Feature: Venustra Decodes “Praise The Lord and Pass My Medication”
What was the creative process like for this particular "Praise The Lord and Pass My Medication?"
It was a difficult process of self-reflection. Like with many songs, started very slowly. Throughout 2023, it went from an attempt to fill out the narrative to the second album to being a song that would not only fill out said narrative but also move to be introspective. After getting done with the demo backtracks, it took a little over several months to come up with lyrics. What prompted the lyrics, was an article that I came across in the New York Times that dealt with the statistics of diagnosis of ADD and ADHD during the '80s and early '90s that painted it as being vaguely reckless. According to this article, these diagnoses peaked in 1991, the year I was born. I was a part of this demographic which led me to be put on different sets of behavioral medication throughout the 90s and early 00s. The song focuses on the experience with the negative side-effects of these medications on top of the paranoia that followed because of my time in a private school. From regular stomach aches to having white-hot headaches. Speaking of the headaches specifically, this also relates to the private religious school that I attended when I was of elementary age. I was placed on a medication that was relatively new at the time, this would be around '02 or '03. This particular medication had a side-effect that if I didn't take it, I would go through what I think would be withdrawal which would result in these horrible migraines. The thing is, I wouldn't take them during the weekend because I wouldn't be in class, so I would skip a day. The resulting migraine would happen, religiously (no pun intended) on a Sunday, which would make me paranoid because I believed at the time that I was getting punished for not attending church and this would be an act of god. Many "OH GOD, WHY ME?" moments, for sure. I was too oblivious to make any connection. After a while, I was sat down and told that it wasn't the aforementioned "act of god" but a side-effect, which my parents would take me off medication entirely shortly thereafter. This would go on to fuel my disdain for religion, going from indifference to a steady process of deconstruction. I would fully embrace atheism by the time I got to middle school. Another aspect of the song is the use of religion to determine either by parents, medical providers, or politicians about what is best for the kid, or ANYBODY for that matter when it comes to making any decisions about their health. In some cases leading the patient to become fatally ill, which is something that I found horrid and desturbing. This prompted one of the best sets of lyrics I've ever written: "With plastic grins upon command, we'll be dancing on our sickbeds with the nails in our hands!"
The song also tackles some recent downturns in my health I had in the last couple of years, which also prompted me to write about things with medical imagery and the like. That will eventually be brought out when the album is finished.
Can you share any memorable experiences or stories from performing this single live?
There are two that I can recall:
One of the first times we played the single, someone started what we dubbed "The Temple Pit" in which during the breakdown of the song, everyone would make prayer hands, put them in the air, and mosh. It was one of the coolest things I've ever seen and I will forever remember that being one of the most encouraging things coming from a crowd.
The second, I wanted something of shock value that would involve me spitting blood or something of the like. I would fashion an oxygen tank out of two large soda bottles and attach a mask that was part of a Cold War-era gas mask. I would run a tube to the "tank" and during an extended part of the song, I would fake like I was out of breath, use the mask, and spit blood from there. The first time we tried this was our first time playing the Mohawk venue here in Austin. Looking back on it, seemed to be less dramatic than how I envisioned. But, you can only improve from there. Right?
How does this single fit into your overall artistic vision?
The single is just an example of the overarching narrative that I've mentioned before. I don't want to spoil too much, but this song will serve as a shift in the storyline that will give major power to the main character. The medical imagery will be present throughout the pre-album and album cycle. The push is to take the artistry to different heights and try to implement as much of an immersion as is available to us. Visions of the bands' artistry will be changing from album to album and this one in particular will feature more of a darker and grittier vision than that of what I've written in the past, which acts more like a play than anything.
Can you tell us more about you as a band?
The short of it;
In late 2014, it came to me to try to throw everything at the wall and see what stuck as opposed to trying to trend-chase. When it came to the rock and metal scene, it was being overtaken by Djent, Prog, death/metalcore, and the like, not my jam...
The mission is to explore as many avenues of different genres and implement them into a base of hard rock and alternative. I'm very much the primary visionary for the band. Venustra to me is what Nine Inch Nails is to Trent Reznor. Not only in the pursuit of writing awesome jams to also make them theatrical as well as introspective and relateable. The inspiration for writing varies. It could be rooted in folk to industrial and beyond. I believe that It's never good to limit your scope of influence and I'll try to implement things that could be considered opposites. When it comes to lyrics, I usually play with double meanings or things that could have multiple meanings at once or on their own. It's a good challenge for me. Over the years, my songwriting improved enough to where I had a handful of songs to play. I would end up playing by myself because I couldn't find musicians to get behind what I was doing. This resulted me in using drum and bass tracks with a lighting rig that would sit behind me and follow the tracks. On top of this, trying to maintain a dominating presence. Which is hard to do when you're focusing on playing and singing at the same time. Eventually, Venustra became a three-piece that still used the lighting rig and backtracks. I moved over to bass cause it was easy for me to sing and play at the same time. Ozzy and Eamon became the guitar players and pretty much stuck with the band since about 2018 and we played some awesome gigs out the gate in 2019, opening for The Anchor and Combichrist. We have since had members in and out of the band but as of 2022, we've acquired two more permanent members into the fold, Edward being our bass player and Rick as the drummer. So far, it's been an absolute pleasure carrying this endeavor with them. Eamon left for a time to focus on their project black metal project, Orodrim, in which the compositions are bar-none incredible. At that time we had Eli as our lead guitarist who added his unique style to the band. Eamon had since returned. It's been a long road, but I think we're just now scratching the surface.
There is a lot to this band's experience that could stand to be a lengthy biography or documentary.
How do you continuously grow and evolve as a band?
Eventually, I would like to try to get everyone's input for creating music because I'm the one who comes up with all the concepts and music. We all come from different backgrounds that could potentially create something that could be nothing short of amazing. The mission of the project from the get-go is trying to come up with music that is not only accessible but throwing in things that folks would say "How did they get this to work so well?!" As for theatrics, I imagine going all in on doing full productions. Almost to the point where you might think you're witnessing theater. Think the grandiose of David Bowie mixed with the horror theatrics of Skinny Puppy. We just need to take it one step at a time. We'll get there in due time. in the meantime, we're going to try our hardest to make as much of an impact as we can with the few resources we have...
