Venusians: sonic Indie / Grunge / Shoegaze aliens from Argentina
Venusians present themselves as follows: “we are a band born in the city of Lanús, Buenos Aires, which fuses noise with punk, shoegaze and moments of psychedelia”.
Since 2013, they have released 4Eps and one LP. Their last EP, Mutante, is available since June 2018. All their work are free downloads on Bandcamp.
And now, let the band introduce themselves in this interview and listen to their music as you are browsing.
WHAT is your music about?
Our songs are mainly about relationships, some more conflictive and others not so much; other songs have a more introspective tone and deal with those moments that we all spend in which we ask ourselves what path to follow or if the path we choose is the right one to reach or achieve what we long for, be it with another person, a job or the projects that we propose. As for the musical part concretely, the idea in the beginning was to achieve simple songs but taking into account above all the harmony and the melodies. Each chord we choose has a reason, be it major, minor, diminished, etc ...
We always try not to repeat ourselves and if something sounds to us like some other song by our favorite artists we try to give it a spin so that it is not exactly the same. Within the shoegaze style there are mainly many bands that repeat formulas to the extent of being identical copies of other bands of renown. I will not go into details but in our country there are bands that seek to emulate the sound of MBV for example to the point of acquiring the same equipment, which I respect but do not share and sincerely does not stimulate me to the point of wanting to listen to an album in my house . I always prefer the original over the copy. We use resources similar to the bands with which we feel influenced to achieve a certain climate or sensation but never from the place of looking to sound the same to them.
What are your goals as a band, artist, record label owner, artistically/commercially ?
Our main goal is to be able to continue composing songs that we love and record them, at this moment we are without a drummer, that's why we are not playing live for a little more than a year, we are not looking for a replacement either, because with Paloma we have others two projects (Lyuba that goes for the electronic side in the genre witch house and the second still unnamed where I play the drum, I do choirs and she sings and plays the bass, we almost have our first EP ready and we are already planning our debut in alive)... Anyway, we still have a record pending to finish with around 12 songs, a disc that will see the light at some point or maybe we will only launch the songs as simple, we will see how things happen.
Who would you want as a dream producer and why?
We never stopped to think about that, but considering that our main influences are Pixies, Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine it would be extraordinary to work with any of the members of these groups or even with one of their producers. Steve Albini would be the maximum (hahaha). Why Steve Albini? ... Surfer Rosa ... say no more (hahaha)
What are you trying to avoid as a band?
Conflicts (hahaha), nothing more, that's the only thing we want to avoid, as for the rest, although our music is on the side of noise rock, shoegaze mainly we are not going to prohibit playing with other styles or other ways of composing if that is the case it is giving
Explain your songwriting process, who starts? How does it evolve, is it organic? Is it discussed?
We do not really have a formula, referring to our last ep, the track "Inertes" for example is something that appeared one day while I was playing the guitar alone, first appeared the chords, then I came to the head a melody and based on that was giving shape to the lyrics, one afternoon I recorded the demo of it (guitars, bass, drums and voices) and then Paloma and Ezequiel (former drummer of Venusians) were contributing theirs. "Pharisee" is a theme of Paloma, which practically also appeared in the same way as "Inertes", this goes more by the style of the Riot Grrrl with Bikini Kill influences mainly.
"Psyrena" is a case apart because it suddenly appeared while we were rehearsing, making time to play the main riff, Ezequiel followed me with a rhythm, Paloma was docked to that and the rest was spontaneously giving, the melody and the Paloma did the letter once we had the theme recorded.
Why do you make the music you make? Is it in you? Is it a choice?
Yes, it is a choice, but at the same time it is what comes naturally, both Ezequiel and Paloma with Venusians was his debut, in band and live. I (Gasti) for my part I have been playing for more than 20 years now and generally I always stayed within the same line, alternative rock, punk, noise rock, shoegaze (Naif, Pory Lucsin, The Shouters, Hypergaláctics are some of the projects of which I was part); that's why now I'm also allowing myself to play with other styles to see how far I can go and keep learning new techniques and production styles.
Describe your palette of sound.
distortions and delays ...
You’re from Argentina, how does it feel to be from there as a band?
I would not really know how to answer this question, for me it is something natural, I would have to see what it is like in other places (something I would love to be able to do at some point)
Is the Argentinian public receptive to your kind of music?
let's say that there is some public for the style but it is not very broad either, sometimes I get the feeling that there are more groups than audience
There’s a grunge element to your sound, does it help or hinder to not be a Slowdive clone?
I could not answer this comparison because I honestly only heard whole Souvlaki no more than 10 times and many years ago, I am not familiar with its sound...
the grunge influence was always from the beginning, I practically learned to play the guitar by listening to songs of Nirvana, Silverchair and Hole ... 2 Minutes and Flema (two emblematic bands of the Buenos Aires punk rock scene) Offspring, Green Day and Metallica was also part of the musical combo that I listened to between 14 and 17 years old
Tell us about the artists you have worked with
Since January 2012, when this project took on its own identity (we used to play under another name), we shared dates with many bands from the Buenos Aires scene, some stopped playing, others continue to do so, just to mention a few who are still active, NAX (Nico Castello singer and vocalist of NAX was also part of Venusians for some months), Lau Velocitud (singer and guitarist of Las Fantoms) was our first drummer, most of the drums of our first EP "Violeta Amanecer" She recorded them. Las Vin UP (a group of girls who make Punk Rock Ramone) participated in the "She Can Fall" choirs. Particularly that EP has a lot of collaborations of musician friends and colleagues.
In the single "Love Noise" (2013) Martu Cielo participates in bass (Tormentas Solares). Noe Ultravioleta participated in the edition of some of our covers and even as a photographer for the cover of our second ep "Venusians" (2013), she has also contributed some lyrics (She Can Fall and Love Noise for example) and has collaborated with some translations Since my English is very basic, although we mainly try to make our compositions in Spanish, sometimes we loose phrases in English so we try to maintain and do not miss that kind of spontaneity with which the melodies appear.
All the recordings are made in my studio Lory Pucsin Records therefore I take care of all the details of sound, recording, mixing, arranging and mastering on my own; the same with some of the images we use for our covers. Before I forget in 2015 Nico Castello made the cover of the single that we released with our shoegaze version of "Enjoy the Silence" by Depeche Mode, and since 2016 that Paloma on bass and voices all the covers of the simple and ep that we take them out between us. All this info and more details are in the descriptions in our Bandcamp.
To know more on the Venusians, you can look at the following social media:
