. So it’s cool you’re doing it. Have you ever had a little girl come up to you and mention that?
I’ve had a couple like that and I’ll just hand her the guitar. I love to show them ‘Smoke On The Water’ because that’s the first song everyone can play. So whenever a little girl or a little boy really comes up to me, I encourage them to do it. I usually hand them my guitar, show them a little something, show them a chord to play. Then I get really excited about how excited they are about guitar and music. It’s so amazing to see, especially with the little girls.
I love that.
Talking about the metal guitarists and Randy Rhoads and all of these articles usually have an influence question. After watching the video, I’m assuming Eddie Van Halen is one…
Oh, yes!
Who were some of your early influences when you really started jamming?
I already said my main ones. Avril Lavigne really got me into music. I quickly gravitated towards the complete rock star. So Eddie Van Halen, of course, like you mentioned. Randy Rhoads, he was one of my favorites. Slash, for sure. I love Guns N’ Roses. Heart, you got Ann & Nancy who are just the founders of women in rock.
Um. I love Pink, I love Lady Gaga. I just love Lady Gaga songs with heavy guitar, that’s kind of what got me into pop/rock. Playing her earlier songs but with a rock band.
And she’s a big rock/metal fan as well.
She is! It’s so great to see, too.
Being a guitarist, I’m sure it was just mind blowing to have a feature in Guitar World of all magazines.
Oh my God! I’m still over the moon with that one! When I discovered I was going to be featured in it, my mom had just been cleaning out my childhood bedroom. She said “I just found one of your Guitar World magazines with Eddie Van Halen on the cover.” It was such an honor.
How many copies do you have?
All of the copies! (laughing)
What’s coming up? Do you want to mention anything coming up that you’re working on?
I have a new single coming out, probably within the next month or two. It’s kind of similar to “Elastic” in the sense that it’s a pop/rock anthem song but with a guitar solo, because every pop song needs a guitar solo. So you can expect over the top stunts, of course. Crazy lead electric guitar and pop melodies.
We always end these things with what we call “3 for the road;” 3 kind of fun questions to pick into your personality. Who was your very first childhood crush?
Oooh. Probably Nick Carter from The Backstreet Boys. Little seven yr old me loved them so much.
And millions of other 7 yr old girls.
Right? If only they had guitars.
True. That’s a good point! If you could have anyone (person, actor, cartoon character, anyone) be your inner voice who would it be? What would be fun?
That’s a tough one! Hmm. Probably Anna Sophia Robb. She’s one of the few actresses that people tell me is my doppelganger. Back when I used to straighten my hair. Watching her movies, her voice kind of reminds me of my voice.
And one last one. It might be another toughie. If music was over with today and you had to go into professional wrestling, what would your name be?
That is a tough one! Probably The Fire Cracker! You probably can’t tell from my pictures, but I’m 5’5″ tall and super tiny. You throw me on stage and people are like “Oh my God, you’re the little firecracker!”
See? That wasn’t too tough.
No. I think the inner voice one was harder.
Well, that’s a wrap! It was really cool talking to you and I can’t wait to see what you have in-store for us in your new video! Thanks again for your time today!
Thank you so much Johnny!!
By I’m Music Magazine Owner/Editor Johnny Price
