Nick Pittsinger

Varien
Nick Pittsinger in 2012
Background information
Also known as	Varien Raven Halo Nova
Born	(1990-05-15) May 15, 1990 Tampa, Florida, United States
Genres	electro rock, industrial, drum and bass, dubstep, glitch hop, soundtrack, downtempo, moombahton
Occupations	Composer, producer
Instruments	Piano, guitar
Labels	FiXT, Ultra, Big Beat, Monstercat
Associated acts	Celldweller Scandroid
Website	www.facebook.com/varienofficial

Nick Pittsinger, better known by his stage name Varien, is an American composer and producer.^[1] His styles range from industrial, electronic rock, and drum and bass to orchestral and trip hop music. He is a featured producer on the electronic labels Monstercat and FiXT, with songs like "Cloak and Dagger", "Throne of Ravens", and "Mirrors" reaching views in the millions. Pittsinger has also composed the soundtrack to the Mobile games Bouncy Mouse and Greedy Spiders 1 and 2, whose combined sales amount to over 10,000,000.^[2][3] Other non-composing accomplishments of his include helping develop multiple sample libraries for 8dio Productions, led by composer Troels Folmann and providing music production tutorials on YouTube, which have grossed over 1,000,000 plays total. Other past monikers of his include Shamantis and Halo Nova.^[4]

In August 2010, Nick achieved internet virality with his slowed-down remix of Justin Bieber's song "U Smile" entitled "Justin Bieber 800% Slowed Down". He was interviewed by Entertainment Weekly, MTV, and had articles written about the track from all over the world.^[5]

In December 2011, Nick was hired by dubstep producer Skrillex to do an Orchestral suite of his most popular songs. In this suite, the songs "Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites", "All I Ask Of You", "Scatta" (all from the Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites EP) and "Equinox" (from the More Monsters and Sprites EP) were re-arranged into an Orchestral fashion. To date, the "Skrillex Orchestral Suite" has received over 3,000,000 views on YouTube.^[6]

Under his Varien moniker, Nick has remixed popular acts such as Gareth Emery, Rebecca & Fiona, and Celldweller. He has had songs chart on the digital distribution website Beatport a number of times, including "Mirrors", which hit the #1 spot on the drum and bass charts in a matter of a few days.^[7][8]

On February 26, 2013, Varien released Pick Your Poison Vol. 1, a compilation album of trailer cues that he had done strictly for the purpose of film, television, and video game licensing.

In 2013, Nick and Klayton of Celldweller formed the cyberpunk/electronic music project Scandroid.^[9]

Discography

LP

Singles and EPs

Remixes

Film/TV/Video Game

Nick Pittsinger also composes and licenses music for all forms of visual media.

References