CREDIT: PROVIDED BY VERZACHE (ZACH FARACHE)
Fanshawe Music Industry Arts (MIA) student Verzache, shares his history and some of his secrets to reaching over 30,000 followers and 2 million plays on Soundcloud and other streaming sites.

At only 19, Music Industry Arts (MIA) student Zach Farache, also known as Verzache, already has over thirty thousand followers and millions of plays on Soundcloud, with even more plays on streaming sites such as Spotify. Farache shared the story of how he got into music and how he very quickly got to a place that many musicians dream of and work their entire career to reach.

Though the music of Verzache has strong roots in electronic genres, this was not the primary style Farache listened to when first interested in music. “When I was younger I listened to a lot of ambient stuff, like Bon Iver and I also listened to some punk stuff…I kind of didn't really like electronic music at all,” Farache said. When he was 10, Farache began taking guitar at the Snider School of Music in Toronto. He later took lessons in other instruments and started a band through this school, gaining a strong general knowledge in music. Farache began to have an interest in electronic music when he was fifteen.

“I got into electronic stuff and started to listen to…stuff that wasn't perfect…it was programmed to sound more human,” he shares. It was around this time that he began experimenting in this genre, creating simple remixes in garage band. This peaked an interest in the art of producing that never left.

Soon after, Farache took a course in Ableton, a music producing software and from then on he was hooked.

“I got really addicted to producing on my laptop…and then I just put a ridiculous amount of time into it,” Farache said.

One of the keys to Farache's success has been consistently releasing content, even in these early days of his career. “There wasn't like a waiting period for me. I was just kind of like; ‘you know what, I'm making this stuff, might as well put it out [and] make an identity',” Farache said.

In doing this, Farache discovered a community of artists who helped him to push his music career forward. “I found artists that I really enjoyed…and I would ask them if they wanted to work [together]…a bunch of these producers were doing this and they started joining collectives...They started supporting each other, constantly releasing, constantly promoting everyone to all of their friends. We all promoted each other and basically we all kind of gained traction just from supporting,” Farache said.

From here, things snowballed and Verzache went from having four thousand plays in 2014 on Soundcloud, to two million in 2016. “It's kinda surreal to be honest,” Farache shares. “It feels fake”.

Farache's success in the industry is certainly something to be admired. However, he is quite modest and believes that anyone can do what he's done. “Honestly it's just from supporting each other. It's crazy honestly, the internet, some people don't realize the potential,” he said.

Recently, Farache began putting out a new style of more acoustic music under his name and this has also been doing extremely well. “It's weird because it's kind of like the stuff that you don't expect or the music you put out that you think isn't that crazy or isn't that amazing, sometimes just shines brighter than everything else. It seemed to have a bigger impact on people than some of my other stuff and I wasn't even thinking about that…it's unfathomable sometimes,” he said.

Although he has a wealth of music online and already has thousands of followers, one may assume that there is not much left for Farache to do, however, he has no intentions of slowing down. He currently plans to work on his live shows and start touring. He's already played shows in Montreal, Vancouver and New York and has big plans for the future. “I wanna do something cool that I feel is…awesome, and would be great for a live set,” Farache said excitedly. “Just see where it takes me, release more music, work with more artists, meet more people.”

You can follow along Farache's journey on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @verzachemane. His music can be heard at soundcloud.com/verzache or any major streaming service such as Spotify