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Ventures, a Manchester-based metalcore band, emerged onto the scene in 2017, armed with their powerful debut song “42.” The band quickly gained recognition, leading to the release of their self-titled EP in 2018, followed by the “Solitude” EP in 2019 and “Error 404” in 2022. With Ollie May on vocals, Richard Taylor on guitar, Jordan Etches on bass, and Jon Burrows on drums, Ventures have honed their sound and captivated audiences with their energetic performances.
What are the origins of Ventures, how long have you been playing together?
Ventures have been playing as a band since 2017 back when the lineup was Dan, Richard, Liam, Ollie, and Sam. Richard and Dan started the band because they missed just playing music with friends, Sam went on to join Clashmute and others whilst we continued with Jon as Sam’s replacement. We then parted ways with Dan for personal reasons and Ollie stepped off bass onto the vocals and has smashed it in that position ever since.
Over the last few years, we’ve changed our lineup to Ollie May on Vocals, Richard Taylor on guitar, Jordan Etches on bass, and Jon Burrows on drums
What should people expect when they check the band out? How would you describe Ventures?
Not to just hear the same music from release to release. We try our best to make sure our music stays as exciting to our listeners as it does for us. Richard likes to think, if he wouldn’t listen to the song why would anyone else?
How did you feel performing your first gig as a band, and how was it?!
Our first show as Ventures was in Leeds at Santiago’s Bar, we lucked out with the show to be fair as no one had heard of us and we had nothing released at the time and we like to think it went well, not as well as these days but as well as it can go.
What are you working on at the minute that people can check out?
We’ve just released our latest track called “Melt With Me” and that’s available on all streaming platforms even TikTok for the dances ahahah but while that makes its way around the interweb we’re currently working on our net release “Portrait” due to be out this August and that’ll close out our 2023/24 releases
Regarding a similar audience, which band out there at the minute do you feel you would be best suited to open for?
Similar audience we’re not too sure, had people say we sound like XYZ and that’s good, and had people say the opposite too, we’d just have to go with bands we’d love to support like the usual Devil Wears Prada/The Amity Affliction and so on.
Excluding yourself, which new band would you like to see break out and become a success?
Our friends in Virtue in Vain, these lads work so hard to deliver what they do and are nothing but the soundest lads. Mason Williams the bassist for ViV also features on our track “Up, Up, Down, Down”
What frustrates you about the music business?
Drinking buddies!
Promoters who only book bands they want to see
E-mails for finding shows going to junk
The mentality that bookers don’t have to pay the artists
I could go on here haha
What are your first musical memories? And what lightbulb moment made you say “I want to do that”?
Richard – Mine’s gotta be the best haha everyone is shocked but back when I was a child I used to think want to be the next Eminem, all I listened to was hip hop and R&B with a lot of pop sprinkled on. Until one day I saw Busted live on TV jumping around and having the best time ever I just looked at the TV and knew that was what I wanted to be doing, not playing a fake tough guy. Never looked back
What was the last gig that you attended as a fan?
Richard – Mine would have to be Polyphia, these guys are amazing and I’ve seen them every time they’ve come to Manchester
What current social issue are you particularly passionate about?
To be 100% honest with you we try to stay away from this side of the world etc half of us just keep our PlayStations and logic running and stay out of it.
The album that you have in your album collection/Spotify playlist that would surprise most people?
Richard – Ushers discography, the guy is a G haha
Everybody is a fan of something, who or what are you a fan of?
We listen to all kinds as a band, on our last drive to a show we spent the whole trip just listening to hard DnB.
What new music have you been enjoying so far this year?
Ollie has always got his eyes on the release radar playlists, I don’t think there are many new bands that he hasn’t checked out but as a band we came across Dreamwake – Memories one day when looking for something, and my god that sax solo “Chefs kiss”
What does 2024 hold for you?
“Melt With Me” has just been released with “Portrait” to follow in August. We hope you all enjoy them as much as we did writing them. Other than that 2024 has been a slower year for us due to Jon living outside of the UK making it harder to get dates we can all be free but fingers crossed that this changes by 2025
How active are you on social media and where can people connect with you?
We’re always findable online and one of us is normally online somewhere
All socials can be found at @Venturesmetal or you can check out our website www.venturesband.com
