Read the VARI Interview below and share it on social media.
Please tell our readers who you are and what you do?
We’re Jack and Jansen, and we make up VARI. We’re a duo from Oklahoma and we started producing and making music about 4 or so years ago. We’ve made remixes of songs we love, along with some originals of our own, and we’re always hoping to evolve as artists, refine our own style, and improve. Feel free to check our our page and we hope you like our stuff!
How would you describe your influences and how have they changed over the years?
Our taste and style has definitely changed over time. I’d say that when I (Jack) first stated producing I was new into EDM as a genre and very into more melodic “pop” sounding styles such as progressive house (which was huge at the time with acts like Swedish House Mafia) and chill future bass stuff. Jansen came in being into a bit of everything, but he definitely brought a lot of interest into more hard sounding, hip-hop and trap/dubstep styles to me. Since then we’ve tried making a bit of everything, but I’d say the stuff we’ve really stuck with has been the dubstep/trap/future bass style.
As for influences, I’d definitely say that the whole reason I got into EDM was because of Madeon and Porter Robinson. Finale by Madeon was the first electronic song I really loved, followed by Language by Porter Robinson. As the years have gone by we’ve definitely found influences from lots of artists. Listening to Skrillex has always pushed me to be unique and evolve my style, and he’s probably the reason I’ve stuck with production and haven’t given up. Other than that, I’d say our most recent influences have been from artists like Boombox Cartel, Ekali, Graves, Rickyxsan, and RL Grime.
What´s new right now?
As of now we’re still just trying to grow and evolve as artists. About a month ago we put out a remix we did of Zedd’s “Get Low”, and by the end of the year we plan to release a full multi-track EP, ideally around the Christmas season. Other than that we’re currently sitting on a few remixes of artists and songs we love that we’ll be putting out in the coming weeks, and we plan to drop a full 45-60min mix of our favorite songs, along with new and unreleased songs, remixes, and edits we’ve made. Feel free to check out our SoundCloud page and give us a follow to keep up with all our new releases!
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Are you a superfan of anyone? How did you become a superfan? Do you remember how you become a fan and what turned you into super fan? Have you ever thought about why you´re such a fan?
Definitely Skrillex. I’ve drawn tons of inspiration from him and he’s the reason I’m still making music today. He’s constantly pushing the boundaries and crossing genres and it really pushes me to find my own unique sound and place in the music world
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What was the biggest mistake you made when you started making music and what would be the number one tip you could give to a newcomer musician?
I’d say my biggest mistake was apathy and distractions. I feel as though I could be much further in my journey as an artist if I had been more dedicated from the beginning.
My advice to new artists is to find a unique sound and be diligent. I’ve heard of people who have been producing for 10 years and sound worse than people producing for 2 years. It’s all about the amount of work you put into it.
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How do you get gigs? Can you share any tips?
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Do you have good promotion tips for other musicians?
There’s lots of promotion channels on sites like SoundCloud and YouTube, and those are always a good place to start. Be careful though as there’s lots of fake ones. I’ve never been into buying plays or followers, as it’s usually not real people and is more likely to be bots, and while those will raise your numbers they won’t help your actual fanbase. Repost channels are decent as they can help you reach real people, however at the end of the day even with promotion the music needs to be good for the people to like it.
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Do you have insights on how to grow your audience on soundcloud that you want to share with our audience?
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What has been your biggest challenge right now? Have you been able to overcome that challenge? If so, how?
My biggest challenge as an artist is really finding my niche and personal sound. So often I feel as though my music sounds like a copy of another artist and I’d love to be able to have something that’s 100% truly me
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How do you personally discover new music?
I usually browse through services such as Spotify and SoundCloud like everyone else, but definitely to find new music I often just kinda follow the grapevine of related artists on Spotify and reposts on SoundCloud until I end up at artists I’ve never heard. Also, listening to full DJ mixes by artists I like always lets me hear new unreleased stuff that I love to listen to and draw inspiration from.
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Once you discovered new music, do you tell others about the new music/artist you discovered? If yes, how exactly?
“Depending on the song sometimes we’ll shoot a link to eachother over text, but don’t usually try to spread it around to many friends and family, just eachother and whatever friends may be around.
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What is your number one tip to improve your music production or songwriting skills?
Try to remake other people’s stuff! Study how they make things and more often than not it’ll help you find new and weird ways to make your own sounds. Sometimes professional project files are released and going through those is always dope. Just study those you want to sound like, but be careful not to blatantly copy them in your music. Use it as a learning tool, not as a crutch.
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What is your best tip for those who struggle with finishing their tracks?
Create the outline of a track. Even if you don’t know how it will sound, if all you have is an 8 bar drop, duplicate it out and outline the structure of a song. If you know a certain section is a breakdown or a build it’s a lot easier to start making it.
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We meet again in one year. What has changed?
Hopefully within the next year we’ll have much more music out at a much higher quality, and it will be more of our own personal style. If all goes well maybe we’ll have some reputable gigs under our belt and more publicity and fans, maybe even a label release on a big label!
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https://soundcloud.com/variofficial
https://twitter.com/TheVariMusic
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Enter your questions to the artist in the facebook comment section below.
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