Not Afraid to Venture
There once were rules to record releases in the music industry. Albums dropped on Tuesday. Prior to the album a single was dropped to build anticipation; maybe a second single was released. And there was almost always a music video. In the internet/laptop studio era, tracks are released with relative ease. Artist has an idea, makes a beat on a DAW, records vocals on a microphone plugged into a laptop, converts the final version into a MP3, and uploads the quickly made track to Soundcloud. The process of marketing and building anticipation for a record has pretty much vanished. Some still do it, but the majority absolutely does not.
Enter 19-year-old Venture, who is probably too young to remember the old record industry but who definitely understands creating anticipation is crucial in a landscape where flooding the market creates apathy in consumers. Inspired by artists like Beyonce, who no longer simply release singles and albums, Venture and collaborator JX created a “cinematic video” to accompany a track she’s releasing called Sober.
Venture sets out to create art with every project. She and JX were doing a photo shoot one day when the visuals inspired something more. Venture had written and recorded Sober with producer ADM$ that sampled the super-popular artist Flume. Taking a cue from Beyonce’s Lemonade Venture and JX decided to record a video that elaborated on the photo shoot. After making the video and allowing the people at Harkins to view it, the famous Valley Art Theater on Mill picked up the video for a one-time showing. That showing will take place August 11.
After talking with her, it makes perfect sense how she’s accomplished so much in so little time. I say this because she only started making music in November and she’s already played over 20 shows. One specific show she arranged, dubbed V-Day because of her name and the proximity to Valentines Day, 120 people showed up. In addition to the name, she puts a lot of thought into planning her shows as well. Attendees at V-Day were asked to were white clothing to match the décor and care packages were given out with presale tickets
Venture is not nervous about being accepted. She’s happy with how the finished product looks and is content there is any interest at all (she made t-shirts for the Sober premiere which sold out in a day), Venture simply wants to share her creation and she hasn’t had enough time to be scorned by the music industry. Finally, she’s not afraid of being told no. The premiere was not manifested because of her vast connections. She explained she’s not afraid to ask the question and be told no. It must help when she claims to have a 60% success ratio including recently when she contacted a well-known producer (whom she kept anonymous) and he told her he’d like to work her.
The opportunities given to a 19-year-old who just came to the Valley last year are not only because of her fearlessness. She is remarkably talented. You can hear Venture’s music on her Soundcloud, Itunes, and on a Youtube video for her last single called Diamonds. She has a modern pop, RnB sound, influenced by trip hop beats, similar to Sia and Alessia Cara but with less polish and more raw, unfiltered emotion.
Regardless of how impressive the video is, I know I’ll walk in impressed that a 19-year-old has pulled off such an impressive marketing campaign for a music video. She is literally re-imagining the rules of a record release.
If you want to attend the premiere for the Sober music video, tickets will be available online and at the door of Harkins Valley Art on Mill. It’s predicted that tickets will sell out so get there early. The show starts at 8pm. More information can be found at IAm-Venture.com.
