Oceansize vocalist Mike talks from a cold warehouse studio

I caught up vocalist/guitarist Mike Vennart from prog-rockers Oceansize while holed-up their cold Manchester studio to talk about music, Salford and the BNP!

“I'm in our own studio which is industrial space in Manchester, all the windows have blown in; it’s taking about 100 megavolts just to keep this place warm. I'm sat here shivering looking like a homeless!”

Oceansize earned their stripes in 2003 with their début space-rock album Effloresce. Beggar’s Banquet newest babies went on to support Biffy Clyro, Aerogramme and The Cooper Temple Clause. Hitting the big time with their follow-up album Everyone Into Position, which catapulted the band to the forefront when their music was used in adverts, movies and American teenage dramas.

Following the release of their fourth EP Home & Minor last year, the boys are embarking on a UK tour, “The EP just fell into place and happened by accident; we wanted to release Legal Teams as a single, but the record label did something amazing and said put on two lead tracks and fill the album with other stuff.” Having heard the EP, I found it hard to believe that the soundscape masterpieces were picked from reject pile, Mike continued “us being us, we couldn't just leave it and the other tracks ended up taking up a lot of time producing sprawling instrumental weirdness.”

Oceansize went through the obligatory line-up change and label swap - a challenge many bands seem to face. Bassist Jon Ellis was replaced by Steve Hodson from the band Kong and signed to label Superball Music, “sometimes I want to castrate Steve, but he give us a big kick up the arse, which is just what we need.” Mike sounds enthused when talking about the band.

Steve was recruited from one the many side projects the band has on the go, Kong also features drummer Mark Heron. Keyboardist ‘Gambler’ is with band Pocket Knife and is about to release a solo album, “his stuff is really good and interesting,” Mike explains. I thought about the impact that side projects would have on the band's ability to make music, we all know what happened when Beyonce side project ended with Destiny’s Child no longer existing, “There are a lot of extra curricular activities, but we've all got home computers and can still work, so when we do see each other we still have something.”

On the back of releasing the EP, I was hoping there would be an album in the pipeline. “We've got a lot of new material. We built our own studio. It's fun writing new songs, you get addicted to the rush of producing something new. We’re writing something new everyday, but we never get to finish it. So we’ve stock piled loads of new material. The new album is really heavy, one track is absurdly loud. Luckily most songs are about four to five minutes long, which is short for us but we’re not looking for radio play.”

Oceansize are famed for producing epic progressive tracks, pulling from a number of musical influences, “I look out for interesting music, I'm most excited by bands that leave me dumbfounded.” Said Mike, talking about what inspires him. “I end up feeling quite inadequate, thinking I could never come up with anything like that.” I asked who has made him feel like that, “Annie Clarke is an incredible guitarist. I really like Grizzly Bear, The Melvins, Deerhoof and Tyondai Braxton (Battles) just kicks the face off me.”

The band are currently touring the UK, for those of you (including me) who wanted to know what to expect from a live show, “we try to piece a set with our European tour - we started with a really slow, five minute quiet song when the audience might expect a loud, ballsy track to open with. We just like fucking with people’s heads.”

Majority of people may have heard Oceansize without realising it was them, after they sold tracks to mobile phone corporate Orange and angst-riddle teenage drama The OC, “I had a real problem to begin with, but we were in financial dire straits, the second album didn't really do anything. Orange made an offer and it really fucked me up as I didn't want to cheapen the sentiment of the song. I had a word with myself and my mother, so I came round to the idea.” Mike said. “There’s no money in music now, the money we got from that helped us build a studio and carry on making music. I could've got a job in bank, but I wouldn't be able to write and produce music. People can’t accuse us of selling out; this purist, anti-corporate… It’s not the sixties. It’s normally kids who are vitriolic, juvenile piss who get all this information from the internet that’s paid for by their mum.”

Mike went on to talk about his hometown of Manchester, famed for Factory Record, The Hacienda, Joy Division, The Fall and Happy Mondays. “I grew up on Coronation Street, near the Salford Lads Club (featured in The Smiths video). It was the most deary and depressing place, but it has so much character and the views of it can be quite charming. It’s a great place to live, but I find it embarrassing that people from my part of the world vote for twats like the BNP. I can’t believe people are that backward that they think the BNP is the way forward.”

Catch Oceansize on their UK tour, at a venue near you throughout February.

First published 22.01.2010