Year in Pop: 2016

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VARSITY

Reflective mirror moments with VARSITY; press photo courtesy of the band.

Reflective mirror moments with VARSITY; press photo courtesy of the band.

Currently touring with American Wrestlers through December 11, VARSITY presented us with their sentimental video for “Still Apart” from Abe Zverow & Karl Blomberg that features the band in both dining room & forestall settings. The band’s sound of lingering ambiguities & more is presented with a down-home flair as the group questions the parameters of being together, un-together or whatever in a song that appeals to the most earnest parts of the heart.

VARSITY’s Steph, Dylan, Pat, Jake & Paul tackle the weirdness of situations through candle-lit vigils that inspire impromptu performance sessions to enjoying togetherness in the forest. From sawing wood, enjoying festive feasts, fun with picture frames, dining room prayers, cornfield follies, etc; VARSITY leaves your heart smiling with that rare sense of feeling complete that is at times difficult to find in our current era.

VARSITY shared the following words on the inspirations behind the “Still Apart” song & video with projections & their upcoming tour with American Wrestlers:

From the beginning we knew we wanted to play with motion (or lack thereof) and subtle movements instead of acting or choreography. The end result is a variety of composed scenes and progressively goofier situations. We had been kicking around a few ideas and vignettes and ended up incorporating parts of all of them. Still Apart as a song is a little sassy and silly with sinister undertones which we wanted reflected in the video. The repeating chorus line, “I know I shouldn’t go out after dark,” inspired us to use darkness, dusk, and smoke as a reoccurring themes throughout. Since this was our first music video our friend and director Abe Zverow really encouraged us to let loose and even surprised us onset with an unwieldy chicken!

We’re kicking off our first support tour with American Wrestlers tomorrow (12/1) in Omaha, NE. And our making our way out east, up through Canada, and back to the Midwest. We’ve also been kicking around a handful of new tunes that we’re going to road test and hopefully start recording LP2 sometime this winter.

PS. No chickens were harmed in the making of this video.