But Melbourne, in all of its diverse musical glory, has exactly that. System of Venus, up until recently, were an all-girl stoner rock outfit. Even after replacing their female drummer recently with new skinsman Josh, this three-piece still has a majority of female members. Josh and vocalist/guitarist Fatima spoke to us recently about this and other System Of Venus related issues.
“Yeah, it is [rare],” Fatima agrees. “The influences have shaped the type of music that we play. [Bassist] Tenille and I are into a lot of stoner, and Tenille’s into her metal too. And now with Josh on board, he’s got similar tastes to us, so who knows where it will all go. And you like a lot of prog stuff too, don’t you?” she asks Josh.
“Hell yeah!” he replies enthusiastically. “Stuff that messes with your mind.”
While they may be categorised as stoner rock for easy and convenient classification purposes, there are a few different elements floating around within their sound that sets them apart from the stoner crowd.
“We generally just say heavy rock – it’s heavy rock laced with a bit of stoner and a bit of metal,” Fatima says.
“We’re doing something right if you can’t really put it in a genre,” laughs Josh.
The band have a very big show this coming Saturday night at the Evelyn in Fitzroy. It’s a massive five band lineup, sure to rock the soul of any heavy music punter in Melbourne, and the band simply can’t wait to take the stage
“The Evelyn, we’ve never played there, it’s a beautiful venue,” Fatima say. “We’re pretty stoked to be playing. And the lineup is really good, we know all the bands (Sons Of The Ionian Sea, Swigden, Moth and Battleaxe Howlers) so it should be a really fun night.”
And for the uninitiated, a System of Venus show promises a blistering, skull-baking but ultimately fun time for all. “A lot of energy, a lot of…” Fatima describes.
“A lot of stage antics,” Josh completes the thought.
“Yeah, stage antics, verbal antics!” Fatima chuckles. “There’s mood in the music too, so it’s quite moody, and dynamic.”
“And overall a big, warm sound,” Josh says.
System of Venus also have some very big plans for the rest of 2012, including a possible album release and many more shows. “[The album is] something that we started last year,” Fatima recalls, “but we’re going to re-start, and we’re aiming for June. Get recording. Josh is studying audio engineering, so he’s going to help us out. Our songs are ready to go, ready to be recorded.”
And for the rest of the year thereafter? “More gigs,” Josh states without hesitation.
“Apart from the Evelyn, we’ve got another show on the 21st of April in the Espy Basement,” Fatima informs us. “We’re also playing the Rock N Load Festival in May. We’ve got June 10th at Cherry Bar, Queen’s Birthday weekend with Battleaxe Howlers, their CD launch, and Don Fernando. That’ll be a really good one too. We’re also trying to organise another Sydney/Wollongong trip, so hopefully we can do that before July. And then there’s a few regional shows that are in the works.”
BY ROB WHITFIELD
