Ari Burns grew up in Texas, joining a variety of musical ensembles in a variety of roles all through his formative years. From singing in church youth choirs, dabbling in private guitar and piano lessons through elementary school, experimenting with playing the french horn in wind bands and orchestras in middle and high school, to eventually studying Jazz Trumpet Performance from the University of Texas at Austin, Ari has developed a wide range of musical skills that he now employs as a producer and musical director. Attending college in the vibrant live music scene of Austin, Ari quickly began his professional career playing in brass bands, jazz combos, wedding cover bands, and hip hop artists at a variety of venues around town. This time spent developing original projects with friends and working under the tutelage of established local musicians lead to the formation of Soul Food Horns with close collaborator Louk Cox in 2016. Over the next three years, the group grew from the two of them producing live band performances as a horn section based out of Austin, into an international collective of producers and horn players available to fully produce full tracks custom to any collaborative artist’s needs. After relocating to Chicago in the fall of 2019, Ari turned his focus primarily to producing recorded music, helping build the Lofi label Cole Slaw Records through continued collaboration with Soul Food Horns.