To captivate more people to his Big Room sound, Arion Verk creates a series of exceptional videos with his releases. The videos visually take viewers into different dimensions, just like the dynamics of his music does. Most recently, Arion Verk releases a piercing melodic big room single, ‘Escape’.
Built of a mysterious and epic atmosphere, powerful drop and intriguing melody, ‘Escape’ is a thrill from start to finish.
‘Escape’, available for free download, has amounted to over 127,000 listens so far, proving his undeniable sound is finding its way into many hearts. Get to know a little about the Russian electronic music scene and the rising Producer himself through our exclusive interview while you enjoy the musical journey that the rest of Verk’s adventurous, high-energy big room singles with HD visuals take us on.
A “never have I ever”, what is one thing people may be surprised that you have never done?
I’d say that I’ve never attended a typical music school, but learned music theory and instruments myself or using short courses.
Where are you from? What lead you to start creating electronic music? What drew you to the style of music you create?
I’m from Russia and in my country, Big Room genre isn’t really popular, so it’s quite difficult to find gigs. I’ve become obsessed with electronic music after seeing the Ultra Music Festival in 2013. Artists like Hardwell, W&W, KSHMR and many others inspired me a lot and helped me understand what type of music I want to create. At the same time I love orchestral music so I use many strings/horns/choirs in my productions and try to bring it to Big Room in an epic way.
What was your song writing process for ‘Escape’? What equipment are you using? What are your favorite samples and FX? What was the musical journey you envisioned while creating this track?
Escape has been unusual for its genre from the beginning. It’s the first fast-tempo track for me so it was fun to work on it. I’ve made the melody at 140bpm and noticed that it sounds cool at 150bpm as well. I’ve decided to use tempo changing to make it more interesting and reveal the melody in different tempos.
I use Universal Audio Apollo sound card with two pairs of headphones from Focal/Sennheiser and Dynaudio monitors. However, I can’t use monitors often because of the room and my moving to another city, so I prefer headphones for most decisions.
I use many samples and have many good packs in my collection, but I could say that I enjoy cinematic packs from Cinetools. I love to use background effects from these packs to create really cool dimensions.
The main setting of the video and cover of the ‘Escape’ track is an Apocalypse world with the portal. I like to create a story behind my tracks and I can say that Escape creates these intriguing feelings in the beginning and a good climax in the second drop. However, we’re still working to make it look like a real story in the video and be completely satisfied with it.
What is the electronic music scene like out there? What are some of your favorite clubs, events or festivals and who are you favorite Russian DJs?
I’ve been living in a city where Big Room DJs and events don’t exist at all and just some time ago I moved to the capital. However, the scene here overwhelmed with house, techno, hardstyle, and trance. Even here it’s difficult to find something in my genre. I like many Big Room DJs but they are all from other countries. However, I could say thatAlfa Future People festival brings really cool DJs here and it’s the biggest and best festival in Russia for me.
What do you enjoy about creating music?
I enjoy almost everything about creating music, from creating the arrangement to the mixing and mastering. All processes are different and have their own cool feature for me. I’d say that I enjoy it as a whole. Watching how the track becomes finished from the idea is really awesome.
How did your moniker, Arion Verk, originate? What is next for Arion Verk?
Arion was my nickname from childhood and I’ve decided to add Verk then. It has some meaning inside but it wasn’t created because of it.
I’m working on two incredible projects right now. One project is going to have a really cool 3D video that takes more time than expected and I’ll need more time to release these tracks, but they’re going to be really epic so I hope I will be able to present something soon.
Do you have any life hacks?
I wouldn’t call any of my actions real life hacks, but I could say that when I create a new track, I try to be careful with the first decisions. So when I’ve made the melody for a new track I try to work only on a few new things for this track every day before the idea of the arrangement is ready, only then I can go full time on a new track. I may come up with a small idea while I’m working on another track and then go to the new one on a break to add a small feature.
Keep up with Arion Verk and help him take his unique big room sound to the next level by supporting him on his social media handles linked below.
