Sidemen member Vikkstar has spoken about the future of the group, what’s next for his own career, and more in an interview with LADbible.
People familiar with the UK YouTube scene will know who the Sidemen are – consisting of seven of the country’s most successful content creators, the group are still going strong as they approach their 11-year anniversary on Saturday (19 October).
KSI, Miniminter, TBJZL, Behzinga, Zerkaa, Wroetoshaw, and Vikkstar make up the crew, and boast over 15 billion views and 37 million subscribers across the group’s channels.
We sat down with Vikkstar to talk about the secrets to success in content creation, and how the Sidemen have avoided the bleak outcome of other social media groups out there.
Vik spoke about the Sidemen’s continued success in the online realm (Instagram/vikkstagram)
Vikkstar, real name Vikram Barn, started making videos and uploading them to YouTube in 2010, primarily focusing on gaming videos such as Call of Duty and Minecraft.
But starting out, he admitted that it took him ‘a while’ before deciding he could go full time, having doubts at first.
The creator explained he ‘had a place for Natural Sciences at UCL’, but wanted to see where YouTube could take him in a year, after gaining ‘a few 100,000 subscribers’ while studying for five A-Levels.
“After three years of deferring, I thought, I’m probably not ever going to go,” he said.
Over 10 years on, it looks like it’s been the right decision, eventually accumulating over 12 million subscribers on his personal channels and over 3.8 billion views.
The Sidemen then formed in 2013, something that happened ‘naturally’, according to Vik.
“We all came together very naturally… we made friends with each other (first), and then started making content together.”
Vik says the Sidemen work because they were friends first and worked together afterwards (Sidemen)
The 29-year-old highlighted the two reasons behind their longevity, saying: “We weren’t manufactured,” eluding to the previous point, adding, “The second point is that we share everything equally. So all financial earnings, or businesses, everything is equally divided between the seven of us.”
But it’s not always been plain sailing, as fans will remember the drama that ensued in the summer of 2017.
“We went through a period where we made parody diss tracks about each other,” Vik said when asked about the group’s toughest period.
The Brit continued: “I think immediately following that, everything came back down to normal, but it did put us in a difficult position where we were trying to work out what the next move was.”
KSI has previously revealed that he was considering leaving the group at this point, but ultimately stayed on and reaped the benefits.
After this, they started to post ‘Sidemen Sundays’, where the members would upload a video together on their joint channel, once a week.
They have done this since January 2018, when many thought it wasn’t sustainable – but how long more have this group got left?
The Sidemen star admitted he has come close to calling it a day (Supplied)
We brought the question to Vik, who answered: “It’s impossible to predict how long it may or may not last.
“But at the moment, we have a bigger production team, bigger production budgets, and the ability to do more than we’ve ever had before, and everyone’s really enjoying it, so it’s impossible to predict how long it will last.”
Vik said that in the online landscape, ‘nothing is too structured or planned’, noting that it’s impossible to make a long-term plan.
He touched on the fact that he’s thought about quitting a few times though, saying that he was ‘killing myself’ when posting five to six videos a day across his personal channels, and he’s instead chosen to cutt back and upload when he likes, highlighting that consistency and passion have kept him going in his career.
Citing his Sidemen Charity Match goals as the best moments of his career so far, we asked why there wasn’t one this year, and he said they wanted to go ‘bigger’, but it ‘wasn’t possible’.
We asked if they were considering Wembley, to which he replied with a smirk: “I can’t disclose what our plans might be.”
The creator has been around for almost 15 years (YouTube/Vikkstar123)
Recently, Vik has branched out into the music industry, releasing songs with the likes of Alan Walker, Masked Wolf and JME.
Admittedly coming from nowhere, the content creator said he has been ‘fortunate’ to have mentors in the industry, with the former inviting him on stage for a guest set as his first-ever show, in front of thousands.
Vik now has some sets lined up in India on the 19, 20 and 21 October, as a support act for Alan Walker’s ‘Walker World’ Tour.
The content creator also has a sunglasses brand in CIRCULR, an idea inspired by how many times he’s lost sunglasses while on holiday (we’ve all been there) and with these products, he can ‘slip into an alter ego’ while on stage.