A Q&A with Venus Fly Trap

Long-lived sonic cinema from Northampton – here’s Alex Novak from Venus Fly Trap…

How did you get the title of your latest release and what does it mean to you?
I picked the title Mercurial to represent all the different areas I have worked in, also it represents Mercury the planet, the messenger from mythology and the fact that the metal mercury is a liquid – so some nice images.

What was the hardest part about putting this release together?
Trying to condense a career’s worth of material into a single CD. Tough to choose one track against another as they all have their merits.

What do you want the listener to take away hearing your music?
Plant seeds in their minds that develop and flower after repeated immersion in our music, to discover things for themselves.

How does a track normally come together for the band? Can you tell us a bit about the process?
We would start with a riff, just guitar and vocal, the riff would suggest a lyric and with a bit of jamming there would be an embryonic version of a song. Not all these ideas would come to anything. Andy Denton (guitar/programming) would take these ideas away and come up with a basic track to then add more lyrics to and work out a structure. A lot of going back and forth from rehearsal to studio. We would end up with a song we were happy with.

How would you say that the sound of your band has changed over the years?
Well, we have had many line up changes over the years, each member brings something. We originally started as guitar, bass, vox and drum machine then developed into a full band and at present we are a duo of guitar, vox and backing track. So all these shifts have an effect on the music we have produced. I am the only constant from the beginning, steering the good ship Venus.

What bands have influenced you most since you started your own band and why?
The whole punk/new wave explosion got me involved in wanting to form a band. It was more about ideas than expertise, the get up and give it go attitude and see where it leads inspired me.

When the world is back to normal, where would you like to tour?
That’s the million dollar question…???

If you could pick one track for our reader to listen to, to get a taster of your music, which one would you go for and why?
‘Morphine’ our first single and where it all began for Venus Fly Trap…

‘Mercurial 1978-2018’ by Venus Fly Trap is out now
For more info visit: facebook.com/thevenusflytrapuk