5 QUESTIONS WITH ARISON
Arison Cain is an award-winning singer and songwriter.
Originally hailing from the Thousand Islands region in Upstate New York, Arison Cain has made a name across America as one of independent music's loudest and most eccentric voices. Renowned for his energetic stage presence and sheer bravado, Arison Cain has earned a legitimate reputation as a performer who both commands audiences and turns venues upside down.
As a solo performer, he has shared the stage with prominent indie and alternative luminaries including Bright Eyes, The Mountain Goats, Bayside, and Anthony Green.
He continues to evolve as an independent artist today, releasing music with his band Backyard Wrestling. The band's most recent album JORTS was named Best Rock Album at the 2025 Syracuse Area Music Awards.
1. What do you spend too much time thinking about?
We did not know it at the time, but the 1993 film Homeward Bound represented the peak of “talking animal movies” at the box office, and the introduction of CGI technology has made the entire genre dramatically worse.
When an animal “talks” in a movie, we should ONLY be hearing their inner monologue. We do not need to see an animal's mouth move like a human's mouth. As soon as an animal’s lips start forming human words, you have lost me. My disbelief is no longer suspended. I am willing to accept that an animal may have an internal voice that I cannot hear, but I refuse to believe that they are waiting until my back is turned to start speaking perfectly-formed sentences with their furry little lips. I find the entire practice to be unholy and an affront to my sensibilities.
2. What do you hope never becomes efficient?
I am appalled by how quickly AI technology has evolved to the point where it is possible for any jabroni on the street to create a video of an animal speaking human words. I believe there should be criminal penalties for this, up to and including life imprisonment, and I will continue writing letters to my representatives until they see the light.
3. What's your most harmless bad habit?
In my spare time, I like to watch fun family films like Look Who’s Talking and Look Who’s Talking Too. These have also been ruined for me.
I had previously thought, perhaps foolishly, that movies about talking babies were safe. In retrospect, I now see the 1999 film Baby Geniuses as a sort of inflection point for the introduction of mouth movement into talking baby movies, and a signal of our impending downfall as a society at large. Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2 only served to accelerate our undoing.
4. What's the strangest thing you've kept for sentimental reasons?
I have an autographed copy of The Shaggy D.A. on laserdisc.
5. What would your autobiography be called?
Air Bud’s Son Cain: The Arison Cain Story