Today, we sat down with Shortie x from Versus to discuss his inspiration to write music, heroes, and much more!
Interview:
What is your inspiration to write your music? Is it your surroundings?
The inspiration behind our music is more our interpretation of our life experiences but surroundings do account for a lot of the experiences that most humans have, but we like to write about the emotional and mental side of things. I think you can’t really have one without the other unfortunately and the environment you are in governs the experiences you would eventually look back on. We tend to write about our emotional struggles and thought processes that we have encountered in our lives.
What type of music did you listen to growing up?
We all listened to a large variety of music when we were growing up, but for myself personally, I listened to a lot of classical music (my grandfather was a professional organist and music teacher) so I get a lot of influences through him, but that was mixed in with a lot of 70’s and 80’s music like Abba, Boney M and that kind of thing before I started developing my own taste. When I started developing and maturing musically, I tended to listen to a lot of rock (Def Leppard, GNR, Aerosmith) which then leads me on to the grunge and metal influences – the classics like Nirvana, AIC, Pearl Jam, Slayer, Metallica etc.
Is there someone you looked up to as a hero?
I had a lot of heroes as a kid, but the main heroes in my life are very eclectic; Neil Armstrong & Captain Scott for their contributions to exploration of the unknown, Beethoven for overcoming a disability to continue to write music, Joe Elliot from Def Leppard for having tenacity and his creativity (not taking anything away from any of the other folks in the band here by the way), and Gene Roddenberry for inspiring the next generation (and many more that will follow I am sure!) of explorers, scientists and politicians.
If you weren’t a musician, what would you be doing today?
That is a tough question for me! I have always wanted to dabble in the world of science (there are so many things left yet to explore and discover) and anything that would enhance the human civilisation. To be honest all of us have our day jobs as well as our music, and currently I am working in IT when I’m not doing anything with the band.
What advice do you have for our fans out there that want to create music?
Be bold, be creative, let yourselves feel inspired by everything around you, and trust yourself – it’s natural to have a bit of imposter syndrome or self-doubt, BUT keep going. Write all of the songs. You have to continue writing song after song after song to hone your skills as a musician and find your sound. Don’t worry about the rejection, all of us get way more rejection than acceptance in the wider industry, and that is normal and is ok. Believe in yourselves and you got this.
