Van Horton is riding the (synth)wave.

Originally from Sanford, he learned his first instrument, viola, around age 5, but he found his love for percussion in short order. By the time he turned 8, he was a percussionist in the Sandhills Concert Band, and continued to play in concert bands until he was a teenager.

Horton learned how to play guitar and piano, but he continued to play drums. “I was in a lot of small bands. I was always in bands, but they just never really took off,” Horton said in a recent Sopines Scene Radio Sessions interview.

“And I was always working.“I’ve always enjoyed working, so I do that too, but, you know, coming from Sanford, not many people make a living out of entertainment or music. You know what I mean? It’s like you’ve got to do something ‘practical.’”

In the past few years, Horton was part of a couple projects that flipped that script, Left Early and, more recently, The Violet Exploit.

“Stuff kind of ended with The Violet Exploit. Brian moved to Philadelphia. I was going through some things last year. I guess I was really depressed. I was really just burned out, and I just needed to take a break, and I want to do other things. And I know the other guys want to do great, amazing things,” Horton said. “I was bummed out that that chapter ended, but all good things must come – it’s not going to last forever, you know?”

For those times when schedules didn’t line up, Horton was beginning to combine his piano and drum skills to produce his own music. “I was kind of doing it like 50/50,” he said. “I called them instrumentals five years ago, and then 2020 hit, and people started to listen to chillwave and synthwave a lot on YouTube. I got a little bigger audience, and I got more into synthesizers.”

After a six-month hiatus, Horton leaned into his new project. “I met and I befriended, a bunch of DJs in Raleigh, in Durham that have really showed me a very welcoming scene,” he said. A scene that’s reminiscent of his experience in Moore County.

“I’ve worked with a lot of great people. There’s too many great musicians in this county – it really is a special place.” One of those musicians, Ben Mooring, lends his voice to “Ivory Tower,” a single Horton released today off his upcoming album, which he’s been working on for the past six months. “Album 51” lands on all streaming platforms on October 18. “I guess you could say it’s somewhat of a concept album,” Horton said. “I did synthesizers and drum machines from 1980 to 1984, purely.” For example, the Roland Juno and TR lines or Sequential’s Prophet.

“Just music you can purely dance to,” he said of the project. “What I’ve been doing is incorporating that with classic dance songs from 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000. A lot of a lot of disco, some Daft Punk, a lot of French synthwave stuff that kind of fits my style. And I kind of mix it with my music.”

Horton has shifted his focus to live DJ gigs, where he can perform the new music he’s been working on, and create a scene for people to dance. To let loose a little bit. He’s organized and played a few parties in Moore County, including an upcoming Halloween party at Rec Room on Oct. 5. “I’m not a costume guy either, but I just love people being festive, and being a community and gathering and everything, it’s really cool.”

He hopes that through performing and creating a space for people to enjoy that community, he can share some of the momentum he’s built for himself. “2024 has been amazing for me. I hope it’s been amazing for everybody out there. To just be in Moore County, and to be around the scene, you know, it’s great,” Horton said. “There are so many special people that have helped me grow as a musician, and a songwriter, and hopefully I could do the same and inspire people – that’s what music is all about.”

You can find more of Van Horton’s music and contact info on his website.