About
Formed by Joey Varela, Varsity is a post-Hardcore band formed in late 2014. Based out of New York City & Michigan, Varsity includes members Derek LaFountain on Guitar, Chad Joseph on Drums & Javy Dorrejo on bass & screaming vocals. Upon forming Varsity went to work on what is now their debut EP Lights, recording with producer Kyle Ritch at CayRitch Studios, which showcased the bands incredibly polished sound and strong writing capabilities. Following the release of their EP lights the band began playing their local circuit, gaining numerous fans in the process as well as attention from magazines, labels and management companies. In 2016 Varsity officially signed with The Artery Foundation for management, and The Wavelink Agency for booking and began touring across multiple states, on both coasts and gaining an even stronger fan base and connection with their fans. After spending most of 2016 touring, Varsity began working on their debut full length record. entitled "The Death Of A Monster" to be released late 2017. The band then signed with Nightfall Management in the summer of 2017. With no signs of slowing down Varsity intends to put out what is to be their most ambitious release to date and extend their reach to even greater heights.
Varsity is
Vocals - Joey Tyler Varela
Bass / Screams - Javy Dorrejo
Drums - Chad Joseph
Guitar - Jad Houmany
Guitar - Evan Rhind
How did you guys meet?
We have actually all been friends for some time now minus our newest guitarist who we met through local shows and such.
How did you guys choose your band name and what does it mean?
We chose Varsity because it defined everything we wanted. Everyone starts of Junior Varsity (Jv) and hopes to graduate to Varsity and for us thats exactly what it is. Graduating into the next step of our lives.
Who are you biggest influences?
We all have super different influences vocally I pull tons from my biggest inspiration which happens to be Michael Jackson but the we as a band love everything from Volumes all the way to mayday parade lol
How do you feel your music has changed since you first became a band up until now?
When we first became a band we just wrote whatever we thought sounded good and now we still want it to sound great and hope everyone loves it as much as we do but it's more about what makes us as a band feel good to play and promote. Our music has become a lot more personal but we love that because we're just like everyone else, we go through things also and we want everyone to know that.
What’s your favorite venue to play?
Webster hall in NYC was, it recently closed but that's a venue we've played at multiple times and have loved it every time.
Whats been your favorite show or tour to be on?
That's hard lol we love all of the tours we've been on but I want to say favorite shows are between Michigan, Mississippi and Texas. Those three places always go super hard for us and make us feel like we're at home there every time.
What’s one of the craziest things to happen on tour or at a show?
Haha So we're the type of band that's always doing crazy things. We can't pick one specifically but on our last tour we spent a night in Vegas and did some pretty stupid stuff lol we can leave it at that and you guys can just imagine the rest :)
What venues would you want to play in the future?
Chain reaction in California hands down.
If you could tour with any bands who would it be?
Underoath, Bring Me the Horizon, Wage War and Dayseeker.
What are you guys working on?
We're currently reworking our full length album and planning some tours for 2018. We want to make sure next year we hit all of the places we haven't been able to go to.
Make sure to check Varsity out on
Facebook @varsityofficialnyc
Instagram @varsity_nyc
Twitter @varsity_nyc