Venus II On Overseas Approval Opening Australian Ears To Their Sound

The '70s was defined by long-haired hippies in flowered skirts and Lennon glasses. Enter 1980 and we turned to blue eyeshadow, big hair and shoulder pads. The '90s brought with it baggy denim and scrunchies, and everyone has a bad fluoro-crop-top-and-shorts combo hidden in a draw from the 2000s. But when we look back, what will define 2016? 

"I actually had this thought the other day, wondering what it was gonna be like in 20, 30 years when people look back at this time. I always think about, like, when you see old photos of yourself and you have a bit of a laugh — so I'm just trying to figure out what that's going to be," contemplates Ryan Grieve (Canyons) who is one part of new psych-rave duo Venus II. "I don't know, that question is on my mind. Every decade, someone's always repping something from the past and I think it's a really beautiful thing. It's never a bad thing to wear those influences on your sleeve."

"Every decade, someone's always repping something from the past and I think it's a really beautiful thing. It's never a bad thing to wear those influences on your sleeve."

It's something both Grieve and Jarrad Brown (Eagle & The Worm, Dorsal Fins) embrace in their new blend of cosmic-Euro techno with Venus II, as demonstrated through the lashings of acid-soaked pop and electronica on their debut record Inside Your Sun. The title track's Rage-worthy video clip has been doing the rounds on the interweb in recent months and it pretty well sums up their vibe. "I think in our particular case, when you throw electronic, drum machines and some synthesisers with some electric guitars, falsetto-high vocals, that is very much a sound that was happening in the '90s; Primal Scream and bands such as that. So I think it gets taken back there, it's really a reference point to take it back to. It's that never-ending cycle [of what] becomes in vogue at the time. I feel like, for us, it definitely has a '90s edge to it, and it's also a lot of the music that we kinda grew up on," Grieve explains. Brown interjects, "For me the nostalgic thing doesn't come from here and now. The nostalgic thing is kinda a perpetual thing, it's always gonna be there. Like bands in the '90s throwin' back to the '70s and bands in the 2000s throwin' back to the '80s." 

Racking up airplay on BBC Radio 6, the boys are wondering if it will take overseas approval before Australian audiences embrace their sound. "I feel like probably it will take a little bit of time before an Australian crowd really embraces it," muses Grieve. "I don't know why, I just think what is identified as Australian music, until it's validated by somewhere overseas, if it's not very much identifiable as 'Australian music' in terms of what the framework is that's already laid out [then] maybe people will wait a little bit. I hope it's not like that.

"It's hard you know, I mean triple j is such a monopoly here as well and it's like, I watched the same thing happen with Tame Impala. My label Hole In The Sky, we put their first record out and nobody wanted to play it," he laughs. "A few great Australian bands, they've had to do things overseas before they get any recognition here."