Review Fix Exclusive: Venus Fly Trap’s Alex Novak Talks Goals And More

By Patrick Hickey Jr.

Review Fix chats with Venus Fly Trap’s Alex Novak, who discusses the band’s origin and goals for the future.

Review Fix: How was the band born?

Alex Novak: I just finished being in ATTRITION who were based in London at the  time,I had done an album “SMILING AT THE HYPOGONDER CLUB” and toured  Holland(my first sojourn abroad with a band). Decided to move back to my native Northampton(famous for BAUHAUS/ALAN  MOORE) hooked up with my brother JOHN NOVAK(ISAWS/WHERES LISSE) and  TONY BOOKER an x-art school student(I also had studied at art school).

This was my own project as opposed to being in someone elses band, my idea was to get back to basics garage/rock n roll mixed with thumping  drum machine beat,with dark vox and gothy atmospherics. For any new band you want to get out and play asap,but we recorded demo tracks quickly  as the plan was to get a record deal.

These things happened very quickly for us, We had a release out within  a year of forming.

Review Fix: What’s your creative process like?

Novak: When we were writing ICON,myself and ANDY  DENTON(guitar/programming)would start with a riff/idea,just guitar and vocal. The riff would suggest a lyric and a bit of jamming would be an  embryonic version of a song,not all these ideas would come to  anything,but are kept for possible use in the future.

ANDY DENTON would take these ideas away and come up with a basic  backing track to then add more lyrics to and to work out a structure,a  lot of going back and forwards from rehearsal to studio,we would end up with a song structure that we were happy with. This is just the start of the process for recording as a track gets mixed many times before it gets to the tweaking phase where we brought in MARTIN BOWES(ATTRITION) to do the final mixes and add the fairy dust.

With electronics it is a blessing/downside as you can any sound you wish,which can make you faff around playing with different sounds.

Discipline is needed to get the final mix done otherwise you can tamper with it forever.

Review Fix: What inspires you?

Novak: With an album you will have more immediate tracks,but we construct an album to work as one piece,moving from one mood to another. Obviously tracks are picked to promote the album, VITESSE for ICON was chosen,but it is out of context and makes more sense fitting in with other tracks.

Review Fix: What are your goals for 2020?

Novak: The new release will be out in may VENUS FLY TRAP/ALEX  NOVAK-MERCURIAL(BEST OF)CD/DL on GLASS RECORDS MODERN its a round up  of VENUS FLY TRAP and my other projects notably ISAWS, RELIGIOUS OVERDOSE,TEMPEST,ATTRITION etc…We had dates lined up from may onwards but obviously because of the situation we are re-scheduling for September(hope its normal by then)-good luck everyone…

Review Fix: How would you describe your sound to someone who has never heard you?

Novak: Try to create sonic scapes for films in your mind,draw the listener in and enjoy the ride, Wewant people to get lost in the music to let go and  be part of the musical twists and turns-you should listen without  distractions the lights down and the phone/tv/computer OFF!

Review Fix: What’s next?


Novak: Plans to re-issue more material,recently put out the first VENUS FLY TRAP album MARS CD/DL On GLASS RECORDS MODERN,digitize other material to be released as a  download or CD-see what the lay of the land is,next re-issues would be the second and third  albums TOTEM and PANDORAS BOX…hope we all get back to normal  (whatever that is)soonish…all the best!

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14230 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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