Formula Indie Sessions – Interview with Venne
Venne is a melodic techno project driven by atmosphere, emotion, and precision. Blending deep, hypnotic rhythms with cinematic textures, Venne creates soundscapes that live somewhere between introspection and the dance floor. Each track is built to pull you in gradually, layer by layer. Rooted in modern electronic music but guided by a distinct personal tone, Venne is all about mood, movement, and connection through sound, transcending genres within electronic music.
What is your earliest memory connected to music?
I remember sitting home on my room in the late 80’s and early 90’s listening to stuff like Paula Abdul, Seal, Michael Jackson, The 49’ers and later The KLF, Capella and more
electronic stuff. I would always listen to music while playing games on my Commodore 64 and later Commodore Amiga 500. The latter was also where I godt my first music production software called ProTracker. I never made anything good, but remember playing around with it a lot.
How did your passion for creating music begin?
In the year 2000, I won my first award in a DJ battle and I think that sparked the idea, that I could, somehow, transcend from just DJ’ing to music production, but it would take several years of “trial and error” before I ever got anything made that wasn’t embarrassingly bad. In 2005 I met a friend while I had a DJ residency in a big club In Copenhagen. He shared my passion for electronic music and he was already pretty decent at music production doing various trance and dance things. We decided to start doing music together, which involved some of my ideas and, basically, just sitting next to him while he worked in Reason and Cubase, trying to implement some of those ideas. Slowly, but surely, I began understanding how Cubase worked and after getting my own copy, I started doing some remixes my self. Still not very good, but good enough to get a little DJ support.
What’s the story behind your current music project?
In 2006 my friend and I started an EDM music project called “Svenstrup & Vendelboe” and we had some pretty good succes from around 2008 and the following 10 years. We toured a lot and played most of the domestic festivals and clubs every weekend for years and years. It spawned like 6-7 singles and an album. Several tracks went both platinum and gold in our native country of Denmark, but along the line it became bland and trivial for me, so slowly the fascination of EDM and big room faded and we also started to slow down and take less gigs. Musically we were kind of stuck too … EDM music evolved even more and we just didn’t feel the same love for the way it went. I felt like everyone was doing the same and it was just copy and paste.
In 2018 I bought a ticket to go see Deadmau5 at a big festival in Denmark. He played a solid and seriously amazing techno set before he started playing his Deadmau5 stuff and I remember how the sound and crowd reaction made me feel like … WOW … THIS is good ! … this is different !
Afterwards I went straight home and started playing around with something musically very different than what I had before and in 2019 I released my first single “solum” with a small independant label and I felt like I finally found something that would make me feel good about electronic music production again. Creative freedom !
How would you describe your sound to someone who has never heard your music before?
Most of my music is definitely made, primarily, for dance floors but I do try to not focus on specific sounds or genres. All electronic yes, but some tracks are more cinematic and emotional whilst some are more in your face and energetic. Melody and chord progression is super important to me and I always focus on that element early in the production stage before most other things. Absolutely inspired på Deadmau5 still, but also artists like Royksöpp, Yotto, Jerome Isma-ae, Einmusik are artists I still listen to often for inspiration, but I actually also often listen to, and draw inspiration from, cinematic scores. I love Hans Zimmer, Alan Silvestri and Ludwig Göransson. These guys inspire me a lot when writing chords and progressions.
What is one thing you’ve learned that completely changed the way you make music?
To not try and fit in a specific box or genre. This is essential for me to keep feeling inspired and free. Every track I do is made by me just messing around and not trying to fit into a beatport chart or TikTok trend. I just make music that I, myself, would like to listen to, play out and enjoy and with that mindset, hopefully, someone else will too.
What tools, instruments, or software are essential in your creative process?
I feel at home in Cubase Pro. I know most electronic music producers use Ableton or Logic, but Cubase just feels right to me. I don’t think I could ever change to something else. Most of my ideas start with chords and bass line, and my go to instruments are DIVA from u-he software and Serum from Xfer Records.
