Listen: Grain by Billy Vena

Having appeared on BlackPlastic.co.uk a number of times before, the extremely talented Billy Venas is back once again, this time with new single Grain.

The latest release from Panama-native, Texas-based musician, Grain doesn’t mess too much with the Vena’s formula. His yearning, Prince-like vocal stylings are here, wrapped up in a familiarly 80s-tinged sound. In contrast to some of his other releases, however, Grain has a slightly slower, soft-focused aesthetic. Warm synths and slow bass notes remind me of some of the finest moments of Blood Orange’s album Cupid Deluxe. Overall, it’s a little like a warm embrace from someone who you know is going to look after you.

Check out Grain below:

Listen: Body Is Love — Billy Vena

Following on from Rabbit Hole (Love Is What You Make It) and Romantic Logic, Panama-native and Texas-based musician Billy Vena is back with a new release. Body Is Love marks the start of a new series of releases, whilst leveraging the timeless retro-influenced pop Vena has become known for.

Even though it retains the general Prince-esque vibes of Vena’s previous work, Body Is Love is nonetheless slung lower than previous work, and looser in feel. It basks in the sunny glow of 90s R&B, with guitars, chunky bass and snappy drums evoke the liberal aesthetic of early TLC and En Vogue.

Describing the song, Billy Vena talks about the inspirational form the people around him take:

“I was inspired to write Body Is Love to sort of express how beautiful the people in my life are, and how much I wanted them to see themselves as such. In the simplest of forms, it’s me saying, I want you to love you, like I love you.”

Check out Body Is Love below:

Listen: Romantic Logic — Billy Vena

Billy Vena’s new single, Romantic Logic, fizzes with a kind of energetic Prince-like energy that I find pretty much irresistible. Made up of a combination of warm feeling bass and crisp percussion and clean lines, the song feels futuristic yet also like lots of fun.

That sense of playfulness, present in Vena’s falsetto delivery, permeates Romantic Logic’s lyrics too — likening love to a game, in a direct reference to the Nintendo 64, even the very notion of “romantic logic” being a thing.

Describing the song, Vena says:

“The clues lead to love, but love leads to someone else they’re a little more content with. I wrote this song about understanding what it takes to be in a healthy relationship, and not understanding why you aren’t in one with the love of your life.”

Hailing from Panama but now based in Converse, Texas, Billy Vena made his musical debut back in 2020. Three singles came that year, and last year Vena began to release material from his upcoming debut EP, led with the excellent Rabbit Hole. Marking the release of Romantic Logic, Billy is auctioning of a single one-of-a-kind NFT that grants the owner a 10% royalty share on all master recording income from Romantic Logic, after expenses. You can find the auction, which ends on 28 February, on OpenSea here.

Listen: Rabbit Hole (Love Is What You Make It) — Billy Vena

Rabbit Hole shows up with the kind of inclusive approach to aesthetics that recalls Prince. In the first 30 seconds we get an a cappella intro, radio static, grungy bass and soulful R&B vocals, yet they all come together in a way that feels coherent. What struck me with Rabbit Hole is the way Billy Vena has cherry-picked sounds from the past three decades and combined them in a way that feels distinctive and fresh… I find myself longing for more of the roughly hewn soul of En Vogue, Lucy Pearl and Miguel — all artists who carved their sound out of a composite blend of genres and artists, forming something infectious and near-universally appealing.

This stylistic approach is clearly no accident. Billy Vena acknowledges an aspiration to share his love of pop culture by channeling the lessons of the greatest pop stars of all time. By doing this, he hopes to create music fused into something both new and classic. Having made his debut in 2020 with Space Hippie, quickly followed with Disco Maniac and Talking 2 Myself, the Panama-native but Texas-resident musician has already found exposure through Spotify Fresh Finds and a Hype Machine #1.

Rabbit Hole is Vena’s first release of 2021, and with it he hopes to challenge notions of toxic masculinity, opening up a dialogue around sexual expression and exploration. In his words, Billy explains:

“Rabbit Hole is about a sexual awakening and how confusing it can be when you realize it’s happening. I wasn’t necessarily writing about my teenage rejections but my teenage regrets and how the back and forths in my head kept me in a “what if” scenario till this day. We may never know what the other person truly feels but maybe love is what you make it.”

Check out Rabbit Hole below:

fanlink.to/loveiswhatyoumakeit