Ventures, a Manchester-based metalcore band, emerged onto the scene in 2017, armed with their powerful debut song “42.” The band quickly gained recognition, leading to the release of their self-titled EP in 2018, followed by the “Solitude” EP in 2019 and “Error 404” in 2022. With Ollie May on vocals, Richard Taylor on guitars, Jordan Etches on bass and Jon Burrows on drums, Ventures have honed their sound and captivated audiences with their energetic performances. They have shared stages with renowned acts such as I Set My Friends on Fire, Wars, and RXPTRS. Ventures’ triumph in the first round of 2020 Metal 2 The Masses further solidified their reputation, and they are set to unleash four new songs, including their May 2024 release, “Melt With Me”
Bleach Bangs interview with Ventures, UK.
1. Introduce us to the band! What are your names and what do you do in the band?
Where do you call home?
Hi, We’re Ventures from rainy Manchester, England, we have Ollie May on vocals, Richard Taylor on guitar/producer, Jordan Etches on bass and Jon Burrows on drums.
We all hail from somewhere within greater Manchester except for our Jon, he’s from Sheffield and we managed to steal him while he was in Manchester for uni.
2. How long have you been together as a band and how did you find each other?
Ventures have been together since 2017 but our lineup is brand new as of 2024 with the addition of Jordan.
Richard, Jordan and Ollie have known each other since being teenagers and Jordand and Richard even had a band called Promise Me The Sky back then. Don’t google it haha.
3. Do you have a special songwriting recipe you follow?
We like things to flow, if going from one section to the next does not flow right we go back to the writing board, our latest release “Melt With Me” was in the works for a few years because we just couldn’t figure out where the song was going.
4. How would members of your family describe your music to someone that hasn’t heard it?
Screaming, loud music!
5. What do you have on your(Spotify) playlists you would be embarrassed for others to see?
We all wear our favorite music happily. But some standouts would be Miley Cyrus and Ariana Grande just to name a few.
6. Do you have any pre-show rituals?
None at the moment, we just like to make sure we’re all hyped and ready to go.
7. Who have you met that has left you starstruck?
We opened for I Set My Friends On Fires a few years back on their tour in Manchester and that was amazing. Richard and Ollie had listened to these guys growing up and now they are opening a show for them.
8. What do you consider your greatest achievement as far as a band?
See above haha. We’ve played with some amazing bands who have gone on to bigger things.
9. What key elements do you believe makes up a successful song?
Dedication from the band. If the band loves the song the fans notice and it helps connect more than aimless lyrics over a 4/4 repeat.
10. When writing, how do you know when it is finally done?
We’ve come to the conclusion of never… the amount of times we’ve thought oh my god wouldn’t it have been amazing if we did that instead of this? These thoughts coming months after the songs had finally been released.
11. What song of yours are you most proud of?
We all have our own, Richards would be Solitude and Ollies would be Black & White.
12. Is it possible to be on the road and not eat junk food? How do you keep it leveled out?
Our Jon and Jordan bring lunch bags, other than that we eat where we find the time. Wetherspoons and McDonalds seem to be the most popular.
13. Are you able to write while on the road or do you need a calm familiar space like home?
If we have an idea of a song already we can bounce ideas around when on the road but we’ve never attempted to create something brand new on the road, between driving and the shows there isn’t much downtime for smaller bands
14. What’s the most embarrassing thing to happen on stage or on tour?
Would be one of our home town shows, we turned up and everything was fine, was set up and ready to go and boom, our in-ears stopped working and with us being the last band on the sound guy had already packed away the stage monitors, luckily we have a wired back up for our drummer but for the rest of us we didn’t have a click, backing or returns.
15. What can BleachBANGS do to help you in any way?
If you have a playlist we’d love to be put on it and if any readers want to check us out and get ready for the release of our next single “Portrait” all links can be found at https://linktr.ee/venturesmetal
16. How can everyone keep up with everything you have going on? Where can they get albums/merch?
You can check out our website over at www.venturesband.com here you can find all merch, videos and latest releases.
