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Interview
by SashaS
2-5-2003
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| Venus Hum search for machinery soul |
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Soul-full cybetronica
Venus Hum explore sky-wide cy-fi
Once upon a time Noel Gallagher told me a story from the road: during his ‘illicitly enhanced’ past, while still in a marriage with Meg Matthews, she called him in Mexico City to see how he was and, by-the-by, asked how was the city. He said they hadn’t been there – never/ever bothering to look out of the window!
Venus Hum is sort of a band one expects not to waste time studying hotel room’s inner vistas or its mini-bar inventory but get out and discover what any particular place is all about. That’s what keyboards ‘operator’ Kip Kubin, told us when we interrogated the band. Singer Annette Strean was ordered to rest her voice; they had to take good care because they were appearing on ‘The Tonight’s Show’, the major US chat show hosted by generously-jawed Jay Leno, a few days later.
“I like going to the galleries, my favourites are abstract paintings, Tony (Miracle, keys/guitar) prefers museums and Annette is into antique bookstores, second-hand records and vintage dresses. We never do together, we go and discover things independently and then bring them to the band.”
Myriad ingredients are placed in a cauldron and stirred until emerging as something rather different, interesting and refreshing.
“Thank you, that’s been our intention from the word go and not just to form a band to have a career. Personally, I didn’t even have any great desire to get into music business; I met Tony at college, I was studying radio broadcasting and advertising, and we became fast friends. Through some other friends he met Annette and gave me her tape, singing acoustically in a bar, to see what I could do with it. I played with it on my computer and when I gave it back to her, she loved it that led us to think – ‘Why not try to make a go of it?’”
Kunst-tanzkopf
‘Big Brilliant Sky’ is appropriately titled record because it has no set-limitations of any kind. It surges into cosmos, it is bereted by space dust and asteroids and upon a return to the planet, it is without soft landing; in meantime, the machines have revolted and taken over… Still, in all the ‘noise’, there is a huge organic element. They are not alienated, or acting it, like the electronic-Godfathers, Kraftwerk.
“Yes, that’s always been our aim, to make music that has a soul, not only to be distant, not just entertainment, we always wanted to make it more interactive, we want the audience to be part of it. To that end we videotape every show and watch to figure out how to improve it, make it more interesting, more audience-involved... It has to be interesting to us as well and there is no end of joy to playing this music live with my best friends.”
Just wait until you all develop super-egos! Venus Hum don’t break the cyber-mould but are certainly formulating own potion. Still, the manner of doing it is rather risky: the band’s current single, ‘Montana’, is a pure slice of infectious electro-pop song but that’s it. There are no more radio-friendly cuts because this band is truly an album outfit.
“If you say so, I don’t really think that; yes, there’s been postponement of our album’s release but that is to let the single work some more. To me, all our songs sound like hit singles, they may be a bit strange sounding, but they just are great singles!”
In a parallel universe, perhaps.
American Cy-Fi
The eclectic soundscape is counterbalanced with a weird dress-sense: Strean is all into the 1950s gowns and corresponding glasses, Kubin sports an ‘aluminium’ jacket (“too hot!”, he admits) and Miracle is a corpulent schoolboy. It is their concession to showbiz but done with a tongue stuck in a collective cheek – firmly.
“The way we present ourselves is a bit funny, a bit self-mocking… It is fun and Annette’s got a huge selection of such dresses that in all the years I’ve known her, I’ve never seen her appear in the same outfit, twice. We are also very careful when choosing images for the back projections.”
Venus Hum’s music is very cinematic but so far Hollywood hasn’t located their E-ddress. Songs have been used in television programmes, mainly – sports, which provides Kubin with an opportunity to talk how he’d like to re-soundtrack certain (his favourite) films, and the top of the list is – ‘Blade Runner’!? No, not the ‘Love Theme’, it is the most romantic piece since Beethoven’s ‘Für Elise’!?
“I know, I know. I wouldn’t redo that one, I’d keep it but the rest could be better… The same with ‘Flash Gordon’, the Queen soundtrack needs remixing and updating. I’d also like to work with David Lynch, but that’s all in the future… Right now, we haven’t even had our debut album released! When we finish touring here (in the UK), we go back to America, do some dates there and then comeback for Euro (continental) shows.”
If a band should be compared to a writer, then Venus Hum are the Philip K. Dick of music: aloof, quirky, never-what-they-seem but behind all the technology are – souls of pink robots!
SashaS
9-4-2003
Venus Hum’s album ‘Big Beautiful Sky’ is released 05 May 2003 by BMG
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