Revolver has teamed with Venera for an exclusive color vinyl variant of their self-titled debut. Only 300 made — order yours.
It began with a series of puzzle pieces over Instagram: digitally decaying messages of "DEFORM" and "REVISE" fracturing themselves against a series of cryptic glyphs and nightmarish, techno-organic landscapes.
Then came the soundtrack: foreboding, yet eerily beautiful, squelches of electronic manipulation. In a follow-up post, a tentacled silhouette undulated within a sliver of animated light to another doomy swell of bass-and-white-noise ambiance. Viewers were left with few facts — and the haunting feeling that the ghosts in the machine might not be friendly.
This was ultimately an introduction to Venera, the dark ambient project of Korn guitarist James "Munky" Shaffer and electronics manipulator Chris Hunt — though their actual names and association with the project were only revealed a few weeks after the initial posts.
If Venera's unveiling arrived with more mystique than fanfare, that's partially because the co-conspirators seemed to be perplexed over what they pulled out of the digital ether, too.
"We listened to it and thought it was like someone uncovered a time capsule from an expedition to another planet," Shaffer says of the freeform improv sessions that he and Hunt ultimately shaped into Venera's self-titled debut, which found a home on Mike Patton's Ipecac Recordings.
"To me, the work is less a marker of articulating the relationship to an experience and more like building a labyrinth from the inside," Hunt adds of Venera's arcane artistic inclinations.
While the duo could have leaned into the fact that Shaffer has spent the past 30 years delivering detuned riffage with his iconic nu-metal outfit, Venera's musique concrete has more in common with the fields of synth-and-white noise the Atlanta-based Hunt has delivered on solo releases and film score projects.
He and Shaffer first met while collaborating with pop experimenter XHOANA X, which eventually led to Shaffer commissioning preshow music from Hunt for Korn's 2022 Requiem tour. Right from the jump, Hunt says he was impressed with the openness and "staggeringly egoless" vibe of his eventual Venera collaborator.
He also admits he hadn't grown up on Korn's music.
"I was definitely aware of Korn when I was younger, but I never really got far into them," says Hunt. "It wasn't a dislike; I was just focused on other music during that time. I do recall when I was an obnoxious young drummer, though, I was struck by the drumming around the Follow the Leader record."
Venera don't lock into the same nu-metal grooves on their debut, instead the duo blankets listeners with distant peals of guitar dissonance and circuits-fried avant-noise. Even if it comes across like an alien transmission, there's still profound human connectivity within Venera.
There's, of course, Hunt and Shaffer's blossoming creative partnership (both hint at even more full-lengths bubbling in the background). But you can also factor in emotive guest vocal performances from VOWWS' Rizz, HEALTH's Jake Duzsik, and cult alt-rock yowler Alain Johannes (Eleven, Queens of the Stone Age), as well as explosively unpredictable percussive outbursts courtesy of avant-garde drummer Deantoni Parks (The Mars Volta, John Cale).
In the following wide-ranging interview, which has been edited and condensed for clarity, Shaffer reveals how '70s film scores, Korn's rowdy and creative Follow the Leader years and learning to embrace imperfections all paved the way for his new expectation-defying musical venture.
THIS VENERA RECORD IS TRULY UNLIKE ANYTHING YOU'VE DONE WITH KORN, OR EVEN WITH YOUR EARLIER FEAR AND THE NERVOUS SYSTEM SIDE PROJECT. HOW IMPORTANT IS IT FOR YOU TO SHAKE UP YOUR SCENE AND ARTISTIC VISION?
JAMES "MUNKY" SHAFFER The way this project rooted itself was pretty organic, in the sense of how Chris and I had met, and then later deciding that we should work together again. We found we had a lot of things in common — [like an interest in] dark, ambient, soundscape-type art. It kind of grew from there.
We developed a relationship by him visiting me in L.A. and recording these long sorts of jams. It wasn't so much like, "We're going to create a song!" That's one thing that I loved about some of our sessions. We're on the same page.
We don't have to keep up with what's current. We can create something that holds its own lane in a timeless way. We're not looking for anything out of it except for the enjoyment of the creative process.
THERE'S BEEN ELECTRONIC EXPERIMENTATION IN KORN OVER THE YEARS — 2011'S THE PATH OF TOTALITY RECORD, FOR INSTANCE — BUT VENERA'S A DIFFERENT BEAST. HOW FAR BACK DOES YOUR INTEREST GO, WHEN IT COMES TO THESE MORE SCULPTURAL, CINEMATIC, EXPERIMENTAL SOUNDSCAPES?
When I was young, I remember seeing [the 1978 film] Midnight Express. This was even before I started playing music. [Giorgio Moroder's score] was so cool; I've had a love of synths and electronics since then. But I didn't get into that sort of experimenting on my own 'til later.
WHAT WAS IT ABOUT THE MIDNIGHT EXPRESS SCORE THAT GRABBED YOU?
It was just the weight of the keyboard sounds, and the intensity of it. That struck me. It was aggressive in a way that a guitar was. You know, at that point I'd been listening to Black Sabbath and Uriah Heep, these metal bands with an intriguing [approach] that I loved about the guitar.
That took me in, and eventually I picked up the instrument. Midnight Express had that dark, aggressive sound to its soundtrack. Once I started playing guitar, I tried to chase that. Like, "How do I make my guitar sound like a synth?"
I still do that! That's what I tried to do with this record: I tried to blur the line between what's a synth and what's not. Some things are obviously guitar, but some things are texturized so much that you're just not sure.
