The SL Enquirer: Open Mic Auditions Winner

On October 30th, Open Mic Auditions took place at The SL Enquirer hosted by DJ Ninja and co host Wolfie Starfire. Talented artists from across the grid showed up to performance for a chance to win 5000L and a Spotlight Feature in the SL Enquirer. This event is gaining momentum on the music scene as a place for new and seasoned musicians to share their music with the SL World. It was hard to pick just one winner this round. 2nd place went to Miss Trish Crafton (oomissoootrishoo.nightingale) and the Winner of the night was Veo Voom who surprised the audience with his performances.

Veo Voom began playing the piano in the 4th grade and later picked up his first guitar in the 6th grade. There was a period in his late teens and early twenties when he briefly took a break from the guitar to pursue electronic music production.

During this time, he was signed to a UK record label and produced a remix of the main theme from the video game Skyrim, which garnered over 3 million views on YouTube. Yet again, Veo took another hiatus from all music due to a challenging relationship. This lasted for 4 years in his early twenties.

After escaping that relationship, Veo immersed himself in playing acoustic guitar and singing. Veo has an eclectic taste and enjoys performing a wide range of music, from Oldies and Folk to Alternative Rock. He's also a multi-instrumentalist, proficient in guitar, piano, harmonica, accordion, bass, drums, and almost anything that's playable. Veo is dedicated to uplifting spirits and uniting people through his music. The SL Enquirer sat down with Veo to learn more about this talented SL star.

Interview with Veo Voom

Lanai: Hi Veo, it is such a pleasure to be interviewing you. Congratulations on winning Open Mic Auditions at SLE! The prize was well deserved, you have a wonderful stage presence. How did you discover Second life?

Veo Voom: I discovered Second Life a little over 17 years ago. One of my friends told me about it and the thought of a virtual world that's created mainly by the users is such a brilliant idea. A place where people can create and share their love for so many things is so beautiful.

Lanai:I agree! It’s always exciting to get up close and personal with musical talent here in Second life. You’ve been involved in music from a very young age beginning with Piano. Who were your music inspirations leading you to picking up a guitar in your teen years?

Veo Voom: My biggest inspiration was my dad. He would always be playing guitar or piano in the house growing up and he was always so very supportive of my musical endeavors. For my 12th birthday, I was surprised with a red Squier Stratocaster and a practice amp and I was over the moon! I'll never forget, within minutes of opening it and picking it up, the very first song I figured out by ear was Crazy Train by Black Sabbath haha.

Lanai: I love it! My father played guitar. When I was little I would dance on his guitar case while he played. You have come a long way in your music career. You signed to a label in The UK in your early 20’s and created the remix of the main theme from the video game Skyrim. That’s pretty cool. Can you tell me a little bit about that and how it helped enhance your presence online?

Veo Voom: Oh yes! I've always had a love for electronic music ever since I heard Eiffel 65's album Europop. During my last year of high school and through the following couple of years I started learning more about producing electronic music. I went down many rabbit holes online learning as much as possible about music production, synthesizer programming, and much more! I would frequent many forums and subreddits to learn and grow with other producers. I then started putting out originals on Soundcloud and started up a YouTube as well. I would try to enter as many remix contests as possible just to get more practice under my belt. I was putting out a lot of originals both on Soundcloud and Youtube and it caught the eye of Rockforce Records. I ended up signing with them and putting out a 4 track EP under the artist name Kostya. Eventually, the label dissolved and I didn't see anything from it other than my tunes being on streaming services. Then when the video game Skyrim came out in 2011, I was so entranced by the main theme. 14 hours later I created an entire remix and only used the chanting vocals from the theme. It received some positive feedback initially and I was happy with what I put out. Fast forward a few months it started ramping up to 25 thousand views. Every time the game had a different version or remaster come out on a new system, it would make the remix relevant again. Today the video is at over 3.2 million views and I never believed it would reach such heights.

Lanai: Very impressive! On a personal level. Relationships can shape the trajectory of our lives. In your case it was a small setback in your career. How has this changed your life for the better?

Veo Voom: Well in my worst relationship, I put music down for about 4 years. Being without it for that long and losing who I was makes me appreciate it even more now than ever! If I ever have a day where I'm not feeling as creative as I could be, I just think back to those years when I wasn't allowed to create.

Lanai: I feel you creativity should never be stifled. To really stand out in the SL Music scene, you have to have something special about your performances. How do you define your music style?

Veo Voom: I would consider my music style folky, indie, and eclectic. I'm always trying to keep things interesting and fun during my performances. I'll try to add a joke lyric relevant to something in chat or I'll mix it up and switch to banjo from guitar.

Lanai: Personalizing shows for a Sl audience is a perfect way to engage your audience here. If you can collaborate with any musician in SL or RL, who would it be and why?

Veo Voom: One day I would love to collaborate with Tally Mercury! We've got a lot of similar tastes in music and I feel like our sounds would mesh well. He's just such a talented musician, performer and songwriter.

Lanai: I'd be interested to see that collaboration too. An SL stage is so different from performing in RL. How Does it differ from your RL stage presence?

Veo Voom: In RL I'll be bopping around a good bit and I try to bring that into SL (though it's hard sitting in a chair and not being able to move my avi independently). I do feel like I'm more comfortable in SL just because I feel like I can connect with the audience more directly versus some RL spots I've played at.

Lanai: What are your landmark performances? Best Memories performing both in RL and in SL?

Veo Voom: I think some of my best memories come from performing at friends' birthdays and rezz days. There's just something so special about an intimate show with your close friends on SL.