Mike Vennart set free to be silly

Mike Vennart is delighted that having the freedom to do what he wanted on solo album The Demon Joke resulted in the “stupidest” music of his career.

The former Oceansize man released the record in June via Superball Music and issued videos for the tracks Operate, Retaliate and a lyric promo for Don’t Forget The Joker.

Vennart tells Music Radar: “I’d had a hankering to do something a little more egocentric because Oceansize was very much a collaborative, painfully fucking democratic collective.

“It was a lot of fun in that respect: a very creative environment, but there were some things that were absolutely out of the question.”

He continues: “I’m from a trained metal, prog rock background and I wanted to fling a bit of that in, so there’s quite a lot of shredding in it – but it’s in a very ridiculous, shitty-sounding way.

“The solo in Retaliate is just the fucking stupidest thing I’ve ever done. It took me about 10 minutes, and I was really happy with it.”

Vennart will head out on a UK headline tour later this month including two with his British Theatre project. Support will come from Knifeworld and Cleft.

Scott Munro
Louder e-commerce editor

Scott has spent 36 years in newspapers, magazines and online as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. Scott joined our news desk in 2014 before moving into e-commerce in 2020. Scott maintains Louder’s buyer’s guides, highlights deals, and reviews headphones, speakers, earplugs and more. Over the last 11 years, Scott has written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog. He's previously written for publications including IGN, Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald, covering everything from news and features, to tech reviews, video games, travel and whisky. Scott's favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Cocteau Twins, Drab Majesty, Marillion and Rush.