Arctic Talent: Digital music-maker gets by with a little help from his friends

Self-taught digital musician Arivahoo is leaving Iqaluit later in August to see what Simon Fraser University’s school of contemporary arts has to teach him.

But first, on Aug. 13, the 21-year-old composer, who goes by one name, has a show to play in Vancouver that will be livestreamed on the website of the venue he’s playing at, Red Gate Arts Society.

Titled Ambient Crossover, the show is organized by Nic Torrin, a Vancouver-based producer who is also Arivahoo’s friend and collaborator. The lineup features musicians in their network from across Canada, the U.S., and the U.K.

“As much as music is a business, it’s about friendship,” Arivahoo said. “Collaboration is important.”

He took a break from packing to tell the story of his musical journey.

Fall 2009: Four-year-old Arivahoo plays piano on a digital keyboard with 37 keys and three octaves. He practises with a teacher for four months.

He learns to play Greensleeves, a traditional English folk ballad.

Winter 2009-Summer 2016: He continues to learn the piano and becomes proficient by following songbooks from Toronto’s Royal Conservatory of Music.

At age nine, he assembles a desktop computer from spare parts. On it, he plays the videogame Undertale. He digs the game’s electronic soundtrack.

“I learned computer music’s potential,” he said.

Fall 2016-Fall 2018: At age 14, and with the help of a textbook and the internet, he hand-wires a USB keyboard using “bits and bobs.”

He has a music teacher during this period he liked very much and who prepared hi for prepped him for Royal Conservatory Level 8.

Although immersed in digital music production, he mostly listens to classical composers, ranging from nineteenth century Hungarian pianist Franz Liszt to the late contemporary Japanese keyboardist Ryuichi Sakamoto. Every now and then, he mixes in some Miles Davis, a late U.S. jazz trumpeter.

Winter 2019: Arivahoo gets into an argument about rap music with his high-school classmates. Arivahoo contends that rap songs are “simple and basic.”

To prove his point, he rushes home and returns the next day with his own original rap track.

“It was terrible,” he said. “I was so wrong.”

He learns to appreciate rap as an art form and participates in beat battles, competitions where music-makers play and compare their work to see whose is best.

Winter 2020: Arivahoo levels up from recreating video game music and backing beats to composing “ambient trap,” which he describes as a subgenre of hip-hop music that emerged in the 2020s. The style blends atmospheric melodies with heavy pulsing bass.

He connects with online communities of likeminded artists.

Spring 2022: Arivahoo completes Level 8 of the Royal Conservatory of Music’s certificate program.

Spring 2023: After high school, he travels to Japan, Australia and New Zealand, where he connects with the Maori side of his family tree. He then moves to Iqaluit to work, hunt and connect with his Inuit side. He plans to return to Nunavut after he earns his Bachelor of Music degree.

August 2026: Arivahoo plans to debut his latest track with a video scheduled to play on his self-titled YouTube channel.

Talent Tip: “Collaborate,” he said. “March to the beat of your own drum and share that energy with everyone.”