Ariel Bui announces new album, shares music video for lead single "Sixteen"

The Nashville based singer, songwriter and music educator Ariel Bui has shared a single and music video from her forthcoming new LP, Real & Fantasy

Photo Credit: Jonathan Kingsbury

Recent years have been a boom time for artists like Angel Olsen, Sharon van Etten, and Courtney Barnett who deftly skirt the edges of indie rock, folk, and alt-country, and Ariel Bui's new single "Sixteen" positions Ariel Bui as another example of someone walking that genre tightrope with ease. The Nashville singer songwriter who Ann Powers of NPR Music once described as "a psychedelic cowgirl cool rockabilly queen” has announced a new album Real & Fantasy, which is produced Grammy-nominated producer Andrija Tokic (Alabama Shakes, Hurray for the Riff Raff). The album also features a number of seasoned Nashville session musicians - known for their work with acts like Jack White, Jenny Lewis, and Yola, just to name a few - and if "Sixteen" is any indication, this is sure to be a record you won't want to miss.

The release of this single is accompanied by a music video for "Sixteen", which in which Ariel heads out to the beaches of Florida, inspired by her memories of growing up, surfing, and playing music near Cocoa Beach as a teenager. In addition to her main base of Nashville, Ariel spends a significant portion of her time in her home state of Florida, as well as New Mexico. As a result, Bui says this new record reflects the sounds she associates with those different places, “whether surf-y and rock-y like Florida; expansive and spiritually ambient like New Mexico; or polished, professional, and diverse like Nashville.”

“Sixteen” starts as a more straightforward coming of age indie rock song about “being sixteen years old, riding in the backs of cars and going to the beach, having crushes and first loves'', but that easy-going atmosphere acts as the trojan horse for the song’s undercurrent of deeper message. The opening line of the song, “I was just sixteen, you know what I mean,” is a play on the classic Beatles line, “She was just seventeen, you know what I mean”, a subtle but powerful tweak in perspective that subverts the innuendo of that Beatles lyric by placing it in a woman’s perspective.

Describing her inspiration behind the song, Bui says she "was channeling my experiences of growing up a girl in a male-dominated scene and then going on to empower girls through music education at my music school Melodia Studio and Southern Girls Rock’n’Roll Camp”. You can really hear the way that today's teens and young women who “have something to say'' really inspired and re-invigorated Ariel. “Sixteen” was the first song Ariel wrote for upcoming album Real & Fantasy, and as the opening song, “Sixteen,” is uplifted by female empowerment at its center, in a time when women's and humans' rights are as important as ever.

Real & Fantasy will be released via Audio Network on 10/14/