Sol Rising Releases Arise

Sol Rising Releases Arise: Downtempo/chill Canadian electronic artist Sol Rising started DJing at the age of 14/15 in the late ’90s.

“I was into old-school hip hop and wanted to learn how to scratch,” he says. “I lived in a small town and had no one to teach me so I bought a DMC 1998 World Finals DJ Competition video and tried to emulate what I was seeing. I was fascinated with the art of “turntablism,” using turntables as musical instruments rather than just playing and mixing records. Several years later I was winning DMC competitions across the US and placed second nationally in the DMC US Supremacy Finals. I went to University and studied accounting, as I thought that music was not a viable career. After college I realized accounting was not my passion, so I went to India and went deeper into my spiritual practice for a couple of years. I soon had a realization that music is a powerful tool for transformation and decided to enroll at Pyramid, a music production school in San Francisco. I had to start from scratch as I had no formal training in any instruments but I’d like to think DJing gave me a good taste for a variety of different musical styles and genres.”

Today, he describes his sound as a mixture of his turntablist scratch DJ roots, his love for electronic music, and his spiritual meditation background.

“I like to make music that evokes emotion and inspiration in the listener,” he says. “As far as genres, I’m more in the downtempo, chill-electronic, lo-fi genre and I’d like to start experimenting with more dance music.”

Sol Rising says that he gravitates towards electronic music that brings an element of depth and emotion.

“I enjoy music that has experimental elements, live instruments, and/or ambient, cinematic composition,” he says. “I feel this can be missing in a lot of mainstream electronic music that can sound generic and formulaic. In my music I want to touch the listener on a deeper/healing level that can help in their transformation whether it’s on their yoga mat or listening in their car. I try to bring a level of experimentation and a mix of ambient elements into my beats.”

His latest release is the “Arise” single with Banaati.

“I sent the label a demo for ‘Arise’ which was one of my first songs experimenting with dance and club-driven music,” he says. “I still wanted to have an inspirational vibe that felt connected to my more chill electronic music and Monstercat Silk heard the track and paired me with Banaati who they felt would be an amazing collaborator with his experience and familiarity in the melodic/progressive house genre. I listened to his music and was inspired and excited to work with him. Banaati took the track to a whole other level with his sound design, progression changes and mixing all while adding his own signature sound.”

Looking ahead, he has plenty planned for 2022.

“I have more music with Monstercat Silk on the way and I’m also working on a few other projects,” he says. “I’m playing at Monstercat’s Compound festival in Vancouver, BC later this month as well!”

Sol Rising Releases Arise: Sol Rising’s “Arise” is out now on Monstercat.

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