Following the success of debut single Roamer earlier this year, international Berlin-based trio Varley are back with another captivating release. Lonely Were The Days is out now via Seahorse Music.

Reflecting on the ever-growing demands of today’s society from the effects of social media and the pressure this puts on a whole generation to “be something”, Lonely Were The Days blends the soaring vocals of Irish front-woman Claire-Ann Varley with throbbing beats and a twinkling soundscape. Interweaving luscious hooks and a melancholic lyricism, it’s a truly mesmerising slice of dreamy alt-pop.

Formed on the way home after a night out bowling, Varley consist of Claire-Ann Varley, Matthias Heising and Joschka Bender. With last single Roamer reaching #23 in the Spotify Viral Charts (and more than 700.000 plays so far!), and receiving airplay from several indie radio stations, Varley now hope to allure listeners in the UK and beyond with the ethereal beauty of Lonely Were The Days.

In this interview feature, I chat with Varley about the latest project, challenges, motivations and much more.

Full Q&A along with links and the new single, Lonely Were The Days, below.

Let’s dive a little deeper into You, the artist and your music. What attracted you to this genre(s) or style(s)?

Claire-Ann’s vocals call for certain ways to wrap them into sound so to say. For us it is about finding the perfect combination of instruments, melodies and atmospheres to support what the vocals do. So in some way, there‘s not a genre that dictates what kind of music we make, but the sound of Claire-Ann and what she chooses to do.

What led you into this journey with music? And further, what drives you to push it out to the public?

There wasn’t a point where we said: “Ok, let‘s do this!”. We just did. We have always made music, and the reason why is because we need to. We did it for ourselves in the first place and if there are people who like what we do, then that is the best compliment to us.

Who or what influences your creativity? Have your tastes in music changed over time?

From a lyrical standpoint today’s society has definitely had a big influence on what we do: The steady need to portray yourself to the outside world as interesting, exciting, special or beautiful. The fear of not being so special at all. And the pressure that all of that puts on you. Musically we found our way of putting our individual influences together in a way none of us would do it, would they just work on their own. Varying tastes in music always play a role and keep the process fresh, while the core of what we do stays the same.

Were you trying to accomplish anything specific on this new project? Creatively or otherwise?

We want to be free in what we do. Our main goal is to find our own way of communicating through our music and to get in touch with those, who speak that same musical language.

What was the last song you listened to?

Sliver Lane by Sophie Hunger.

Which do you prefer? Vinyl? CDs? MP3s?

That differs between our band members. While Claire-Ann and Matze listen to music from Spotify almost exclusively, Joschka has a vinyl collection of his favourite music and just uses streaming on the go.

How about this one…. Do you prefer Spotify? Apple Music? Bandcamp? Or something else? Why?

Spotify is great because of the playlists you can find for anything you‘re looking for and the ease with which you can make them yourself. Soundcloud is also nice if you have time and want to go around randomly to find new music. Although it is a little more on the electronic side of things. Record stores are still the nicest way to really get in touch with new music, and also to talk to other people and get real recommendations that are not based on some algorithm that makes you listen to the same things over and over again.

Other than the digital era overwhelming us with access to an abundance of music, what is the biggest challenge you face when trying to connect with or find new fans?

It can be really hard to keep people’s attention. Once you get it, you have to keep them interested all the time because there is so much new music out everyday.

Where is the best place to connect with you online? Discover more music?

We have a Spotify playlist that we update regularly. There is our music in it as well as a lot of music from artists that we just love to listen to, which might give you a pretty good idea of our influences.

Anything else you’d like to add before signing off?

We are looking forward to the shows we are gonna play in London in November and December:

Nov. 7, 2018 The Victoria, London [Support for BRYDE]
Dec 1, 2018 Notting Hill Arts Club, London

Thank you for supporting us!