Ariel Levine has performed and recorded with Maren Parusel, Headphone, and Distractions: A Tribute to the Other Elvis
Levine's debut solo album Let the Machine Get It was released in 2018. "While it's far from my first release, it is the first one to bear my own name," Levine told the Reader. It won a 2018 San Diego Music Award for Song of the Year, for the track “Sunshine Part 2: On My Color TV.”
"After my band played our final show back in March," Levine told the Reader in Autumn 2019, "I have been laying low the rest of the year, taking a break from performing live while focusing on writing and recording new songs." A new single dropped October 22, "If This Isn't Me," along with a music video directed by Grant Reinero. "Following that I will be releasing six more singles every two months."
"The songs take a new direction for me," Levine told the Reader, "as they are very personal and focus on my own life experiences, inspired by some recent events and hardships in my life. No plans to play these new songs live, they may just live in the recorded world. However, some members of my band Ariel Levine & Mechanical Royalty are considering coming out of hiatus and forming a new three-piece with new music."
Late 2022 saw Levine releasing new singles on the same date for three consecutive months: October 22 (”Closure, Roaches, and Ghosts”), November 22 (“Don’t Give Up”/”Time,” combining covers of songs by Kate Bush and Pink Floyd with guest singer Heather Nation), and December 22 (“Shake Your Brain Around”).
“October and November's releases wrap the long delayed conclusion of The Seven Singles," says Levine, "a semi-autobiographical series of songs, chronicling one's descent into heartbreak, loss, trauma, anger and rage; the varied phases of grief, and the tumultuous path back into the light. This could have been done as a concept album, but focusing on one song at a time gave me the opportunity to put as much effort into each individual song as I would an entire album. They are best listened to in chronological order, though it is not necessary.”
"Song one 'If This Isn't Me' was released way back in October 2019. The plan was to release a song on the 22nd of every other month, which would have concluded in October 2020. Of course, limitations during the beginning of the pandemic delayed the release of four and five. Subsequent depression and disillusionment brought on by the remainder of the pandemic delayed six and seven by two years. But I finally jumped back in the saddle earlier this year and wrapped em up."
The December 2022 single "Shake Your Brain Around" was a standalone song, not part of The Seven Singles. "I wanted to drop an additional single on my 40th birthday, just to keep up the momentum. It's a birthday present to myself, in a way, proving to myself that I may slow down but I will never stop. I will not harp on production details and perfectionism as I did with the others, I want it to be raw, quick and dirty. I will not do any pre-promotion or advertising, I'm just going to drop it raw on the date and announce it after the fact."