Hamilton-based singer-songwriter Ariana Fig has been creating music since she was 13 and isn’t stopping anytime soon.
Fig began her music career at three years old playing the violin and eventually taught herself piano and guitar. When she began high school, she started writing lyrics to songs with simple chords to accompany them.
“I grew up playing in string quartets and orchestras, so my introduction to music was classical music,” Fig said.
She knew pursuing music was her passion, and accepted an offer to go to Western University for their popular music program. She completed a double major alongside English where she learned both hands-on music skills and songwriting techniques.
“Those English classes ended up being more helpful to me, I hate saying that but it ended up being more helpful to me in my writing,” Fig said.
Fig released her first single I’ll Call You Later on streaming platforms in August 2020, when COVID-19 hit and her career as a singer-songwriter began.
She released her first EP, Taboo, in 2021. She said she created it virtually with her friend and co-writer/producer, Ben Heffernan. In her second year of undergrad, she was connected with her now mentor, Sarah MacDougall.
Her connection with MacDougall as a female mentor is especially unique. Fig said only two per cent of people who work behind the scenes in the music industry are female.
In her fourth year at Western, Fig began performing shows. Her first solo performance was at a London, Ont. shop, Brown & Dickson Bookstore. After her first concert, she performed more in various London venues, including Western University’s campus, she said.
She received a great deal of support from Western University for her second EP, Maroon and had a sold-out release show filled with friends and family in February 2023 at the TAP Centre for Creativity, she said.
After graduating, Fig has transitioned to doing shows primarily in Toronto, having on average four shows a month starting in fall 2023.
Ariana Fig playing the guitar. She issued an EP in 2023. Photo credit: Mike Highfield
After finishing her undergrad degree, she began a master’s program at McMaster University in their New Media and Communications program, where she is expected to graduate at the end of this summer.
“My songs are mainly about relationships, love, finding yourself and being okay with dealing with a multitude of emotions,” Fig said.
Certain songs, like her most recent single Cherry Coke, are inspired by observing people in her life. Other ones, like her second-ever song Broken Foot, are self-reflective, she said.
Fig’s newest endeavour is a new song she is working on that will be released in June, which is part of a future new album, to release a 10-song album in 2026.
“I’ve never cared to be ‘famous’, my goal has just been to make things because I want to,” Fig said. “I’ve always been a creative person, and just to express myself musically, because it’s all I’ve ever really cared about.”