Today, I was able to sit down with Versa to discuss their inspiration to write music, heroes, and much more! Be sure to check out the music of Versa on Spotify below after the interview.
Interview:
What is your inspiration to write your music? Is it your
surroundings?
Surroundings definitely play a part – we’re located in the Pacific Northwest, on Vancouver Island, and it’s one of the most beautiful places in the world. The ocean, the wilderness, and the natural world are significant features of our music and lyrics (and our music videos). IN addition to our surroundings, our real other inspiration for writing music is great music – there’s nothing more inspiring than hearing a great song or a great album, and thinking “I want to make something that makes someone else feel this way”.
What type of music did you listen to growing up?
When I was younger I listened to a lot of classical music and to my parents records from the late 60s and 70s – the Beatles, Rolling Stones, ELP, Jethro Tull, that kind of thing. It wasn’t until I was well into my teens that I really started listening to contemporary rock music – in the late 90s I got really into alternative rock and power pop music, and then when I went to university, it was just as the indie rock and post rock scenes were gathering steam, and I immersed myself in that music.
Is there someone you looked up to as a hero?
Ian Anderson has always been a musical hero – he writes beautiful songs, he’s, for my money, one of the best lyricists in rock history, and he’s also a very smart, thoughtful guy with a keen business mind. More recently, I’ve taken a lot of inspiration from the careers of Neal Morse, and from Dan Avidan of Ninja Sex Party, as guys who didn’t have a lot of musical success in their 20s and really found their calling in their mid-30s.
If you weren’t a musician, what would you be doing today?
Musician isn’t my day job – I’m a lawyer by day.
What advice do you have for our fans out there that want to create
music?
Be patient and take the time to do it right. If you’ve got an idea I find I often want to rush it out there and share it, but if I step back and take the time to polish the arrangement, to make sure it’s well-recorded, to practice it a bit so I’m playing it to the best of my ability – it always turns out better.
Music:
