Venus Demilo frontman Tom Anderson chats to us about lockdown (of course!) and their new EP Northern Lights.
Liverpool Noise: How have you been coping with the lockdown?
Tom: All good thanks! Started having some pretty intense conversations with my dog but apart from that keeping relatively sane.
LN: What have you all been doing to keep busy whilst being stuck indoors? Have you developed any new hobbies?
Tom: I thought I’d make the most of the daily exercise allowance and have been more enthusiastic about running than I think I’ve ever been before. Also I think trying to motivate myself to do something other than play FIFA has become a new hobby in itself.
LN: Has the lockdown inspired you to write some more music?
Tom: It has, I’ve been writing for a future Venus project that we’ll start work on as soon as we’re out of lockdown. Also at the beginning of the crisis I wrote a spoken word track called ‘Chaos’ about realising how important interacting with other people is. It got picked up by Tom Robinson on BBC 6Music and Dave Monks on BBC Merseyside which was amazing.
LN: Your EP Northern Lights was released in April, tell us a bit about the whole process of producing the EP and what’s your favourite track?
Tom: The recording process was chaotic but great, doing it in inconsistent chunks. Keeping track of the files was as much of an achievement as the EP itself. It was mainly done at Parr Street Studios with our producer Alex Quinn who tolerates us really well. My favourite track changes quite regularly and I think currently it’s the second track ‘Purpose’. It was written about a friend who I was hoping could work out their frustrations and be happier in themselves. I’m really pleased to say that in the time since writing the track, it seems like that’s happened! Nothing to do with the track itself, they don’t know it’s about them.
LN: How do you picture the Liverpool music scene over the next 6 months? It’s going to be strange in terms of live gigs for the foreseeable!
Tom: If I’m being completely honest I think it will be difficult. A lot of brilliant venues are sadly struggling during this pandemic and that compounded with the potential closure of Parr Street Studios could make a worst case scenario devastating for the music scene. Having said that, I’m always blown away by Liverpool’s ability to back a cause and I’m sure that will happen this time too. I’m not Scouse but I’ve lived here long enough to know that Liverpool won’t let the worst case scenario happen.
LN: And what can we expect next from Venus Demilo?
Tom: Plenty of live streams in the near future. As soon as we can include the better 3/4 of Venus Demilo Josh, Jake & Ryan we will. As for releases we’ll be putting ‘Chaos’ out as soon as the distributor is able to process it (turns out a pandemic doesn’t make that particularly easy) with another single following in June.
Venus Demilo Northern Lights
Northern Lights is available to stream on all major platforms now.
Follow Venus Demilo on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Main Image Photo Credit: Sarah Sidwell Photography
You can find Venus Demilo and loads of other Liverpool bands on our Isolation Playlist.
