Sept. 21, 2026

Louder Than Life and Pinker Than Ever: Ariel from Icon For Hire Speaks

Show Notes
Transcript

In this episode of Podcast, Pipeman interviews Ariel from Icon for Hire at the Louder Than Life festival. The conversation dives into creativity, the power of music for mental health, experiences from two decades in the music industry, independent music-making, and the importance of authentic artistry. Ariel shares personal stories, insights into her journey, and practical info for fans wanting to connect or get merch.Main Topics Covered

Self-expression and art as an alternative to conflict
The transformative and therapeutic power of music
Ariel’s career beginnings and influences
Longevity and evolution as an artist
Memorable fan encounters and the impact of music
Festival experiences and community
DIY approach to music and industry observations
Band relationships and balancing personal well-being
Fan engagement and how to support Icon for Hire

Key Discussions & StoriesArt as Activism and Change

Ariel explains the meaning behind her "Make art, make war" tattoo, describing art as a form of making massive change in the world and ideally replacing violence 01:07.
Pipeman proposes that a global rock festival could solve world problems by focusing on community and inclusion 01:26.

Music as Therapy & Mental Health

Ariel discusses discovering Linkin Park at age 12 and realizing music could be a career built on expressing pain and emotion, particularly around mental health struggles 02:22.
Pipeman and Ariel agree on the festival experience feeling therapeutic, providing listeners with a sense of belonging and healing 03:11.
Ariel shares a powerful story of a fan's father giving the band the money he paid for his daughter's therapy because their music helped more than the therapist 05:20.

Career Longevity & Indie Music

Ariel reflects on 20 years in music, feeling privileged and explaining how passion fuels lasting careers 03:38.
They discuss being independent, releasing music on their terms, and the pitfalls of record label interference 09:34, 10:03.
Pipeman recounts how bands' best work often comes when rejecting label control, using Slayer's "Angel of Death" as an example 10:56.

Band & Family Life

Ariel talks about growing into confidence, prioritizing her well-being and marriage (to her guitar player), and how that strengthens the band 11:37.
Ariel shares that touring is a family affair, including bringing their dog on the road 12:38.

Festival and Community

Reflections on positive festival experiences, supportive atmosphere at Louder Than Life, and comparing to Warped Tour 07:02, 08:04.
Ariel expresses excitement about playing more Danny Wimmer Presents (DWP) festivals 08:40.

Notable Quotes

“[00:01:07] Well, it’s because they are one and the same. When you make art, you are making massive change in the world.” – Ariel
“[00:02:26] You can make a living singing about pain and putting words to your emotions like this, it resonated with me so much.” – Ariel
“[00:05:33] Here’s the money that I was paying my daughter’s therapist. I want to give it to you guys because you’ve helped her more than her therapist did.” – Ariel’s story about a fan
“[00:11:42] I’ve got a sense of knowing that the choices I make for myself are right for me, and if other people don’t understand, I can handle that.” – Ariel

Resources & Links Mentioned

Instagram:Icon for Hire on Instagram
Merch Store:shop.iconforhire.net (includes new "Scripted" anniversary vinyl)
Festival Shout-Outs: Louder Than Life, Warped Tour, Danny Wimmer Presents (DWP) festivals

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This is the Pipe Man here on the Adventures of

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Pipe Man W4CY radio and I'm here with.

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Arielle from Icon for Hire.

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Nice. Here at Louder Than Life.

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Louder Than Life.

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You're like Pinker Than Life.

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I am pinker than life.

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I love it, though. I totally love your look.

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I made my whole outfit.

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Did you really?

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The fabric on here, it's a whole look.

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Yeah.

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I made it for Louder.

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See, I love that. Thank you. There's this other artist.

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I go and I do festivals all over the world,

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and there's this other artist in the UK.

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Her name is Bex.

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Bex?

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And she makes her own outfits, too. You got to

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look her up.

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She sounds cool.

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You guys should go on tour together, right?

