In VENUS PRINCIPLE a few well-known musicians, most of whom have played together in Crippled Black Phoenix before, have joined forces and revived old-school guitar music on their debut „Stand In Your Light“. The result is an album that is strong in every respect, with influences from (among others) classic, progressive and psychedelic rock. In the following interview, guitarist and keyboardist Mark Furnevall describes which rock era he likes best, in which way he thinks music is going in circles, and what he thinks is the state of affairs when it comes to classic rock in the year 2022.
First of all, maybe a bit of an obvious question: What is the „Venus Principle“?
This is a question probably best answered by a Venusian! Perhaps as the band evolves we will begin to understand a little more of what the name actually means. (laughs)
The members of your band come from very different musical backgrounds. How did it come about that you got together in VENUS PRINCIPLE?
That’s an easy one, apart from Pontus we were all members at one time or another of the band Crippled Black Phoenix. We all have toured together several times and became friends.
How difficult is it to create a coherent sound in such an artistically diverse group?
Yes, we all have different influences and side projects with different styles but we have a common love for classic/prog/dark/melodic music, so this is where all the styles merge to create the sound of VENUS PRINCIPLE.
Your music is clearly inspired by classic rock. Which musicians and bands have particularly influenced you in this respect?
I can only speak for myself here but I guess all the great 70‘s prog bands… Pink Floyd, Genesis, Rush etc. But also more contemporary bands like Opeth and Porcupine Tree, I’m also a big fan of electronic music, I’ve been listening to a lot of Alva Noto recently.
Few rock bands today seem to draw on this classic style. From your point of view, why has classic rock fallen into oblivion?
Actually I joined a group on Facebook a few months ago called ‘The New Wave of Classic Rock‘ with 25000+ members. So maybe it’s starting to return! There’s some really good new classic rock bands around at the moment. Dirty Honey and Mason Hill, I’ve been listening to them a lot.
At the same time, your music sounds anything but old-fashioned. Can a raw classic rock sound like out of the 60s even be authentically replicated today at all?
Well, I guess you could if you wanted to? Record everything in mono? (laughs) Not sure why you would want to replicate that? All the best rock recordings for me are from the 70‘s! Stereo and the best all analog technology!
Nowadays rock often sounds very soft, while scratchy lo-fi productions can mostly just be heard in the underground. Do you think the genre has become too soft?
Everyone now has access to very high quality digital recording, so maybe that has made things sound a bit nicer? I’m not a big fan of scatchy lo-fi recordings either. Hopefully if you do it right you can use the modern technology but still retain some character and feel of earlier 70‘s style recordings.
Now some might consider it retrograde to pick up a well-established style instead of creating something completely new. From your point of view, why is it still valuable to rely on musical traditions?
Music goes round and round in circles anyway, there’s nothing retrograde about any style, I think. You just choose what you like and then play that style. If people like it then great. VENUS PRINCIPLE is for sure based around the classic rock/prog of the 70‘s but with some modern elements as well. Hopefully people will enjoy the songs and not worry about what era it comes from.
What do you think about the current trends and developments in the music mainstream?
I don’t really follow the music mainstream much tbh.
With „Stand In Your Light“ you have released a very successful debut. What was your intention for the album? What did you want to realize on it?
Our intention was simply to get the songs out there, so people could listen to them. It’s that simple really. (laughs) We were really happy with the demo songs that we created, so the next step was to put an album together. Prophecy Productions signed the band and helped us to release the album. It’s never quite as simple as that, of course. (laughs)
The record sounds very coherent and confident. Were there nevertheless also difficulties during the creative process of the album?
Not really any difficulties apart from the fact that we were creating it from 2 different countries. But it’s pretty easy these days to send files across the internet, so even though we were not actually in the same room together it did feel like a coherent process.
Although you have a very consistent sound, you sometimes dance out of line on the album – for example, by using a saxophone. Are there any other stylistic variations that you would like to integrate into your music?
Yeah, the sax was a last minute idea that we just tried and we all agreed that it really worked nicely on ‘Drag Nets‘. We will see what happens on the next album.
The lyrics of your songs read rather abstract. Could you elaborate a bit on what „Stand In Your Light“ is about in terms of content?
Danny and Daisy are the lyricists and they both write in a more abstracted style. As for the song content I guess Daniel was going thru some difficult personal relationship issues at the time which I think reflects in some of his lyrics. Daisy’s songs were about several different topics and ideas, perhaps this is a better question for Daisy and Daniel.
Are you planning on playing live shows as well?
Of course, that is the plan! We are working on this as we speak.
At the moment the industry seems to be suffering a lot from the effects of the pandemic. Concert tickets are selling worse and worse, some formerly successful bands even have to cancel their tours. How do you perceive the current developments in the music industry?
It’s certainly very difficult at the moment. The pandemic has created havoc in the industry and I think it may take a few years to recover. We just have to try and persuade people to stop watching Netflix and get out to see live bands again!
On your Bandcamp page it says that you plan to continue the band in the long run. What’s next on the agenda for VENUS PRINCIPLE?
Well, hopefully gigs and touring in 2023 and then album 2.
Finally, a quick brainstorm. What comes to mind when you hear the following buzzwords?
The Beatles: Melody/Harmony
„Rock is dead“: No, it isn’t.
Feminism: Absolutely
Metal: Brotherhood
Concept album: Yes
Spirituality: Always
Thank you for giving us your time. Any last words you’d like to add?
Thanks for asking the questions. Hopefully we will see you all out on the road next year!
5. Dezember 2022 Stephan Rajchl
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