There’s no holding Mike Vennart back. The former Oceansize frontman returns with his fourth solo album, Forgiveness & The Grain, which is packed with mindexpanding grooves, angry licks and touches of psychedelia. But don’t be fooled by the title: he’s not in a forgiving mood. He shares his fears about the future and the unforgiving nature of contemporary society, and details the eclectic influences that are fuelling his creativity.

Words: Emma Johnston

Aman who says he doesn’t have his shit together. We suspect he secretly does.

Images: Jessica Wild, PRESS

“I don’t really want to make things that are too twee. But I’ve just always had a real love of psychedelia and what usually comes with that as a sort of mosaic, baroque fullness.”

Mike Vennart had a bit of a revelation recently. On releasing his new solo album, Forgiveness & The Grain, he realised it was his 10th record in 20 years, stretching across different bands and genres, from Oceansize when he was in his 20s through to last year’s Empire State Bastard debut, his metal project with Biffy Clyro’s Simon Neil and former Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo. It’s a tally that’s bound to give pause for thought about the passing of time, and, now in his late 40s, a fearful nostalgia runs through the new album, from the artwork to the deceptively beautiful music within.

“As I’ve gotten older, the further back I look, it gives me a kind of vertigo. I feel like I’m standing at the top of a very, very tall building, and it’s so far away now,” he says, talking from his home in Manchester.

“The artwork for the album has got a lot of really old photos in at my mam and dad’s in the mid-70s. And it’s like another planet, how they looked, and the quality of the photographs and the way they’ve become decayed over time and yellowed with mould. I don’t feel 47 years old. I’m still searching for the perfect Ozzy Osbourne T-shirt. I’m still listening to Black Sabbath. I’m still fucking obsessed with the same things I was when I was 16. So the idea that I’m actually pushing 50 is just fucking nonsense. Like, what does that mean? What am I supposed to do? How am I supposed to feel now? Aren’t