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Mike Vennart

@mikevennart

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He of Vennart The Band, Oceansize, Cardiacs, British Theatre, and Empire State Bastard. Perpetually just out-of-shot.

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Big career-so-far/pedal-nerd-off with our heroes from @bossinfoglobal. Link in bio. DM2 4 lyf. by @mikevennart

Shit picture of this awesome band I saw called ‘The Strokes’. I love them. Check them out if you get the chance 🎸🎸🎸 by @mikevennart

TWO new songs on my Patreon in the last week! I’m so happy with the direction this record is taking. Yeah I know this kinda the longest roll out in history, but it works for me.

If you wanna see me making this stuff brick by brick, then you can sign up to my Patreon* where I’ve posted 2 hours of material from this album session alone. Barely any of it will make the record but it’s the ‘flinging-shit-at-the-wall’ bit that’s fun, then the real hard work of turning it into actual songs begins.

Anyway, Mimi has a new trick. Usually reserved for looking at dogs outside, although I imagine she minces round like this all the time when we’re not in. Check them furry bingo wings!

*don’t sign up using the Patreon app cos they take all the cash. by @mikevennart

Look it’s Wata out of @borisdronevil cleansing Manchester’s beautiful souls with her fucking shamanic Japanese doomstacy. Watched the first half from the back and couldn’t see shit - stop overselling the place @thisisgorilla! - and couldn’t get anywhere near the one open bar but pushed my way to the front with much apology and BOOOOOFT I’m right next to Wata’s Orange wall. Seriously kidz, there’s very few things better than standing in front of a wall of loud-ass amps, even when you’re not the one playing thru them. Our panel of experts agree. I love you Boris you mad, beautiful fuckers. Xxxxxxx by @mikevennart

Gilla Band are the best so we might as well all fucking give up. @gillaband by @mikevennart

Entering my 3rd decade with this superhero in my life. Just the tonic, as ever. @jonleemartin x by @mikevennart

The new album from @kavus_torabi is out today. Just look what it’s done to @deathbymimi by @mikevennart

NEW SONG on my Patreon. It’s called ‘Survive’, it’s in demo form and the title might change, but it’s the first song I’ve managed to complete in over a year. I’m currently working on at least 2 different records, so if you wanna hear me chipping away at them then now’s the time join my lovely Patreon community. It’s a strictly no-throbber endeavour. Thou shalt not throb.

That’s me home for ages now so I’m planning on doing nothing but make loads of tunes in amongst the perpetual threat of Total Fucking Armageddon.

PS don’t join my Patreon using the Apple app because they take all the money. Poor lambs, their margins must be tight too. by @mikevennart

Here’s those really shit pictures of @electricwizard.official absolutely fucking flattening Manchester you were hoping for. Never before has the end of the world sounded so enticing. by @mikevennart

Soon you, too, can covet the sound of the world’s greatest guitar. by @mikevennart

Had my brain rearranged by @tysegall and @annavonhausswolff at @manchesterpsychfest. Thank you for having me. Can I play next year? by @mikevennart

Oceansize took their name from a Jane’s Addiction song. Like Jane’s Addiction, they inspired other bands to greatness. They also imploded spectacularly.

“Either people wanted to fire other people, or they were threatening to quit,” says frontman @mikevennart. “It became a matter of, ‘If you fire him, I'll stay.’ With me in the middle of it going, ‘What the fuck do I do?’”

Prog was a dirty word when five working-class art college students from Manchester formed the band in 1998. Now, it seems like the only term broad enough to capture their mercurial output.

Yet 15 years on from the band’s demise in 2011, Oceansize now makes more sense than ever. Mainstream success may have eluded them, but their influence has quietly seeped into the DNA of some of the biggest progressive guitar artists on the planet. Heck, they inspired the biggest progressive guitar artist on the planet.

“Sleep Token were very complimentary,” says Vennart, who supported the masked arena-metallers in 2024 with extreme metal side-project Empire State Bastard. “Obviously I didn't know who the fuck they were because no-one knows what they look like. But they knew who I was.”

Full story link in bio 🔗

📷 1-2: Shirlaine Forrest/WireImage; Joby Sessions/Total Guitar Magazine/Future

#oceansize #sleeptoken #progmusic #guitarworld by @mikevennart