We recently connected with Grant Varner and have shared our conversation below.

Grant, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

This band is hands down the most meaningful project I’ve ever done and it’s been such a life investment. I’ve always gone into it with the mentality that I would like to be someone that my younger self needed as his hero. I always want to create content that I would personally want to see more of in the world. Today society is so dominated by social media which for the most part only displays the good parts of life which makes you feel like you’re doing life completely wrong at times. You have all these figures who’ve bested the algorithm blowing up seemingly over night and because other talented creatives haven’t hit that sort of luck so quickly, they’re left thinking that it’s some sort of personal issue with themselves and it’s stifling. At least I know that’s exactly how I’ve felt and often still feel at times. So one thing that makes this band so meaningful to me is that we put up no fronts. No pretending no facade. We want to be completely real and verbally express in our messaging that all this is factually very difficult and often discouraging when you feel like you’re just on a hamster wheel all the time. But for anyone who does feel that way, hopefully they know they’re not alone.

Grant, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m the singer for a project called Cult Affections, a Post-Hardcore/Hard-Rock/Alternative band that’s been active with professional intent for about 2 years now. We stemmed directly from a band called ATR when we were younger that lasted about 5 years from high-school to college. The majority of our messaging wildly takes the form as social critique and narrative of the world around us and our peers. I personally came from a decently conservative Italian Catholic family, yet I found profound passion in the rock music industry which often notably disdains two of those things. So a lot of our material takes ourselves through the journey of that transition. Being invested on both sides of things growing up you notice a lot of hypocrisy and moral difficulties on both sides of the equation and that’s something we value expressing in our music. We’re not afraid to be challenging and a dash controversial. I think you have to be to actually mean something.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

Honestly, to be as transparent as I possibly can be, I’ve always had a horrible fear of death and dying. Literally crippling. I remember being in sixth grade literally sweating and falling to my knees in church one day, completely weak, when the idea just randomly registered with me that someday we’re tapping out of this world. Literally ever since that moment I’ve done everything in my power to only do things that I’d look back on with immense pride. Because, I also feel like the fear of death really only severely effects those who feel they haven’t done much in their life. However, if you’ve done things that bring you an immense sense of fulfillment, then you’ll never really feel like something could’ve been done differently or better. From that you can move on from this one and only life happily knowing you did something remarkable instead of just sitting by idly as a passenger.

Ever since then I’ve been the most efficient non-time wasting person I know which makes things incredibly difficult when in an industry where you have to work with and sometimes depend on so many other people, because they might not feel such urgency to prioritize things the same way I necessarily do.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

I’m 24 right now and life as a creative is completely different than it was just 4-5 years ago right before Covid. There’s literally 18, 19, and 20 year-olds out there going on these great tours for these huge fan bases they’ve amassed over social media, which is awesome for them, but I feel so unbelievably behind the ball on all of that, its so discouraging. Solely, because when I was in the dawn of my twenties just some 4 years ago, there were no Instagram reels of which you needed to post 3 to 5 times a week to appease the algorithm Gods. The rules and landscape of media changed SO FAST. Not to mention, I’ve already always felt a bit mature for my age and unable to identify with trends and fads of my peers, so now that these things are the masters we as entertainers are slaves to it just seems impossible to keep up with and still feel genuine. It’s sometimes suggested to spit out a new song every six weeks forever and I think that’s insane. I feel so weird and fake even attempting to play this game sometimes, but I at least wish this was all something I had gotten a heads up for. Still, that doesn’t stop me from trying to navigate things in my own way.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://cultaffections.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cultaffectionshtx/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@CultAffections
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/cult-affections

Image Credits

Alberta Zemyra
Justin Padilla/Shootwith.jp
Santi_everlasting_