Biography
Blending psychedelic pop from the 1960s with lo-fi touches drawn from Grandaddy and Frankie Cosmos, Caleb Campbell performs under the name Ari Roar. After issuing several EPs of melodic, gently trippy indie pop throughout the middle of the decade, he unveiled his first full-length album, Calm Down, in 2018 and later sustained the same concise, bittersweet style on his fourth LP, Too Removed, released in 2024.
Born and raised in Dallas, Texas, Campbell first experimented with composition on the family piano during childhood, yet he only began adding lyrics to his pieces at age 14 after encountering Jason Schwartzman’s “Ethan’s Song” in the film Slackers. Confined to bed for several months following back surgery at 18, he shifted his writing from piano to guitar. Once mobile again, he gravitated toward nearby Denton’s music community, shuttling in and out of the area for jobs and bands before ultimately returning to Dallas. There, aided by Midlake drummer McKenzie Smith, a friend from Denton, he started home-recording material that surfaced on his initial Ari Roar EPs, among them 2015’s Cassette. He subsequently relocated to Miami Beach, occupying his uncle’s pool house while using the city as a base for his first East Coast tour. The 2016 EP Patch Me Up mixed a pair of those earlier Dallas collaborations with Smith alongside two new Miami Beach pieces on which Campbell handled drums himself.
Campbell next headed to Seattle to compose songs for his debut album. Having appreciated Hunter Davidsohn’s production on Frankie Cosmos’ Next Thing, he recruited him to oversee sessions at Davidsohn’s New York studio. The resulting sophisticated sound attracted Bella Union, which issued Calm Down in 2018. After resettling in Dallas, Campbell tracked the follow-up, Best Behavior, on a Tascam 388 across repeated sessions inside a converted shed in his parents’ garden; the album appeared on Bella Union in 2019. He self-released the similarly tuneful, home-recorded Made to Never Use at the start of 2022. Too Removed, his most expansive and fanciful collection to date, arrived in 2024 while remaining anchored in sweet melodies, dreamy harmonic progressions, and Roar’s characteristically forlorn outlook.
Born and raised in Dallas, Texas, Campbell first experimented with composition on the family piano during childhood, yet he only began adding lyrics to his pieces at age 14 after encountering Jason Schwartzman’s “Ethan’s Song” in the film Slackers. Confined to bed for several months following back surgery at 18, he shifted his writing from piano to guitar. Once mobile again, he gravitated toward nearby Denton’s music community, shuttling in and out of the area for jobs and bands before ultimately returning to Dallas. There, aided by Midlake drummer McKenzie Smith, a friend from Denton, he started home-recording material that surfaced on his initial Ari Roar EPs, among them 2015’s Cassette. He subsequently relocated to Miami Beach, occupying his uncle’s pool house while using the city as a base for his first East Coast tour. The 2016 EP Patch Me Up mixed a pair of those earlier Dallas collaborations with Smith alongside two new Miami Beach pieces on which Campbell handled drums himself.
Campbell next headed to Seattle to compose songs for his debut album. Having appreciated Hunter Davidsohn’s production on Frankie Cosmos’ Next Thing, he recruited him to oversee sessions at Davidsohn’s New York studio. The resulting sophisticated sound attracted Bella Union, which issued Calm Down in 2018. After resettling in Dallas, Campbell tracked the follow-up, Best Behavior, on a Tascam 388 across repeated sessions inside a converted shed in his parents’ garden; the album appeared on Bella Union in 2019. He self-released the similarly tuneful, home-recorded Made to Never Use at the start of 2022. Too Removed, his most expansive and fanciful collection to date, arrived in 2024 while remaining anchored in sweet melodies, dreamy harmonic progressions, and Roar’s characteristically forlorn outlook.
Albums
Singles
