Late last year Venbee dropped “Messy In Heaven”– a throbbing, drum'n'bass anthem produced by Goddard that used Jesus as a metaphor for the slippery slope to drug addiction. It slowly worked its way into the upper echelons of the UK chart, peaking at #3twice, spending 13 weeks in the Top 10 and is now certified Gold. She has also kicked off 2023 being lauded across the board...NME 100 Artist for 2023, Amazon Music’s Artists ToWatch 2023, TikTok #ElectronicMusic featured artist, Kiss FM - Future Hype, MTV PUSH UK 2023 Nominee, and BBC Music Introducing - Tips For 2023.
On Venbee’s forthcoming new single, “Gutter” she dispenses with “Messy In Heaven’'s metaphors, in favour of a more direct approach. On her new song she candidly narrates key moments in her life growing up and how life goes by so fast....all underpinned by a heavy drum & bass production by Whyjay & Litek (Central Cee, Aitch) & Shapes (Bru-c) Venbee says... “It's very much my life story, through the stages,”
Venbee is a rising 22 year old artist and songwriter who has been having a breakout moment out with her drum & bass tinged songs (Messy In Heaven , Lowdown) Unapologetically herself, you just can’t help but like Venbee. Hailing from Kent, she’s a Chatham girl through and through, and as far from pretentious as you can get: her Instagram is all bucket hats, oversized tracksuits and toilet selfies... a refreshing candid breath of fresh air in the highly curated social world.
Venbee has also been taking her music live with key performancest at All Points East, Spotify’s Altar at Printworks and Neighbourhood in 2022. Plus she just completed her first Sold- Out UK live tour. Venbee is is due to perform at The Great Escape and SXSW festivals this spring.
For Venbee it’s much more than fleeting viral moments, she’s in it for the long run so is currently busy in the studio writing and recording new music with a host of producers, and on the basis of her first two songs, her future success seems more than assured! The Chatham girl’s done good.
About Venbee
Erin Vebmy Anna Doyle was born and raised in Chatham, Kent, in an environment that foreshadowed her love for mixing light and shade. “I love my home town. It's rough round the edges but the people are good,” she says. Doyle found school tough , but music quickly became a solace, with her grandad and aunt becoming important early figures in her musical upbringing. “I grew up watching my grandad playing piano and I would just bash on the keys, or step on his feet. My aunt introduced me to Carole King and people like Alanis Morissette, so big pioneering women in the industry that had to stand their ground back then.” Pop also played its part, with the house reverberating to the sounds of Rihanna, Adele and Justin Bieber.
Having swapped the saxophone for the ukulele at the age of 10, Doyle later gravitated towards the guitar and started writing songs. She also started singing them too, a move that initially didn't go down too well at home. The songs would focus on her own internal struggles, and also the world around her. These burgeoning anthems would be sung into various MP3 recorders, and later into the voice notes app on her phone. In fact, years later, Low Down's lyrics were mined from this vault: “It was from a voice note I did when I was 16. It was my form of diary. I was feeling really low at that point.” When the diary-style lyrics were retrieved later, Doyle knew it had scope for something bigger: Having always listened to drum'n'bass, Doyle knew it was the genre she wanted to explore with her music. “It kind of fit the energy I was going for,” she explains.
Having enjoyed music at school, Doyle continued to study it at college but its regimented approach to creativity quickly cooled her passion. It was songwriting that Doyle was keen to focus on, with the idea of being an artist something she was struggling to imagine. Steadily she started to build up a small following on TikTok, while the handful of songs she'd created in her bedroom and uploaded to Spotify landed her a manager. Over lockdown she went viral a couple of times on TikTok “just being an idiot”, which in turn led to Low Down suddenly gaining traction. By that point Doyle was working two jobs; one as a personal trainer, and the other pulling pints in a local pub. As Low Down took off, alchemising that teenage pain into something healing, Doyle was approached by Sony Music.
As you can probably tell, Doyle isn't keen on playing up to anyone's perceptions of who or what she should be: “I did feel the pressure at one stage, but on my TikTok everyone's like 'you wear these dusty Air Forces, Erin, who don't you buy some new ones?'. Until they break they're fine. I am comfortable in myself, and I don't have anyone to impress.” She's also thriving in the world of DNB, a typically male-dominated space. For Doyle, music is a form of release and it should be for both her and her fans. Hence why the lyrical heaviness is often balanced out by music that makes you move. While she's not ruling out a move into a more pop-focused lane, a place she's exploring via her songwriting for other artists, she's happy helping to push D&B into the mainstream.