VanRiss is a singer/songwriter from Tulsa, Oklahoma. He flew to Los Angeles to wow the crowd at November’s Songtradr Showcase.
Kyle Warner: You’ve had some very impressive placements. Do you feel these placements have been an instrumental part of growing your fanbase?
VanRiss: Beyond increase my fanbase, licensing has offered me a sustainable marketing and recording budget without the overhead of live performances or slow scalability of selling fixed-price MP3s.
KW: Writing for sync is not an easy thing to do. Do you actively think about “sync-ability’ when writing songs or you think it’s just a natural byproduct of your sound?
VR: It’s important to me that songs start from an intimate perspective. I choose to write within a pop structure but I believe listeners value authenticity in art even more than originality or formulas. My new album, “Every Streetlight and Every Turn”, was very intentionally written for “sync-ability” but I kept it at the end of the lyrical or mixing process.
