The experimental streak that he somehow showed in his work with Korn is the muse that inspires James “Munky” Shaffer to form Venus alongside Atlanta composer and filmmaker Chris Hunt.
We spoke to the duo of “Venus”the album they released on Ipecac Recordings, Mike Patton’s label (Faith No More, Mr Bungle) and which features artists such as Rizz from VOWWS, HEALTH and Alain Johannes.
How did the project come about?
(Munky) My sister-in-law [Xoana X] It’s music, she was making an album and she found Chris on some social network. She liked the aesthetics of her music, very different from what she was used to. She contacted you, right, Chris?
(Chris) Yes, I worked with Xoana on and off for a couple of years. At some point it occurred to her to include James to contribute guitars. There we met, his project was launched and we saw that we had a lot of potential and chemistry between us.
What caught your attention about each one?
(Munky) Working on Xoana’s songs was a very pleasant process. I like the fact that Chris has a very good way of extracting parts of what I do and turning them into music in a very unique way. He was able to provide textures to some of the recordings we made with Xoana. I found it fun, creative and above all it is a very different process from what I am used to.
(Chris) I didn’t grow up listening to Korn, but I knew James’ style. But when I met him in a room it was a matter of taste, the sounds he chose, the tones, the textures had a lot to do with what interests me. We have a language that explores sound, we record, we improvise. We don’t talk much, it’s very pleasant, as James says. Flowing.
“I was lucky to be in a band for many years where I did what I wanted”
How did you choose the collaborators for the album?
(Munky) Well, we had a wish list. The people who are on the album were on that list. Our manager helped us get this tremendous list of guests and once we had them confirmed, we started working on the music with them in mind. The first song was “Holograms” and Rizz from VOWWS fit in perfectly. This set the tone of the album and set the bar in its place for the rest of the collaborating vocalists as well.
It would be easy to describe “Venera” – the album – as the soundtrack to a movie that doesn’t exist, but how would you define the idea behind the album?
(Munky) When we started exploring these sounds, it really felt like a journey. By recording and improvising at the same time, there was a feeling of experimentation. In the end it was like when a filmmaker looks at his archive and says “Damn, what a lot of material I have!” We gave meaning to all the great moments that were born in those recording and improvisation sessions at the same time. When you discover something new you want to share it with people. And this is a new world for us.
(Chris) Yes, it was very much like making a film. In some ways it was like building a labyrinth but from within. At the level of textures and emotions it has that strange feeling of a labyrinth.
James, I guess this music requires a completely different approach compared to when you work on Korn’s music. How does this music meet your expectations as an artist?
(Munky) I was lucky to be in a band for many years where I did what I wanted. Having the opportunity to explore and look for different ways to create unique sounds kept the door open for me. I am exploring sounds without limits, There are no structures. There are no formats that look for the hook. I had to change my thinking because there are no “parts” of a band included in this idea. But I also applied many techniques in Venera that I used all my life.
Another thing that seems valid to me is that with this music you don’t really know what kind of feelings it will evoke in the listener. It’s not like when you listen to the radio that you already know what the pre-chorus is, then the verse, the chorus, etc. This is very unpredictable and that’s exciting.
This might be a ridiculous question if you had asked it ten years ago, but why did you decide to release an album and not start with independent singles?
(Chris) I understand the universe of singles and why they exist. But the nature of this project is more long-form. The environment we want to create is immersive and requires time. It doesn’t mean that a separate song doesn’t work. In fact, we were cutting singles that are each like a small world in themselves. But hey, also making the physical format of the vinyl record is an important part of the process.
I don’t know about you, Chris, but I know James is a huge Faith No More fan. What does it mean to you James to release this album through Mike Patton’s label and also what was your experience working with Bill Gould on Fear And The Nervous System?
(Munky) Man, what we did with Bill was a while ago but I remember him being a really funny guy. He has a great sense of humor. Bill always came and was very solid in what he did, and he was very funny, he made very sarcastic jokes. It was a great pleasure to have him on that project, and I was also very lucky because he doesn’t get involved in many projects. Even though Faith No More’s music can be very serious, it is important to maintain humor and it is something that we adopted at Korn from the beginning, times when we watched Faith No More a lot.
When David was the drummer for Korn and had a problem with his shoulder, we called Mike Bordin to fill in for him. So I was lucky to meet him. He is an amazing person with a beautiful family and a unique talent for playing. On the other hand, when I found out that Mike [Patton] He had created his label in 1999 and I saw the type of music he was releasing I thought it was very crazy. But I knew people like John Zorn and Naked City, Bill Laswell, Robert Fripp, Brian Eno. It’s like at that time I opened the doors to the experimental and that was the type of music that Mike was releasing. I was in the world of commercial music, the great machine of the industry, which I am grateful for because it allowed me to make my career. But even if I believed that mine was real and came from a sincere place, when you heard the Ipecac references it was like “My God this is so genuine, not artificial!”, it didn’t matter if it was loud or whatever. I once told Chris that it would be a dream to be in Ipecac, so that was the first label we targeted. Luckily they were interested in us. Because of his philosophy, it is logical that Mike has founded a label to showcase new music from other artists. By the way, it’s weird but one of my biggest dreams was to be on an independent label! [risas].