PREMIERE: Varien; Born of Blood, Risen From Ash
Producer, composer, our favourite silver-haired ‘Lord of Ravens’. Introducing the latest interviewee: VARIEN.
After taking a hiatus / deleting all social media, seeking a break from music and seeking balance, last year Varien re-surfaced, coming back stronger than ever with a number of releases - including his very personal EP ‘Death Asked A Question’. Fast forward to now - his first 2019 release being an incredible cover of Bring Me The Horizon - Can You Feel My Heart (ft. Andrew Zink), and now this.
Born of Blood, Risen From Ash.
It’s heavy. It’s metal. There’s live violin. It’ll give you shivers - of the best kind…
LISTEN HERE:
Listen on other platforms HERE
First reaction to this: HOLY SHIT. Second reaction, WOW. How did this come together?
"Born of Blood, Risen from Ash" is definitely inspired by the Dark Souls and Bloodborne video games. It's also a nod to a more classic Varien sound - metal x halftime x orchestral. Hybrid shit. A lot of people are absolutely loving it, and I'm glad they are. I want to push that sound a little bit boundary wise, but I think for what this song is, it's a good release and a nod to the OG fans like, "I still got it".
You recently lived through every producer’s absolute nightmare - dead computer. What the fuck happened?
Yeah, it just happened so suddenly. Apparently a power surge shredded my $10 power surge projector and then caused quite some heat on my motherboard. The whole thing was wrecked, really. Never experienced that.
Go on…
I was already having a weird week, with my wallet being lost and then my car having random issues, so when this happened - I kinda just tried to remain zen about it and look at it like a test. It kept getting worse with every update on how my computer was doing until finally the people I was working with, we just replaced almost every part. Total cost was $1600. I'm blessed to have been ready for that. But then my data service ‘Carbonite’ - they don't save certain files or folder paths. It's in their Terms of Service, the phrase "we cannot guarantee everything that is flagged for backup will be backed up." So now I have an instantaneous file saving method, and a huge power tower. I think lightning could hit my house and my generator would just be like "what was that?"
Once I realised I wasn't getting everything back, I just hit the ground running with new music and well. It's been awesome. I still consider it the best thing to happen in my career in a long time.
If you could ask a future version of yourself from 2100, what would you ask?
I'd ask "Are you well, are you happy, do you feel accomplished in any area of your life?" - those kinds of questions. I'm sure there's a lot of people who would be asking about career or finances and things of that nature, but what I want to know is that 2100, that's 80ish years from now, in that year: am I still enjoying life or am I even alive. If I was dead, did I live well?
If you had to listen to one band or artist for the rest of your life, who would it be?
Probably Dream Theater or Opeth - both of them having over 10 albums, and 20 years of evolution, it seems pretty easy to not get bored if you pace it out. You could also allow yourself to go through phases since there is that variety.
If you could have any superpower, what would you want?
If I was granted a superpower it would be the power to heal people of their ailments. Too many people I love are affected by both physical and mental ailments. I know it sounds Jesus Christ-y, but I just want, even if it's a secret, to be able to give the people whom I love's lives back.
Anything in particular we should expect from you this year?
Have no expectations, but trust me when I say there is a LOT of everything coming this year. Vague? Yup! But that's always been my path - "oh Varien tried his hand at this?", etc. Just wait. I am so stoked. SO stoked! EP is definitely coming. LP? We'll see.
FOLLOW VARIEN:
FACEBOOK: @varienofficial
INSTAGRAM: @variendarkboi
SOUNDCLOUD: @variendarkboi
SPOTIFY: @varien
YOUTUBE: @varienofficial
