Inside Your Sun
Venus II is the dream-team pairing of Jarrad Brown (Eagle & The Worm / Dorsal Fins) and Ryan Grieve (Canyons). The band’s first offering, their debut single “Inside Your Sun,” is an acid-soaked rave-up that takes cues from baggy-era Manchester and weaves it through string-tinged psychedelic-techno.
The rush of “Inside Your Sun” vividly marries Brown’s innate talent for song craft with Grieve’s deft production flourishes. The track was mixed by Chris Colonna from Bumblebeez, who has worked on albums for The Vines, Alison Wonderland and Jaguar Ma.
The duo’s debut album, also titled ‘Inside Your Sun,’ heralds Venus II as the birth of an entirely new journey for Brown and Grieve. “I think Jarrad is one of the truest artists I’ve worked or been involved with,” says Grieve. “If something’s feeling good then it doesn’t need to be questioned. We’re good like that.” For Brown the partnership marks an entire personal and creative transformation. “I feel like a different artist,” says Brown. “It’s a whole new world for me. It’s really exciting.”
Jarrad Brown had an epiphany. As writer and frontman of freewheeling eight-piece collective The Eagle & The Worm, Brown was accustomed to delivering smart pop songwriting with lashings of ragged rock n roll. But when completing a new batch of demos, he found himself seeking a new landscape, synthesised energy and electronic sound in his head.
A chance meeting led Brown to Sydney-based producer Ryan Grieve, who runs Hole in the Sky records, a label known for discovering Tame Impala. With over ten years’ experience in the Australian dance scene, working at the intersection of dance music, indie-pop and immersive audio-visuals as one half of band Canyons and with recent project Heart People, Grieve saw Brown as a kindred spirit. “Jarrad’s got a really good sense of melody and is quite sincere in his songwriting,” says Grieve. “That was the drawcard for me. I don’t feel like there’s a lot of sincere music around at the moment so it was a big attraction.”
Working collaboratively, the unlikely pair chanced upon the eclectic sound Brown had been searching for – a widescreen exploration of cosmic dance music, from fresh a pop perspective. So pleased with the results were Brown and Grieve, they anointed the partnership with a new name – Venus II. “Ryan was able to break down what I was about and present these new ideas in the way in the way I wanted,” says Brown of the collaborative discovery.
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