Spotlight: Varsity
By Saachi Gupta
GENTLE AND NOSTALGIC - Varsity brings a charming vibe with their sound. The Chicago based band has crafted a sound their listeners can always count on since their formation in 2013.
Although primarily known for their hit song “So Sad, So Sad”– which now has over 10,000,000 streams on Spotify– Varsity's other music is just as stunning, and pure genius.
With their new record Fine Forever, Varsity has seemingly unleashed all of their creative potential, and proved that their sound only grows better with every project.
“We definitely took our time both writing the songs and recording them in the studio,” band member Dylan Weschler explains, “In the past, we wrote and recorded everything and then tried to bang it out all at once in a stretch of a week or so in the studio. For Fine Forever, we recorded it in 3-4 song chunks, which really gave us time to play around with new ideas and let the songs marinate and evolve.”
Speaking of their favorite memories while working on Fine Forever, Weschler remembers, “We recorded the recording at Russian Recording in Bloomington, Indiana, which is a fantastic studio. We would go spend long weekends there and record and hang out and chill on the porch. One of the nights after we finished for the day we watched the Metallica documentary, “Some Kind Of Monster”, which is both hilarious and fascinating. It tells a really long story about how the band has never really communicated properly with each other and how fame can get in the way of your actual goals as an artist.” The movie, also inspired them to not be as dysfunctional as Metallica.
This, however, isn't the only inspiration they have. Stevie Wonder, Curtis Mayfield, The Smiths, Talking Heads, Tom Petty are just some of Varsity's influences, and the band is surely doing a fantastic job of themselves becoming an inspiration for future artists.
Speaking of sonic elements they'd like to explore, the band members say, “We all really enjoy mellow acoustic music like Sufjan Stevens and Andy Shauf. We have definitely been influenced by those artists in some ways on our previous records, but never to the point where we can say we sound like that. It would be nice to get more into the organic, woody sounds that they’re creating on their albums. We’ll see though, don’t call this a prediction.”
The music video for “Reason to Run”, the already-out first single from Varsity's upcoming record, is artistic and retro, making the viewers feel like they've gone back in time. The video pairs perfectly with the track itself– fast-paced, with unexpectedly stirring lyrics.
“The video was made by our friends at Weird Life Films who we’ve collaborated with in the past,” Weschler notes, “This ended up being a modified version of the original idea, since quarantine hit while we were still in the planning stages. When we start talking about music videos, we usually find a director or artists who’s work we really enjoy. We’ll send them the song and some ideas we have and start to kick stuff around.”
The visual art for their music, as a matter of fact, is extremely important to the members of Varsity– it is extremely lucky, then, that they have found Chicago-based Clare Byrne, an artist and graphic designer who they have collaborated with countless times, and who has been creating their album art since their very first LP.
“We talk with her and spitball some ideas and go back and forth until we land on something that sounds and looks representative of the record and the themes,” the band states.
Apart from visual art such as video games, photography, film and paintings, the band has also been really into banagrams lately, and Weschler would like to be in the NBA someday.
As a band that has been active for seven years now, Varsity continues to break the mold, constantly stepping out of their comfort zone, with results that are always impeccable.
It figures, then, when Weschler says that their most important goal when making music is “to be challenged by the process of creating something that is unique and memorable.”
And does the thought of their listener play a role in this creative process?
“I don’t think it plays a role until a song is almost complete. When we’re deep in creating music, it’s more about what we want and how we’re feeling. But once the song is nearing completion, it's easier to step back and kind of wonder: what are people going to think of this?”
Although isolation has been hard for most people, including the members of Varsity, they do seem to be making the best of this situation, and, as Weschler puts it, “trying to find new ways to not go crazy.”
Despite a lot of their plans being delayed or canceled, the band continues to move forward.
“We're just trying to make the most out of releasing a record during a worldwide crisis. A lot of our plans surrounding this release got delayed or canceled, which is pretty disappointing. But we’re going to keep chugging along! We started experimenting with adding new musicians to the group and expanding our live sound, so whenever we can tour again we hope to debut that, hopefully in both the US and Europe.”
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