I wasn’t really onboard until in recent years, but SPLICE has also been a definite game changer for me when I feel stuck or lack inspiration. Sometimes, finding that synth loop in there is what gets me back on track and able to finish the music. I almost never just drag and drop a sample. If I find something good and useful, I’ll either edit it a lot or simply recreate it with a synth and then restructure and make it my own. As a rule, I don’t like having something in my tracks that is easily recognisable for all the other users of splice. To me, it is meant as a creative tool to combat writers block and inspirational slumps and not just a set of musical LEGO building blocks for you to just smack together and release.
Which indie artist or song are you loving right now?
Ciauru – Supersonic out on Mau5trap is such a banger. Great sounding production and such amazing energy.
The lush and more chilled lovely sound of Modera and Phantom Beats SA is also amazing.
How have your personal experiences influenced your music and artistic vision?
I always managed to get all my Venne music signed without too much trouble, but always found the process of pitching my music such a mentally hard experience. The rejections are hard and sometimes, some gatekeeper or A&R will make you doubt yourself and whether or not you should just pack it in and quit. Many of the bigger labels doesn’t seem to reward diversity and if you don’t sounds similar to some of the big famous artists or have millions of streams and thousands of followers, you are just not that interesting to them. This can easily make someone compromise their artistic sound and vision to please a label and then risk loosing their identity. This is one of several reasons why I started my own label with a close friend and artist that feels the same way as me. We now decide when somethings is good and should be released. We decide what the artwork is going to look like and how it’s going to be marketed. That just feels right to us.
What emotions or messages do you hope listeners take from your work?
I would love to inspire others to do their own music and just follow that they feel is right and what they love to do. Do not be influenced by other peoples opinions. Follow your own mind and heart.
What’s the most important lesson music has taught you so far?
To not follow typical music business rules and trends. It may give you some succes, but I will not make you happy down the road.
What is a dream venue or festival you would love to perform at?
I travel to Ibiza for 10 days almost every year with some of my close DJ and producer friends. Primarily just to relax and chill, but also to catch a few DJ sets and get a little inspiration. When I first started to go to Ibiza (I think it was 1999) I went to Amnesia and was completely blown away by the scale and vibe there. I think It was Paul Oakenfold playing when we arrived. That club has since had a special place in my nostalgic heart, so yeah … Amnesia would be amazing.
If you could collaborate with any artist, past or present, who would it be and why?
I would go with Deadmau5 .. the guy that inspired me to go my own ways. Would love to do a track with him. Vocal wise .. I would love to do a track with Ry X. He just has an amazing and chilled voice and vibe that I connect immensely with.
Where can our listeners follow and support your music? (Website,Spotify, IG, links)
All music and stream services should have my stuff. I’m also on most social media and main focus is Instagram and Facebook along with soundcloud as well.
www.beatport.com/artist/venne/797621
www.instagram.com/vennemusicofficial
www.soundcloud.com/venne-music
Looking toward the future, what’s your dream for the next chapter of your musical journey?
I think, generally, I’m just hoping for my music to continue to grow and attract more listeners. Modest dream maybe, but I’ve already experienced so much and played music on countless clubs and festivals. I’ve traveled to places like Spain, Faroe Islands, France and Turkey playing music that I’ve made so, for me, having more people supporting and listening to my solo stuff is what drives me. Not money or huge stream counts, but slow organic growth.
Also doing more collaborations with other artists. That is just so much found and inspiring !
What do you hope listeners will discover about you along the way?
What you see is what you get. I don’t spend huge budgets on fake promoted reels and do stupid dances in my studio to try and trigger algorithms. What I DO actually do is make all my music 100% myself and NOT use ghost producers. Everything is produced, mixed and mastered by me. I feel that I owe that to the people actually listening … to be genuine and true. Otherwise I don’t feel that I deserve to be able to call myself an “artist”.
