Betrayal. Deceit. Accountability; Not exactly your typical cocktail of themes found in a bonafide pop banger. But Ari Dayan is not typical.
On her single “[Good Reason](https://artist.positionmusic.com/AriGoodReason)”, the LA-native songwriter has found a way to turn scorn and heartbreak into a cathartic and danceable track. From the opening confession "I checked your phone just yesterday", the dysfunctional romance quickly becomes clear. Dayan explores infidelity, hurt, and the messiness of love in an attempt to lay a broken relationship to rest. With a true knack for indelible pop hooks, ARI makes heartache feel like a celebration.
“The heart is a fickle thing. Sometimes you love from your broken places and it’s messy. I’d like to think I learn from bad choices. Sometimes I do. In the interim I’ll just dance through the ache,” Dayan says of finding the inspiration for “Good Reason”.
With shimmering, late-night production and synth-heavy arrangements from Brandon Bost (Mark Ronson, Miley Cyrus) and KoKo (Blackway, Justin Love), they musically set the scene of “Good Reason” somewhere dark, where the drinks are potent and the dancing is lustful.
Which brings us to the sumptuous video—shot and directed by Ari Dayan’s brother, [David-Simon Dayan](http://www.sirdavidsimon.com), and co-starring actor Ben Aldrige (_Fleabag_, _Pennyworth_). A luminescent, ballroom-inspired piece of choreography that captures the drama and self-awareness that Dayan executes in her music—it may be high drama, but it's not the end of the world.
“Good Reason” is Dayan serving vulnerability with a healthy splash of sass and spirit, and it's everything you could want from an exciting new voice in pop music.
_Flaunt_ sat down with Ari Dayan to talk all things “Good Reason”, and check out the video below.
**How would you describe your sound?**
Well firstly, I love the discomfort of sticky emotions lain on a bed of catchy hooks and I play with that balance a lot. I'd say I write and sing in the way I hang out with my close people - I try to be intimate and honest but entertaining too. Humor is hugely important to me and so I think my lyrics are always laced with a sense of irony and self-deprecation - I'm not afraid to laugh at myself. When we (Myself, Brandon and KoKo) started producing the song, we wanted to create something tactile and sensual that also delivered a widescreen pop payoff... a sumptuous pop song that could be listened (and danced) to over and over. I've always loved sad bangers and wanted 'Good Reason' to be my offering in the genre.
**Where do you draw inspiration from for your music?**
Experience, life, observations. The old cliche, write what you know. Years ago, during a session that wasn’t going anywhere because I was having a real block, my collaborator told me to go out and scrape my knees a bit. That stayed with me. When I feel stuck, it’s cause my cup needs filling.
**Is Good Reason based on a real experience of yours? If so, could you expand on that?**
It is. I was in a nasty relationship - the kind where you’re operating from your broken parts. I knew I was loving from the wrong place but I also couldn’t bring myself to end it. I was as suspicious as he was disloyal. It was in the era of Instagram when you could see the posts people were liking and I saw him regularly engaging on a specific person’s page. Then I saw that she and I shared mutual friends, who I enlisted as my personal spies. One of my undercover agents began working as his stylist and called me after dressing him for an event. It turned out he was dating this girl and spoiler alert- she wasn’t me. It left me gutted. I look back and blush 'cause it’s so embarrassing being a grown woman acting the way I did. I laugh about it now but it was a sloppy era for me.
**What was the process of filming the music video like?**
David-Simon Dayan, who is an artist I deeply admire and also happens to be my real-life brother, approached me with the idea of Ben Aldridge (who’s an actor, singer, and lo and behold, a dancer) and I performing a choreographed routine that pulls together disco era camp and glamour but 2021. He has a real touch for marrying playfulness with a refined aesthetic. Both David and Ben were scheduled to leave town a week later so we pulled the video together in five days. Ben and I worked with a choreographer once, and then worked for two days straight to put the rest of the choreography together, with David sitting in the corner yelling “it needs to be gayer!” I can really be my most absurd self with those two and we had a lot of fun - that joy really comes through for me when watching it.
**Have you always danced? How did you prepare for the music video?**
Yes, I grew up dancing. I loved jazz, tap, and hip hop. I quit ballet early on because I was the chubby, curly-haired giant in a sea of petit fairy-like blondes. My mom also couldn’t put my hair in a bun to save her life and the teacher would yell at me because it would be flopping about while I’d chasse across the floor. It was real torture. Fast forward ten years, at age seventeen, I discovered salsa dancing, got a fake ID, and began hanging out in salsa clubs all over LA. I got really good at it because I’d go dancing five or six nights a week. Someone who worked for a ballroom studio saw me dancing one night and offered me a job. I learned every style of partnered dancing there and taught for a few years. My body is naturally inclined toward the latin dances and the trained eye will see samba and chacha in the video.
**What message do you hope to send the listener through your music?**
It’s okay to be messy sometimes. Have fun and don’t take yourself too seriously. But also don’t always be a mess, that’s not fun either. Get it together people.
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