We were lucky to catch up with Tanya Venom recently and have shared our conversation below.
Tanya, appreciate you joining us today. Are you happy as a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?
Being an artist comes with extreme highs and lows, taking risks and investing in yourself with no guarantee of financial stability or retirement plan, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. I am incredibly happy as an artist! As a musician, it is necessary to be able to leave town at a moment’s notice to travel and sometimes for weeks at a time to tour, so whenever the allure of having a stable job crosses my mind, I’m reminded of how trapping regular jobs can be. I’ve had to suffer through some small-time regular jobs to supplement my musical career earlier in my life and it was always a struggle to get time off for gigs. I even tried working overnights at a gym, which was great for my sleep schedule, but nobody ever wanted to cover my shift when I needed to leave for a show haha! I’ve never been cut out for a normal life and I don’t mind that. I enjoy the adventure, the chaos, and most importantly, the ability to do what I was put on this Earth to do; create music that empowers people. As an artist, I may not be able to do a lot of things people consider “normal,” but at least I am free, and that makes it all worth it.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
When I was 13, I started taking guitar lessons at a local music store and by the time I was 16, I was gigging at bars in the metro Detroit area with an all-female classic rock cover band. There was a moment at one of those gigs where I just knew that I HAD to pursue music professionally. There was no greater more powerful feeling than what I felt when performing live! Feeling the absolute ecstasy of expressing emotions in such a visceral way while seeing how that transfer of energy to the crowd made them so joyful and full of life, I couldn’t deny it. After high school, I attended Berklee College of Music for guitar where I graduated from the Film Scoring major with honors. Berklee armed me with a great amount of skills that I incorporate into my creative services today. Primarily, I am a performing guitarist and singer as well as an award-winning songwriter, though I also offer guitar and vocal session work, songwriting and arranging work, and lessons for guitar, songwriting, music theory and performance skills. I am also proud to say that I am an official PRS Guitars Pulse Artist which has been a huge honor to me to be able to represent and be represented by my favorite guitar company! I think perhaps what sets me apart from others is that I like to utilize what I consider the best aspects of various genres and combine them to create what I believe is the ultimate songwriting creation. My personal favorite genre of music is metal followed by hard rock, but I find myself listening to a surprising range of genres including classical music, pop music, film and video game music, folk music, industrial, and of course everything between rock and death metal. I absolutely love brutally heavy riffs and grooves like you’d hear in metal, but I am also into catchy hooks like you’d hear in pop songs, dynamics like you’d hear in classical music, thoughtful story-telling lyrics, ample vocal harmonies, and heart-melting melodies. I utilize a variety of skills I learned at Berklee to combine all of these aspects in a unified way in my own music and when I am coaching others in songwriting. I also highly value the performance aspects of music from designing the perfect outfit to coming up with creative and dramatic stage antics, and finding ways to truly connect with the fans while onstage. My work that I am most proud of is the work I do with my primary project, my metal band, Stormstress. Stormstress is a heavy metal power trio comprised of myself on guitar and lead vocals, my identical mirror twin, T Mayhem, on the bass and co-lead vocals, and our dear friend Maddie Scott on the drums and backing vocals. Stormstress is still fairly new, formed in 2019, but we have already released our debut album, produced by Liz Borden (Lizzie Borden and the Axes) and Sarah Fitzpatrick, called “Silver Lining” which was met with critical acclaim, and have supported bands such as Burning Witches, FireHouse, The Iron Maidens, and Liliac. Next we will be performing at the New England Music Hall of Fame Induction later this year and we are currently working on new music that I am very excited to share with the world! You can find Stormstress online everywhere on social media (@stormstressband) and you can listen to our music everywhere music is streamed or sold. If want to go deeper with Stormstress and/or support the band, we have a Patreon page where you get exclusive behind-the-scenes access and more. Lastly, as for myself personally, I offer my session work on SoundBetter and for other inquiries can be reached via email at tanyavenom.guitarist@gmail.com.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
For many years I was primarily an instrumentalist who occasionally sang backing vocals, but a secret passion for singing was brewing within me. By the time I started Stormstress, I knew I wanted to be a lead singer and I was super excited to develop my voice and blossom as a frontwoman. In the summer of 2021 when the covid quarantine started to ease up, I was singing and performing nonstop, until one show that I performed full blast while I had an upper respiratory infection. For the next 6 months after, my voice felt irreparably raspy, hoarse and uncontrollable. As a professional singer exploring this new passion of mine, it broke my heart and made me feel insecure, inadequate, and terribly fearful for my musical future. I finally saw an Otolaryngologist who discovered I had incurred a vocal injury, a polyp on my right vocal cord, and told me that the usual fix for a polyp was surgery. I was horrified, but I had to do it. In the Fall of 2022, about one year ago now, I went in for the operation and the surgeon injected steroids into my vocal cords. After the procedure, I had to be on complete vocal rest and couldn’t even speak, let alone sing for quite some time. Over the next few months, I saw an amazing speech therapist who helped rehabilitate my speaking and singing voice as it slowly returned to me. I still carry the trauma of this vocal injury within me but I have a new level of gratitude for my voice and every day I work towards overcoming my fears and using what I’ve learned to become a better, stronger singer.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
When I was first starting my music career, I was told many things that I later discovered to be not only toxic but completely counter productive. People will tell you that you have to grind and grind, force your way to get ahead of the competition, and that there is a time limit on “fame.” All of these concepts lead to feelings of lack and desperation which is not a good look nor is it a productive work environment, especially for creatives. The self employed nature of being a musician lends itself to the possibility of putting yourself to work 100% of the time so it’s extremely important to make time to intentionally rest so you don’t burn out. Plus, it is in those moments of peace and rest that I find my best ideas come to me. I used to compare myself to other artists which would only make me feel inadequate and envious. With experience and simply over time, I learned that there is enough space for everyone and that you cannot and should not compare yourself to others. Every person is valid and every artist’s journey is completely different. It is not a race, and it is not a competition. In fact, supporting your friends in the scene will not only make you feel good but will also help you get authentic opportunities. I used to fear my age and what I could accomplish by a certain time, especially as a female, but I keep getting older and in my opinion I am getting better and better with time! It’s never too soon and it’s never too late to do the things you love.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.stormstressband.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tanya_venom/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tanyavenom/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/StormstressBand
- Other: Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/stormstress Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7HoAFiMxaIYBjCczZebZyV?si=QSIDgGmeQ8G9BvxsblXxuA Soundbetter: https://soundbetter.com/profiles/449201-tanya-venom
Image Credits
Red Background Photo by: Hear and There Photography White Background Photos by: Fuel Heart Productions Sami Lipp Photography (watermarked) Thom Seling (watermarked) Stage Selfie taken by us, no credit.