The Variants have channeled their life experiences into their music by writing about accepting yourself. The band started in 2006 with Quinn and Ardon while they were watching a Beck music video and they realized they could do something similar easily. They started out by covering Death Cab For Cutie and Cake. Then, in 2009, they actually decided to start a band together and started writing songs together. Sky also joined at this time. Once the band became the Variants, there was a large moment of transition with some identity crisis among the members.

"I used to play a lot of Iron Maiden cover songs, but then somehow they recruited me to play in their band *laughs*"-Rodya

"I've always felt wanted and needed in this band, which is an important thing."-Rodya

"For about seven years, we were known as Halfway There. Whenever we told people our band name, people usually responded with 'halfway to what?'"-Quinn

They decided to change their band name after all the venues they used to play closed down, leaving them with no way to play for their fan base. Everybody went their separate ways after high school and they were trying to figure themselves out, just like the rest of us. "But that all kinda sucked so we came back together *laughs*"-Rodya

After reuniting, they decided Halfway There was holding them back as a band name, so they completely rebranded and became the Variants. They've been the Variants for about two years now.

"We've gone on tour to California and we are working on a music video currently. We're about to start meetings regarding the second album soon!"-Rodya

"On paper, our first tour was extraordinarily successful! We found places to stay, we made enough money to cover our gas and our shows were fairly well-attended. We definitely are trying to do another tour soon because all of us really love to travel."-Quinn

"Rodya was a tour miracle. We booked a hostel for one night, but the rest of the tour Rodya found us houses to stay at. She also completely booked the first tour alone which is impressive! We ended up crashing at a rad music producers house in Berkeley because he walked by when he was doing laundry and liked our music enough to let us crash on his floor."-Roark

"Quinn used to play exclusively with an electric acoustic guitar for a while"-Rodya

"Yeah, that REALLY wasn't a good look *laughs*You know, sometimes you try to be your heroes and then you just find new heroes"-Quinn

"We wanted the Variants to be louder and we want to spread important messages through our music through very familiar styles of music. We also want to encourage people to not be dicks! *laughs*"-Quinn

"We were all sleeping in the garage of Worthy Goat's house in Sacramento. I had gotten whiskey drunk with Rodya the night before and Quinn gets up and it's completely pitch black."

"I pretty myself up and then come back to wake up the rest of the band. I slowly wake up Sky and Rodya who easily come to their senses and start getting ready to leave. I wake up Roark and he just goes AHHH WHERE AM I?! and he NEARLY takes me out and kills me in the dark and meanwhile, one of the Worthy Goat's band members was sleeping in the room with us and he starts getting ready to go with the rest of us, even though he literally doesn't have to go anywhere."-Quinn

"I still say that if this happens again and you try to wake me up in a pitch black room and I ask where we are, please don't just say a garage! That is NOT good *rest of band laughs*"-Roark