Meet The Vintage and Cool, Arsun

A vintage 1960s vibe, an entrancing voice, and beautiful guitar skills are things that makeup artist Arsun. At just 19 years old, the rising singer has captivated us with his eerie single ‘Strangers in The Night’, and high tempo track ‘White Light’.

The release of his new single ‘Send Her My Way’– which was at first a scrapped demo– showcases romantic lyrics and fantastic guitar playing from the emerging singer, that will leave music lovers wanting more. After building a recording studio in the heart of New York City, Arsun along with his band are continuing to create amazing music and we can’t wait to hear more.

We got to chat with Arsun about his newest single, New York City, and so much more…

We are really loving your second single Send Her My Way, how did this track come to be?

‘Send Her My Way’ began as a demo that I brought to my producer and band mate Oliver Ignatius. At that point the track only consisted of guitar and vocals. We came to the conclusion that we loved the vocal performance of the demo and that we should build the rest of the track around it. So we called in my bandmate Henry Munson and he tracked a bass line, and following that we hired a quintet that wonderfully realized a string arrangement written by Max Johnson. The other parts in the song are details I can’t quite remember doing. 

What was the inspiration behind this track? When writing it, what experiences did you pull from? 

I was very inspired by Bob Dylan at the time. In a way I just sang his songs enough that I wrote Send Her My Way as a consequence of doing so. There are also many other influences helping to stitch the song together; The Rolling Stones’ ‘as tears go by’ helped mold the string arrangement, I even recall that Frank Sinatra’s ‘One For My Baby (and One More For The Road)’ had made its way into the pool of inspiration. 

Your previous singles White Light and Strangers in the Night are also amazing tracks that create such a cohesive and enjoyable listening experience. Can you describe your sound in 5 words or less? 

Rock with many different influences 

We can’t believe that you’re only 20 – you have such a mature sound and aura to you, Which artists inspired you growing up? 

I listened to the Beatles and Led Zeppelin a lot growing up and then I began listening to the Velvet Underground which prompted me to start writing music and singing. Soon after I started really getting into Dylan and The Rolling Stones which led me to explore music from every era. I eventually grew to like a wide range of music and genres from 70s Brazilian music to Rap to 40s and 50s music like Frank Sinatra. Starting fairly recently I’ve began to use the discover weekly playlist on Spotify to find music I’ve never heard and it’s become an invaluable tool.

You often record music in New York City, has the city influenced you and your material in any way? 

I try to keep my life and surroundings out of my music unless it’s a conscious decision to include it. I like the idea of being able to be a storyteller and transform for every set of lyrics. However, Inevitably my life makes its way into the stories most of the time in spite of my desire to be a storyteller rather than an autobiographer. For example I say in Send Her My Way “I led ten broken horses down fourth street”. 4th street has significance to me that I added into this completely made up story. 

Is there an album or EP on the way? What can we expect from it?

I have more than enough songs ready to release an album. I’m just trying to gain an audience large enough that when I do release one it doesn’t get lost in the vastness of the internet. I envision the selection of songs that ultimately make it on to the album to cover a wide range of musical ideas and textures taking inspiration from a large pool of different music threaded together and bound by my personal style to create something new. 

If you had to choose any era to go back to which would it be and why? 

It’s hard to say, I’d love to visit the late 50s and early 60s to hang out with Dylan, Elvis, Chuck Berry and all of the musicians. I’d love to go meet writers like Hemingway and Fitzgerald in the 20s, or see Shakespeare in the late 16th century. History is too rich to just choose one. 

If you could collaborate with any artist dead or alive who would it be? 

I’d love to collaborate with Keith Richards or Bob Dylan. I’d also love to collaborate with Chan Marshall and her amazing band who I had the honor of touring with.