IT FEELS SOMEWHAT REDUCTIVE TO PHRASE IT LIKE THIS, BUT YOU'RE STILL MUNKY FROM KORN. WERE THERE ANY MOMENTS DURING THESE SESSIONS WHERE YOU HAD TO RESIST THE URGE TO DROP A HUGE 7-STRING GROOVE INTO ONE OF THE SONGS?
There's one [louder] moment on the song that Jake sings ["Ochre"], a little bit of an ending riff, but then he sings his vocal part over it and it softens the whole thing up.
I guess what I'm trying to say is: Not so much — because it feels really fulfilling to another part of my brain for something like that to not be in there.
I think that's what people are expecting: Oh, the guy from Korn has got a new project. I don't think people are really expecting what's coming.
YOU'RE JUST GOING BY JAMES ON THIS RECORD, TOO, RATHER THAN MUNKY.
Yeah, I mean… people know me as James or Munky. It all lands on the same page, I think. In my mind, Venera's just a more mature approach. The whole project really feels like where I am in my life. I'm 50 years old, you know. [Laughs]
HOW DO YOU FEEL AT YOUR AGE? ARE YOU IN A CHILLER SPOT THAN, SAY, KORN'S LIFE IS PEACHY ERA? WHAT'S YOUR GENERAL HEADSPACE LIKE AT THE MOMENT?
My general headspace is gratitude, because of how crazy we were back in those days. I wouldn't trade those experiences for anything.
I don't want to have that midlife crisis, because I did everything that was crazy in my past. I don't feel like I missed out on anything.
But, yeah, I feel like I'm definitely in a better space, emotionally and spiritually. I feel grateful of where I am as a father and a husband. Things are good.
YOU'VE GOT THIS NEW RECORD WITH CHRIS, BUT SINCE YOU BROUGHT UP YOUR FAMILY, YOU OCCASIONALLY MAKE THESE INSTAGRAM POSTS OF YOUR SON PLAYING PIANO, CAPTURING RECITALS IN A PROUD FATHER MOMENT. DO YOU CONNECT WITH YOUR CHILDREN ON AN ARTISTIC LEVEL? ARE YOU PLAYING ANY MUSIC WITH THEM?
Not so much. I try to grab a guitar when my son's playing piano, and he's like, "What are you doing?" I'm just trying to follow what he's playing, but it's not happening quite yet. I'm going to stop because I want him to see this through on his own. I don't want to mess up his experience or put any limitations on his learning.
WHAT IS IT LIKE WORKING WITH CHRIS, THEN?
Very chill. He's very open to any sort of experimentation, which I love. I like to explore the instrument and any sort of weird sound… plugging in the guitar [and hearing] that simple buzz, like how can we make that interesting?
I mean this on a macro level; I'm not talking about intricate melodies, or anything like that. He's really into that, too.
You know, when Korn worked with Atticus [Ross] on the Untitled album, he made me understand that imperfections and noises like that are a good thing when you're an artist, because that's your fingerprint. That's who you are!
From then, I embraced those little imperfections — stuff I'd thought wasn't supposed to be there because it was too noisy or too sloppy. Trying to perfect things wasn't that cool. Atticus led me to understand that it's part of my personality that's coming through the instrument. I get that now.
A SONG LIKE "HOLOGRAM," WHICH FEATURES RIZZ FROM VOWWS ON VOCALS, IS PERHAPS THE MOST CONVENTIONAL OR POPPY SONG ON THE RECORD. DID THAT ALSO COME OUT OF JAM SESSIONS?
All of the songs were built from these improvised jams that we did. And then later we determined, "Wouldn't it be interesting to have vocalists on one or two of these?"
We did a little outreach to some of our favorite artists — the list was very long. Some of them were unreachable at the time. Kind of a tall list of talent, but you don't get anything in life unless you ask.
You've got to knock on all the doors.
ARE YOU GOING TO KEEP REACHING OUT TO THE VOCALISTS THAT COULDN'T MAKE IT OUT THIS TIME AROUND?
One hundred percent. You always go back to the neighborhood a second time. That's what I learned on my paper route when I was 12.
THIS YEAR MARKS KORN'S 30TH ANNIVERSARY — AND ALSO 25 YEARS SINCE FOLLOW THE LEADER WAS RELEASED. CAN YOU RECALL THE FOLLOW THE LEADER PERIOD, IN PARTICULAR, AND THE BREAKTHROUGH IT MARKED FOR KORN?
I remember us being in party mode. There was no worrying about tomorrow. We were living in the moment, which is what everybody should do.
I don't think you should live in excess like we did, but we had a lot fun. We experimented a lot on that album, too, and that paid off.
After releasing two albums that did fairly well, we felt we had a little bit of wiggle room [to experiment]. And the label let us do that. Financially, we had more money to go buy equipment.
ARE THERE ANY PARALLELS BETWEEN THE WIGGLE ROOM YOU FELT KORN WERE AFFORDED IN THE FOLLOW THE LEADER PERIOD, AND HOW YOU'VE BEEN ABLE TO BRANCH OFF FROM KORN TO WORK AS VENERA?
I didn't really talk about this project with them until I knew Venera had a label [in Ipecac Recordings]. That's when I was like, OK, this thing is actually going somewhere, people are going to hear it. I should probably let them know.
They were so supportive! If I didn't feel like the record was good, I would have told them, "Look, you're going to hear some bad shit coming out." [Laughs] But really, I would never have pursued that: If Chris and I didn't have chemistry, there would be no record.
One day leads to the next, and you follow the breadcrumbs.