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Yeah.

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Oh my God, that's so cool.

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And I also want to say, I noticed your tattoo

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right from the beginning.

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Make art, make war. Tell me about that tat.

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Well, it's because they are one and the same. When

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you make art, you are making massive change in the world.

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And ideally, art making one day could replace violent acts

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of war. It's kind of idealistic thinking, but whatever.

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Well, you know what? I have a solution to the

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world's problems right now. Yes.

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Have one big rock festival. The whole world's required to attend.

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Yeah.

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Political leaders are banned. I like it.

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And we just put everybody in a mosh pit and

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we'll all work it out and hug.

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In the end.

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I'm there. Give me a call. I'll be there.

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Right?

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That sounds like it would work.

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Because listen, you go out there and Louder Than Life

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here or any other festival, any other concert... We're one

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big family, one community. There's no outsiders. There's no judgment. Yeah.

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It's a family. And we can all get along.

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Yeah.

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Like, what a concept, right?

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I hear it. I love that.

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Yeah.

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You know? And I think that's.

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Where we have to take over because everybody else tried

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to divide us. Yeah.

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Let's take over and then we can eliminate those wars.

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That sounds great. The ones that are the bad ones.

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The bad wars.

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I know, right?

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Yes.

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So... When did you first know in your life that

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being an artist is what you needed to be?

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I think maybe when I was about 12, when I

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discovered Linkin Park. That was the gateway for me. I

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was like, oh, you can make a living singing about

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pain and putting words to your emotions like this. It

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resonated with me so much. I was like, I bet

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I'd be good at that. And I was, and I am,

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and I've made a whole career just putting the mental

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health struggles into songs. And that's like my favorite thing

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to do.

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I love that.

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I was just talking in the last interview about the

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fact that What's cool about that is when you're an artist,

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it's much easier to put those emotions and the mental

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issues and everything into a song and sing it opposed

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to just saying it to somebody.

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I think it makes it more comfortable.

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And then the other side, us, the listeners, you're helping

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us because music's the best therapy ever.

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Absolutely.

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When I come to a festival, it's like, I feel

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like I'm going to my therapist.

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That's what it should be. Yeah.

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Right?

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Ideally, it not only makes you feel heard and seen,

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but it also makes you think and find a new

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path forward so you're not stuck in your negative emotions indefinitely.

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Exactly.

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A hundred percent. So now that you've been doing this

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for a while.

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I sure have.

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How does it feel to have gone through this journey?

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Yeah. Mind-blowing. I'm 20 years in, so I feel privileged

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is the word. You don't get 20 years in this

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industry very easily, right?

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And that blows me away because exactly that.

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It's a rare thing. I started when I was 18.

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I'm 38 now. I probably still have 20 years in

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me if I want to. That's a beautiful career to

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get to build, a longevity, a long career.

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I think the reason for it, too, is because you

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just absolutely love it.

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Yeah, of course. You have to.

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Like, right.

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I don't get bands that, like, hate doing live shows,

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hate creating music. Then you're in the wrong industry because

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everything else kind of stinks in this industry. It's that

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that gives you the juice to stay in it is

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the creating.

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Absolutely. And you shouldn't be taking up a spot if

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you don't want to be there. There's lots of other

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people that want to do this.

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Exactly. I mean, they'll find out how.

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Hard it is. They'll see if they like it. But

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I'm the right kind of crazy for this industry.

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I love it.

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Well, and you do kind of need a little bit

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crazy to be just a little. But I like crazy,

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you know, because life's a lot more fun that way.

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You know, and we all are.

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So are we a good crazy for ourself or are

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we a bad crazy for ourself?

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So embrace it. And that's a good crazy.

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Then it's a good crazy. Yeah, get other people to

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go along with your crazy.

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Exactly. 100%.

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On the same sinking ship.

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No doubt. No doubt.

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So, what would you say have been, in all this journey,

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the one story that sticks out in your mind, good

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or bad, that just comes to the top of your

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mind out of this past 20 years?

