Saxophone extraordinaire Venna is determined to push things forward

A snow-crusted Mount Fuji looms on the horizon as a fresh breeze flaps against the legs of Venna’s glossy ochre tracksuit. Those same winds carry the smooth melodies rising from his saxophone as he adds texture and grace to the soundscapes of the Yussef Dayes Experience. It’s a magical scene, but one that’s not massively out of the ordinary for the 26-year-old south London musician.

His ties to jazz drummer Dayes have seen Venna spend years on the road, performing in the US, Australia, Europe and Asia. His skills as a producer and instrumentalist have led to him working with a wide range of artists, including north London rapper Knucks, pop icon RAYE, and Afrobeats giant Burna Boy. He’s also an artist in his own right – one who’s developed an impressive reputation for transcending labels like jazz, soul, or R&B.

“I don’t wanna be boxed in, I don’t want people to see me as anything, I just want people to see me as a prolific musician and someone who will stand the test of time,” Venna tells NME over video call from Los Angeles, where he’s spending a week shooting a new video.

So far, he’s on the right path to get there. His 2021 debut EP ‘Venology’ centred around dreamy, jazz-hop beats that allowed Venna’s saxophone to surge to the fore, becoming a central melodic focus in the absence of vocals. The project’s deep sense of soulful ambience offered listeners a form of escapism, and numerous fans messaged Venna saying it helped them cope when they were feeling low. Rising vocalists like Jada and Jxck James offered valuable contributions to ‘Venology’, but the EP’s success allowed Venna to attract even bigger names like Mick Jenkins and Masego, who both featured on 2023 follow-up EP ‘Equinox’.

Since then, headline shows – including London’s Islington Assembly Hall – have helped spread his solo sounds further, but his extensive work alongside other talented creatives means there hasn’t always been space for Venna to carve a definitive solo path. That’s all about to change with the imminent release of his debut album ‘Malik’ – where he takes on the role of curator and bandleader, bringing together a wide array of musicians and viewing himself as a conduit for their expression.

“Taking on this role was something that I feel like I’ve always been prepared for,” he explains. “Even though it was the biggest expedition, it felt very organic and normal. I’ve always been the youngest person everywhere I go, so I had to navigate that and figure out how to speak to people in a respectful manner and always get the best out of them, because we’re here to make something that’s bigger than all of us, and to build a legacy.”

“I want people to see me as someone who will stand the test of time”

Voicing opinions from a position of youth or inexperience has never intimidated Malik Venner. The south Londoner grew up in a musical household, absorbing the sounds of family functions with reggae and dancehall blaring from the speakers, or mellow soul records on chilled Sundays. His parents pushed him to take piano lessons at age six, and by the time he was 12, he’d moved onto alto sax. “I liked the tone and look of the saxophone,” he explains. “My mum allowed me to play piano and sax for a term before choosing one to proceed with.”

As his teenage years progressed, Venna’s strong classical training and love for rap and hip-hop started to intertwine, leading him to reach out to Knucks. The rapper’s beats regularly used digitally sequenced horn sounds, and Venna offered to record the real thing – live saxophone – for him instead.

The pair started working together on tracks like ‘Home’, which brought a heightened sense of soul to the UK rap game, fusing smooth, jazzy sax lines with light, skippy UK drill rhythm patterns. At the same time, Venna was also working regularly with guitarist Alistair O’Donnell (aka AoD), “doing Afrobeats sessions with rappers like Yung Bane and Not3s”.

His reputation as a producer and instrumentalist grew to the extent that he was being invited to sessions for huge names like Beyoncé, Kali Uchis, Wizkid and Burna Boy. In 2020, Venna’s profile rose significantly when he won a Grammy for his work on the latter’s ‘Twice As Tall’ album, specifically for contributing to the track ‘Alarm Clock’ alongside P2J.

“I could do what everyone else does, but I’d rather push the sound barrier further. That’s how legends are made”

“When I was about 16, I was just trying to get in any room possible to try and make shit happen,” he recalls. “I was like: ‘Once I’m in the room, I can do what I really wanna do’. It was a good five years ago that we won the Grammy, but even in that moment, I still felt like I needed more. That time feels far from where I’m at now; those days, I didn’t have no beard! It was all part of a bigger picture, that’s how I’ve always seen it.”

