Venue
Venue are:
- Chris May Keyboards, vocals, programming
- Brock Manke Keyboards, programming
- Katja Blichfeld Vocals
- Zak Marcom Programming
Quick History
Instinctively and spontaneously, Venue has created a harmonious system all their own. Passionate, intelligent and pop-worthy, this visually engaging electronic act consists of musicians and visual artists inspired by a divine synthesis of low and hi-fidelity, elegant hooks, and sexual-intellectual lyricism. Venue’s unconventional lineup of Chicago and New York multi-hyphenates; a producer, a graphic designer, a DJ, a model, a video artist and a Danish seamstress, assembled over the span of several years utilizing their backgrounds to create what none could do individually. Each brings a unique spontaneity to a song, preferring first takes and mistakes over written lyrics and mapped out direction. “We work with an essence and follow it wherever it takes us,” says songwriter Chris May.
The project was first conceived as an art school interplay between Chris May’s highly constructed videos and Zak Marcom’s musical architectures. They set about to form the Synesthesia art collective throwing audio-visual events across the country. “We created an environment where music, art, and dance became one,” explains May. “Movement has always been the focus.” After the self-release of their first EP Caught on Film, Venue received the Diesel U:Music prize in 2003 and have continued to expand with the addition of Brock Manke, a visual designer and Katja Blichfeld, a stylized vocalist from Denmark.
The Sound
Venue creates an expressionist soundtrack that sounds like rerouting rock through a video camera. The outcome feeds on the motion and drive of dance music while still paying homage to the traditions of the pop/rock song structure. Capitalizing on electronic music’s inherent ability to evoke the sublime through pristine synths and impossibly perfect time structures, Venue also embraces their own human shortcomings reworking their recorded mistakes, glitches and layers of “first takes” into the final output. The result is a new hybrid of commanding structure and honest emotion–the proverbial ghost in the shell – a consistant theme throughout the audio and visual elements of the band’s performance.
Discography
Venue One Before a Second
(BRIL015 - CD - LP) Allegro Music $11.98
$9.99
Other Releases
Diesel U:Music Electronic Compilation - 2004 (Stefano Cecci)
Caught on Film EP - 2003 (Synesthesia)
Remixes
The Dirty Things: New Dance Marvelkind: Plug in the Drug Machine Kill Hannah: Crybaby
Contact
Official Website
sixex.com
myspace.com/venue
Contact
Chris May
chris@sixex.com