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Well, since we're talking about music being therapeutic, one time...

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A man came up to our merch table after the

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show with his daughter who was a teenager and he

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handed us an envelope and he said, Here's the money

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that I was paying my daughter's therapist. I want to

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give it to you guys because you've helped her more

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than her therapist did.

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Wow.

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It was like hundreds of dollars in there. It just

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blew our minds. Obviously, you need music and therapy. But

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the fact that he felt so touched and connected with

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the music helping his daughter, I was like, mind blown.

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Proves my point.

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Yeah, yeah.

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You know?

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And that must have been the most incredible feeling. Like,

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I don't think any artist has ever said.

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That to me.

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Really?

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Like, that is a story I've never heard. Like, I've

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heard a lot of stories that are the same stories,

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and they're good ones, and they're real ones, but that

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one there, that touched my heart.

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Oh, good.

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I'm so glad, yeah.

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Because if you can make that kind of connection with somebody,

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I think that's what it's all about, okay? You make art,

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it makes yourself feel good, but it makes you feel

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super good when you've changed.

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One person's life.

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Yeah, yeah. And that's all it is. Like, You just

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need to change one. And it'd be great to change everybody's,

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but you don't need it.

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If that's your motivation is changing lives, then it's not

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as important where your streaming numbers are or how you're

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performing on the radio that month or whatever. It gives

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you that anchor when you're creating. You're like, okay, this

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is enough. I'm resonating. I'm impacting one person or hopefully

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hundreds or thousands too. But it's not about the ups

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and downs of the numbers.

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Exactly. Here's an important question.

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How has Danny Wimmer treated you as an artist?

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Danny Wimmer has been good to me. This is our

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first Danny Wimmer Festival.

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Nice.

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Yes, so a big dream come true for us. So

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we've been knocking down this store for a long time,

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so we're super honored to be here. We're only about

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four or five hours in, but everyone's been professional. You're lovely,

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lovely back here. I can't wait to try the food,

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you know.

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I heard it's really good.

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That's what I heard, too. So it's a nice, clean festival.

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I'm happy.

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And see, that's important to me. That's why I ask that.

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Because you as an artist, you have enough stress to

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deal with coming to a festival. Because listen, it's not

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your gig. It's a festival gig. And so nothing's worse

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than if you have to deal with all kinds of

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stress and crap from loading, even eating, and sound. Yeah.

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So take that off and then you're a better artist

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for us because then you're stress-free, you're.

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Having fun, which means I'm having fun.

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Absolutely.

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And that's what's important.

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Yeah.

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We did Warped Tour for two years.

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Nice.

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Brings me home to that feeling.

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Nice. Yeah.

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I was just at Warped Tour in Montreal. Oh, And

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I used to do it for years when it was

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the real, like back in the day. Now it's just

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entrance way back in. Yeah. You know, but I was

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so happy when it came back because that's another place

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like just a vibe that helps people.

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For sure.

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You know?

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You want to find some people in need. The kids

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going to Warped Tour, like, they're some of the most passionate,

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dedicated fans I've ever come across.

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No doubt.

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In Louder Than Life, yeah. Yep.

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So, now you'll have to play all the DWP festivals.

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We sure do. Thank you for saying that.

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I'm putting it out there.

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From your lips to Danny's ears.

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Exactly.

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I'm putting it out there, you know, because even for,

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put the music aside for a second. you as a

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human being is why I would want.

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To see your set.

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Yeah. You feel the energy.

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Exactly. A hundred percent. That's the way it should be.

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You know? And there's some artists I wouldn't say that about.

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Okay. There's some artists that I actually like their music

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and like, don't want to really think about the other stuff,

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you know? Yeah.

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But then there's artists like you and.

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Many, many others that you just like regular human beings that,

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are like the rest of us. And you really care

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that you're making a difference with your music.

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And that's what's important. Yeah.

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Thank you for saying that. That means a lot.

