San Francisco’s STRVFE Sits Through The Rain To Talk w/ Us About His New Music on Bypass Audio, His Remixes, Twitch Streams, and More!
Storm Coverage By: Garth Jones
Let’s Chat w/ STRVFE
photo of: STRVFE
Question 1. Welcome to our storm STRVFE! Where did your music journey begin? Take us back to the beginning!
STRVFE: Oh man! That’s a long story to be honest. I was honestly just a hobby musician collecting instruments, playing in Jazz Band, and writing a bunch of progressive metal with my friends. After a while, I came to a conclusion after so many years of trying to sit down with a band to release something. Why not just do it myself? From there it kind of reignited a passion in music I hadn’t had since I was a kid, honestly. I started getting into Film and Video Game scoring on the side for money until STRVFE happened and kind of took over my life.
Question 2. Your recent label release with Bypass Audio titled Override showcases wicked drum patterns, wonky soundscapes, tech bits, and heavy drops. What led you to create this track and what exciting feelings do you have that it was picked up by Megalodon’s imprint label?
STRVFE: To be honest, Override was almost a return to form for me. Both the global state of the electronic music scene since everything shut down led me to take a long break from releasing anything until I decided to start twitch streaming, in which this was one of the first originals I wrote completely with my community watching. I absolutely love old trance aesthetics and the melodies and glitchy sound design involved, and on top of that I love creating a juxtaposition between something being beautiful and then absolute chaos. It started as just showing off techniques to my stream, and turned into something I’m really proud of. As far as Bypass Audio goes, I’m extremely grateful to Megalodon and the whole crew for trying something a little different with me, It almost feels like an island of misfit toys, and I think there is something really special happening with all of us as a community through Bypass.
Question 3. When it comes to your captivating remixes, you choose a wide array of originating artists to flip or remix their tracks. We have heard remixes of Frantik, Skrillex, Must Die!, David Guetta, and Bebe Rexha. What type of artists or qualities in tracks stands out to you for remixing?
STRVFE: This is a tough one, I honestly have to say a song really has to speak to me or mean something to me (sans the Skrillex meme remixes). My qualities I need to hear to remix a track, I need to love the song. but aside from that, i treat it almost like a collaboration. I MUST feel like there is something I personally can add to the track. I don’t want to just genre flip something, i want to leave my imprint on my rendition.
Question 4. Tell us about the history of your alias/moniker STRVFE. Does it have a deeper meaning or an origin story?
STRVFE: That’s a bit of a long story, I’ll say it mostly has to do with the fact that it looks REALLY good on paper and STRAFE with a V has great SEO (I’m the only STRVFE on google), but it actually came from on of my best friends who used to be a part of the STRVFE project, and his obsession with fighter jets ala “strafing fire, strafing, etc….”. Even past us going separate ways musically, it was already a bit late and he gave me the advice to just stick with the name because it looks great and it’s memorable.
Question 5. You recently played the 7th Dimension 2-Year Anniversary Show which was a collaborative event with Lyoko, Transcend Reality, and Bypass Audio. What were some highlights of the event and what were the most memorable pieces?
STRVFE: I think the most memorable thing about the 7th Dimension VR show was just being considered up there with a lot of the great acts from Bypass. I felt really honored to be there on what could be considered Bypass Audio‘s soft launch. If I could pin down one moment it was honestly probably me talking to people in the crowd during my set because of the way VR volume works. It was just surreal to have people losing it to my music and being able to give me that real time feedback instead of the smoking section “great set man“.
Question 6. You regularly live stream on Twitch. What sort of content do you focus on and where can people find your channel?
STRVFE: I stream exclusively at twitch.tv/strvfemusic, and I primarily do music content. Almost all of my content is based around either giving other producers feedback on music (regardless of genre) or producing. I actually can say most of my tunes from the last year and even moving into my unreleased are all at least started on stream first with my community watching!
I personally love the idea of giving people access to the creative process and helping them learn. On top of that, working live lets me answer questions and give live examples in the DAW of what someone’s tune needs. At this point my community pushes me to be a better producer everyday I go live, between our production challenges and even just commenting on how I produce my own tunes.
I also usually fall back to some video gaming when my ears get tired, so we end up having cooldown/cozy time from being creative at the end of every stream.
Question 7. What are some tips & tricks you can share with the audience on live streaming, remixing tracks, and producing original music?
STRVFE: Just. Do. It. Don’t sit on a million unreleases that you think aren’t good enough. Go out no matter your skill level and try and get heard. It might not be the most glamorous thing to put yourself out there albeit even scary, but building an artistic career doesn’t happen overnight and the more transparent you are the more people see your growth and attach to it. It important for people to see you getting better and more professional over time, whether that live streaming or production, and one day you’ll look back and say “oh man i was so bad” and smile.
Question 8. Where do you see yourself in 5 years? Give us a snapshot of that utopian 2028 timeline!
STRVFE: 5 years? It’s hard to say, but I’d want to see myself full time doing music and streaming. Whether that is touring or whether that is full time streaming there’s no telling at this point. I’m not the kind of person to look past whatever is currently in front of me (a bit of a flaw as well)
Question 9. If you were headlining a major festival; who are you bringing with you as your direct, supporting, and opening lineup?
STRVFE: OOF, if I’m picking people not based on size but based on the sounds I like?
Direct: Must Die!, support: ISOxo, opening: SEED. It’s hard for me to rank in that order though, I’m not exactly a promoter nor do I think I’d be a great one haha.
Question 10. On your radar? Who is killing it right now? Who is set to explode in the not-so-distant future?
STRVFE: Oh man my radar is full, killing it right now I’m gonna shoot for names I don’t think everybody knows.
One, Skxlvtor. Hands down. The rest I’m gonna list a couple people from my twitch community actually and say Aiko, Unknvwn_face, Poizin and Spayle
If I’m being completely straight with you, I could probably list about another 10 OUTSTANDING up-and-coming producers that submit to my stream, it’s basically where I source all of my underground music from now a days.
Question 11. Arguably, success cannot be achieved without the help of family, friends, and resources respectively. Who has given you help along the way on your musical journey? Give them a shout-out!
STRVFE: Okay okay, for one, my family is always so supportive of me, so they have to be in there. I have to also shoutout my best friend in the whole and person who got me into streaming @coyadrift (twitch.tv/cousincoyadrift) for always being there for me. My girlfriend Doll for always being there at my weak moments. And finally the wonderful community that surrounds me through both twitch and the bay area scene, I constantly feel loved and appreciated from new friends and day ones alike, what more can you ask for?
Question 12. What’s next for STRVFE? Plug any upcoming events, new tracks, or exciting announcements you may have on the horizon!
STRVFE: I have a lot to show everyone and some big things I need to debut (my first showcase, and some amazing new stuff I’m keeping hush hush), so for now let’s just say you can follow me on twitch and SoundCloud/Spotify and there will be some updates soon. Stream schedule is always Tuesday, Thursday, Sunday at night (PST time zone) and my discord server is always open to producers new/experienced alike and I keep everyone constantly updated with the next big thing on the horizon!
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Next Up On Our Label:
Dropping: February 24th, 2023
KVROT & Synced Harmonies: “Chasing Stars”
Genre: Color Bass
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