For years, the process of juggling several different creative worlds has been something Venna has contended with. “There are different sides to me,” he explains. “It’s interesting to bring all of those worlds into one and see what comes with it.” While working on ‘Malik’ with a host of collaborators, he frequently went home from the studio and asked himself: “How can I do better to make the room more open to whatever needs to come through?”

Whether offering up a fluid, shape-shifting platform for Jorja Smith’s warm vocals on ‘Myself’, or bringing MIKE’s stylish rapped verses to the fore on the hazy, lo-fi glow of ‘Day x2’, he found the answer was all about making others feel comfortable. “It’s not just about me, it’s about everyone,” he says. “There has to be an ego release to allow everyone to have their time to shine. I’ve played with some artists who think it’s all about them, but music’s a collaboration. If you have five people who have done their 10,000 or 20,000 hours, that can come to 100,000 hours, rather than one person who’s done 10,000.”

For Venna, ‘Malik’ incorporates a wide spectrum of ideas he’s picked up from his collaborators and musical travels. He touches on his love of bossa nova, which he got turned onto while in Brazil, on ‘São Paulo Memoir’, and explores his deep relationship with R&B and its capacity for emotional vulnerability on ‘My Way’. The most crucial foundation of all remains jazz, but these days, the south Londoner is keen to avoid being categorised solely as a jazz musician.

“Jazz is the evolution of music, jazz is the root and the reason for a lot of these genres,” he says. “But jazz will forever evolve, and while this album is a child of jazz, the child is always gonna be further and further outstretched from the root.”

There’s a responsibility to what he does, he reasons, that requires him to keep moving forward. “I see myself as a tastemaker,” he explains. “As artists, it’s our duty to introduce people to different rhythms and sections and sonics that they haven’t come across. We’re historians, it’s our job to document the sounds and palettes of the time, and jazz needs to evolve otherwise everyone would just be making the same thing.

“I could do what everyone else does, but I’d rather not; I’d rather push the sound barrier further, push my peers even further, because that’s how legends are made.” He cites the likes of Bob Marley, Marvin Gaye, Michael Jackson and Lauryn Hill: “They pushed themselves further than anyone could’ve imagined.”

You can sense Venna following suit and pushing himself beyond his comfort zone on his recent single ‘My Way’, on which he sings for the first time. It’s a gloriously mellow track; the low frequencies hum warmly, clean guitar and muted snare hits mingle together with the effortless laze of a King Krule instrumental, and Venna’s flush falsettos soar above and continue rolling into the distance. Known primarily as a saxophonist, Venna has spoken in the past about being reluctant to record vocals until he felt he had something to say.

“Jazz needs to evolve otherwise everyone would just be making the same thing”

“It’s a piece of weaponry that I’ve had for a long time, and I wanted to wait for the right time to use it,” he says. “I feel like I always said to myself, even before I made ‘Venology’, that I was gonna sing on my first album, so I tried to uphold my promise to myself. I’m not gonna say [singing] was uncomfortable, but it wasn’t comfortable. But it’s about making sure that I’m evolving as a human being and as a musician, and staying true to my own statements.”

As he’s hopped around the world, from Japanese mountains to Californian deserts, he’s kept home firmly in the back of his mind. While he notes that it can be disconcerting going back to London after weeks or months away and feeling like nothing has changed, he adds that the trappings of musical success can be “here today, gone tomorrow… but your family and loved ones will be there until the day you die.”

Until that day, Venna is committed to constantly challenging himself and pushing the boundaries between jazz, soul, R&B, and more. Open, ego-less collaboration is the goal. “I helped everyone for years, and things come back to you tenfold,” he says. “I give thanks for progression and growth, and this is only the first album. Hopefully, I have a whole life and a whole career to make beautiful stuff and to make people feel great.”

Venna’s debut album ‘Malik’ is out on September 5 via Cashmere Thoughts.

Listen to Venna’s exclusive playlist to accompany The Cover below on Spotify and on Apple Music here.

Words: Fred Garratt-Stanley
Photography: Marisa Bazan
Makeup: Ghost
Label: Cashmere Thoughts

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