ON THE SIDE

A catch-up with Mike Vennart’s other musical ventures.

OCEANSIZE

The truly unique, much-loved progressive rock band stood alone in terms of style right up until their split in 2011. Don’t expect a reunion any time soon.

“We still get a lot of offers, but not enough money for Gambler [Richard Ingram] on his own.

Not one fee has been enough for Gambler’s pocket singly. I would have considered it, but Gambler’s like, ‘No chance.’ He’s not daft!”

BIFFY CLYRO

Vennart and Gambler are both touring members of the hugely successful Scottish rock band, with whom they formed a friendship as labelmates in the early stages of their careers.

“One of the things I was really encouraged by when

I was doing this album was how eclectic most Biffy albums are. When I was worried about not all the songs fitting together, I looked at Opposites, their double album [released in 2013], and realised there’s some fast, thrashing, riffy stuff on there, there’s ambient stuff, and then there’s a mariachi song on it.

“All these different elements of the band can live together and they’ll still sound like that band and it’s okay. I took a lot of comfort from that.”

BRITISH THEATRE

A more electronic project from Vennart and Gambler, British Theatre released their first album Mastery in 2016. A new full-length release is on the cards.

“The second BT record is in the works, and we’re setting ourselves certain parameters this time. Last time we knocked ourselves out with the technology and that made for a pretty varied record. This time we’re gonna hopefully bring some cohesion to it by sticking to certain rules of thumb. We’re planning on not using computers – hardware toys only. Synths and drum machines. But we haven’t written a fucking note of it yet.” EJ