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My pleasure.

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Yeah. What else do you have going on that you

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want to tell the listeners about that we haven't discussed already?

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What do we have going on? Well, we're in the

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middle of a 36-date tour right now.

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Nice.

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We're celebrating our first debut album called Scripted. It's a

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15-year anniversary of that album. So we're all over America

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and Canada performing that album. And then we have, of course,

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a new album sitting in the wings waiting to be released.

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So we've been dropping a few singles and doing it

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on our own terms. We're not on a record label,

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so we like to just do it on our own pace,

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and that works really well.

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For us see i love that too because here's my

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thing okay record labels have a place but only if

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they're a good record label that lets the business people

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handle the business and the artists handle the creativity Ideally, yeah.

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Right? Yeah.

255
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I never get, and I'm a business person too, but

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I don't get a business person trying to tell an

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artist how to do their songs. Woo!

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It's happened. It happens all the time.

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It happens all the time.

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I witnessed it firsthand backstage with bands getting signed, and

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you're going to dress like this, and you're going to

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play like.

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This, and you're going to do this. I'm like, no.

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You can promote and market, but we're going to know

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when you're faking it. And that's what you're doing when

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they're telling you to do it. And some of the

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best music I've ever heard in my life is when

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the artist told the record label to screw off and

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did what they told them wouldn't work.

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Yeah, absolutely.

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A perfect example, one of my favorite bands, Slayer. One

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of their biggest songs, Angel of Death. The record label

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cut them because of that song. And instead of them

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submitting and not doing the song, they did it anyway.

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It's been the biggest.

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Song of theirs and probably one of the biggest in

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metal history.

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That's amazing. Don't listen to those schmucks.

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Thanks for the reminder.

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I'm with you.

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Right?

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Yeah. Okay, so you're doing the right thing.

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Now, how would you say you're different as an artist

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now compared to 20 years ago?

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I have less anxiety. I'm less insecure. I'm less second

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guessing myself. I've got a sense of knowing that the

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choices that I make for myself are right for me.

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And if other people don't understand, I can handle that.

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I can handle people not aligning with my values and

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choices because I know what's right for me. I'm married

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to my guitar player. So like if the two of

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us are aligned, if we're healthy, everything else is healthy,

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you know? So I'm prioritizing my wellbeing, my marriage's wellbeing

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and letting the band sort of be a reflection of

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our own core strength.

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I love that too. I love that.

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Uh, you know, Also, you're talking so positively about being

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married to a band member. Yeah.

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Because that's not always the case, you know? I got lucky, yep.

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But it's magic when it is the case.

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That's what I got.

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Right?

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I'm so blessed, yeah.

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Because then you can share your dream with the person

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you want to share it with, and you're sharing the

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whole trip.

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You know, like you don't.

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Have to be separated because you both have to be there.

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We sure do. We take our dog on the road.

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Like it's a family affair.

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It's so good. I love that.

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So what, tell everybody again how they reach out to you,

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how they buy your merch. They can't listen to my

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show unless they buy your merch.

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Absolutely.

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Thank you. And all that stuff.

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Okay, great. Well, we're most active on Instagram, so that's

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iconforhire over on Instagram. And then if you want to

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shop our merch, it's shop.iconforhire.net. We've just got the brand-new

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scripted album Vinyl available for the first time ever.

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Nice. Is it pink vinyl?

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00:13:11.720 --> 00:13:13.519
It's red vinyl, yes. Yeah, red vinyl.

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You need a pink one, too.

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00:13:14.519 --> 00:13:15.899
We've got pink and other albums are pink.

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There you go. Well, you rock.

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I'm glad you were here at Lowrider Life, and thanks

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for being on the Adventures of Pipe Man.

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Wonderful.

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Thanks for having me.

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Thank you for listening to The Adventures of Pikeman on

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W4CY Radio.

Louder Than Life and Pinker Than Ever: Ariel from Icon For Hire Speaks

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