Venetian Snares

Venetian Snares
Background information
Birth name Aaron Funk
Born January 11, 1975 (1975-01-11) (age 37)
Origin Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Genres Breakcore
Glitchcore
IDM
Orchestral music
Noise
Drum & Bass
Instruments Guitar, drums, percussion, bass guitar, harpsichord, piano, violin, viola, cello, drum machine, synthesizer, sampler, softsynth
Years active 1992–present
Labels Hymen Records
Planet Mu
Sublight Records
Associated acts Last Step, Speed Dealer Moms, Stunt Rock, Bong-Ra, Speedranch, Cex, Doormouse, Fanny, John Frusciante
Website venetiansnares.com

Venetian Snares is the main performing alias of Canadian electronic musician Aaron Funk (born January 11, 1975).

From Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, Funk is known for making electronic music often in odd numbered time signatures (mostly 7/4). Up until 2007, he was very prolific, releasing as many as eight recordings a year for such record labels as History of the Future, Isolate/DySLeXiC ResPonSe, Addict, Zod, Distort, Sublight, Low-Res, Planet Mu and Hymen.

Funk debuted on a record label in 1999 with the 12" vinyl EP, Greg Hates Car Culture. Prior to this, he self-released material on cassette tape as early as 1992.[1]

Contents

Biography

Funk's first release was the EP Greg Hates Car Culture released on History of the Future, followed by Salt on Zhark International and Fuck Canada/Fuck America with Stunt Rock for CLFST. When Mike Paradinas heard Greg Hates Car Culture he immediately signed Funk for Planet Mu. The first Venetian Snares LP on Planet Mu, Making Orange Things (a co-production with Speedranch), was released in early 2001, followed in short order by five more releases, all before the end of 2002. Funk continued producing for a variety of labels, including Hymen Records, Peace Off Records, Addict Records, and Sublight Records. He has also produced albums under the names Last Step and Vsnares, produced singles under the names Last Step, Snares Man! and Snares, appeared on compilations under the names Ventriloquist Snakes, Last Step, Puff, and Senetian Vnares, and did a split with Fanny under the name BeeSnares.[2]

His style has been critically acclaimed, notably by the late British radio disc jockey John Peel.[3] Venetian Snares is said to have reinvented breakcore[4] and set the stage for many other artists such as UndaCova, Xanopticon, Enduser and Datach'i.

Venetian Snares composes much of his music with trackers. Before he began to release his music commercially, he worked primarily with OctaMED on an Amiga 500.[1] At some point prior to 2000 he began using a PC and the Windows port of OctaMED, MED Soundstudio.[5] During 2003 and 2005 he also used Cubase in addition to MED. Venetian Snares currently uses Renoise and has uploaded a video of his track "Vache" (from Cavalcade of Glee and Dadaist Happy Hardcore Pom Poms) playing in Renoise on YouTube.[6]

In a February 2003 interview, Funk was asked a question regarding the diverse mix of genres he draws upon in his music, a property which the interviewer labelled "eclecticism". Funk replied: "I prefer to call it Surrealism."[7]

In other interviews he discusses how his early experiments in sound influenced his aethetics and use of samples: "When I was a kid I'd use a bunch of ghetto blasters playing all at once to play different sounds I'd recorded with some other shitty ghetto blasters. A turning point was when I somehow came across this looping delay pedal that held a 2 second sample. This pedal coupled with the ghetto blaster experiments really changed my life."[8]

Discography

As Venetian Snares

Albums

12″s, 7″s, EPs, and mini-releases

As Snares Man!

As Vsnares

As BeeSnares

As Last Step

Albums

12″s, 7″s, EPs, and mini-releases

As Snares

As Speed Dealer Moms

References

  1. ^ a b stevvi. "Venetian Snares interview on c8". Isolate Records. http://www.isolaterecords.com/vsnaresinterview.html. Retrieved 2007-02-24. 
  2. ^ venetiansnares.com
  3. ^ Colin Nagy, Flavorpill. June 16, 2008. [1] Access date: July 27, 2008.
  4. ^ Ranta, Alan. "Venetian Snares: Detrimentalist", PopMatters. Retrieved on December 4, 2008.
  5. ^ Sound on Sound, interview with Mike Paradinas and Aaron Funk, May 2002
  6. ^ 'Vache' in Renoise
  7. ^ VENETIAN SNARES Interview
  8. ^ 'Venetian Snares Article - Trebuchet Magazine'
  9. ^ Planet µ Records
  10. ^ Discography entry for My So-Called Life Planet Mu
  11. ^ [2]

External links