Straight Up Random

Female Fronted Band Feature: Venona

Interview with Venona

How did the band come together?

Well, Al and Lance have been in bands together or a couple of years now with rotating members, it wasn’t until the addition of Bill on bass guitar that the current lineup started. Mike soon followed and brought with him weeks later Justin, who goes to school with Mike and came to play 3rd guitar as well as keyboards. Then began the search for a vocalist. We looked all over for 7 months and finally Bree answered back to one of our posts on Absolutepunk.net, sent her audition and we fell in love.

How did you come up with your name?

The name comes from a secret government project which was created and operated during the cold war. Basically, it was a means of intercepting and decoding secret messages from and to the Soviet Union. It has a very dark theme and has much controversy surrounding it and has always interested us as a band.

How long have you all played your instruments/sang for?

Mike - I have been playing drums ever since I was about 8 years old.

Lance - I have been playing guitar since 7th grade.

Bill - I’ve been playing instruments since I was a junior in high school. I picked up bass guitar about a year ago.

Al - I started laying around the same time Lance has, 7th grade.

Justin - I have been playing piano since I was five so that makes 14 years, Guitar for 7 years, and I’ve been signing since I was around 14-15.

Bree - I’ve been taking various voice lessons since I was about 4 years old.

You actually played your first show a few months back. How was that?

Absolutely incredible, we could not have asked for a better first show. Everyone that came was extremely nice and very supportive of what we were doing and made everything that we did up to that point extremely worthwhile. As soon as we stepped on stage we knew all of the adversity that we had face through the last 8-9 months had paid off…A prime example of how you should never give up.

How would you describe your music to people who have never heard you before?

We like to think of our music as a very genuine experience as we always strive to create a lot of power and honesty in our songs. Ask any band, it’s very hard to describe one’s own music but as far as genre we would probably fit into a rock/experiment vibe.

Do you plan to record anytime soon?

We actually plan on going into the studio very soon to record a three song demo and show people what we have been working on which will lead up to the release of our E.P. in the spring of 2009.

How does the writing process take place?

What we really enjoy doing is jammin something out until it fits or just feels right. We like to see where the music takes us as opposed to actually thinking about it too much. This may sound weird but it’s more of what the song wants then what we try to force upon it. With six people sometimes it’s hard to please everyone, but this is really gives our songs character and forces us to strive to not write the best song for ourselves, but to write the best songs possible as a collective group of six.

What are you most looking forward to do as a band?

We’re really looking forward to touring extended periods of time and meeting people everywhere. One of the things that we really strive to do is make a great connection and commitment to our fans. Bands would be nowhere without their fans and we really appreciate anyone who takes the time to listen to what we have created. We hope that people can relate to us and that they can enjoy our sound during good times and bad.

Can you give SUR readers a peek into the not-so-distant future of Venona?

Well right now we’re really just trying to spread our name, as far as shows you can expect us playing out in and around our region. Like we said earlier we will be doing some minor recording soon and we plan to have our first major release by next spring.

Can you give us one Straight Up Random fact about each of the band members?

Mike: Justin is probably the biggest White Snake fan there is. I mean it’s kind of creepy.

Justin: Mike most likely has one of the greatest Ty Beanie Baby collections I have ever seen. The only thing he loves more than this band is his Princess Diana Bear beanie baby.

 Breanna: Lance’s one true desire is that the entire world would be overrun by Zombies, he could kill each and everyone with his bare hands, and the repopulate the world with musical geniuses like himself.

Lance: If my wish actually came true, Al would be so terrified he would dig a hole and crawl inside. Seriously, his biggest fear is of zombies. I don’t hear the end of it.

Al: Bill can knockout Kimbo Slice, A Tree, and A Post Office Drop-Off Box in one night.

Bill: Breanna once challenged me to a friendly competition of chuggin vodka-redbull…By the end of the night I couldn’t tell if she was a Kimbo, a tree, or that post office drop-off box. I thought for sure she was moving back to the mitten.

Any last words for the readers of Straight Up Random?

Thanks so much for taking the time to check us out, we hope to see you at a show sometime in the near future! Like we said, we will have some new stuff coming out in the next month or so and we will have our debut E.P. out sometime this Spring, so keep in touch! We are also planning on touring this summer so keep up to date on our shows and if you would like to see us in your town shoot us a message and we will put it on our list! Thanks again so much and if you would ever like to chat just hit us up on AIM: Venonamusic, we love getting to know our fans and we hope this interview has helped you to get to know us!

 *For more information about Venona regarding shows, songs, etc, please check out their MySpace at www.myspace.com/venona