Sultry, spectral and draped in darkness, Venamoris are a fascinating enigma. On the one hand you have Dave Lombardo, the legendary drummer who helped propel Reign In Blood to everlasting infamy, and who has since collaborated with everyone from Mike Patton and Ice-T to avant-jazz legend John Zorn. On the other is Paula Lombardo, a talented singer and pianist who, prior to the band’s 2023 debut, had essentially given up on music.
She’d left a successful backing gig with legendary Las Vegas entertainer Wayne Newton to pursue her own work in Nashville, only to be broken on the music industry’s unforgiving wheel. With their second album, To Cross Or To Burn, the husband-and-wife duo have expanded their sound while making it harder to quantify: like chasing shadows through a hall of mirrors. Lush and cinematic, yet deeply intimate, it conveys a thrilling sense of freedom despite its gloomy themes.
“Venamoris is definitely a rebirth,” says Paula. “The situations I went through were the same facing many musicians, artists, actors or models. A ton of rejection, a ton of people telling you that what you’re doing is wrong. As you get older, that starts to get really scary.”
“I walked away from a very good, strong income to wondering what I was going to do,” she continues. “And you start realising, ‘OK, this is not even fun anymore.’ But ultimately, when you take that one thing that really forms part of your soul and you stop doing it, you suffocate yourself.”
Despite revealing her musical background to Dave early in their relationship, it took Paula the best part of 10 years to learn how to breathe again.
“During the pandemic, Dave and I had a lot of really deep talks about why I left music and why I didn’t want to return,” says Paula. “He helped me break through all of that.”
Paula describes the duo’s 2023 debut, Drown In Emotion, as “a journal coming to life” – a raw, innocent piece of work exploring the singer’s return from murky waters. Recorded in their home studio, the duo had no plans beyond perhaps sharing it with family and close friends. Dave played the music back to bandmate Justin Pearson (The Locust/Swing Kids) during a Dead Cross mastering session, and the latter offered to release it on his hardcore-skewing Three One G imprint rather than see it quietly disseminated online.
“I think Justin liked how punk it was for me to step outside what I am normally known for,” Dave suggests.
If Paula is now in a far better, more confident place when it comes to making music, To Cross Or To Burn – released by another of Dave’s collaborators, Fantômas and Dead Cross crooner Mike Patton – is not without its moments of thematic heaviness.
“I wrote a lot of the lyrics when Dave was on tour, and that can be a very dark time,” she admits. “A lot of the songs come from feeling alone and self-reflective.”
Dave, on the road with Testament, enjoyed being able to detach from the tour’s madcap thrash and listen to what Paula was working on at home – the gravity of her lyrics only striking him once he returned.
“A lot of the time Dave pays attention to the tone of the song first and the lyrics much later,” Paula smiles. “I remember we were making dinner one night and he said, ‘You know, I listened to that song and I can’t believe you think that way about yourself’ – he was very emotional about it. It’s like, all of a sudden, when everything else is done, he looks at it like, ‘Whoa, that’s my wife saying that! That’s a little dark.’”
In most longstanding relationships, clear divisions of labour form: who puts the bins out, who empties the dishwasher, who cooks dinner on a Monday. Asked how this translates to their creative partnership, the pair laugh before assuring us that their music-making has a similarly natural flow.
“Sometimes when I’m in the studio for six hours and Paula’s downstairs watching crime shows, she’ll be like, ‘I feel so bad…’ But it’s all good,” says Dave. “It’s a give and take thing. In the end, all that matters is that we release it.”
Creating art for the sheer joy of it, regardless of sales, clicks or likes is something that both musicians mention. From Paula’s perspective, it has helped foster a healthier relationship with her craft, while for her husband it’s simply a matter of experience.
“I’ll never forget when I was younger and Slayer were releasing Seasons In The Abyss,” he chuckles. “The publicists said, ‘It’s not about how many times it’s going to go gold, Dave – it’s how many times it’s going to go platinum.’ So I’m all excited and… it doesn’t even go gold.” [It did eventually! Phew! – certification ed.]
While Paula highlights Dave’s positive attitude as a key strength (“The man can be going through absolute hell, but he’ll stop on the side of the road to take a picture of a rainbow”), she’s also aware how beneficial it is to have pals like Alex Skolnick, Ra Diaz, Trevor Dunn and Gary Holt on hand to guest on the record. One musician she does have trouble with, however? Dave himself.
“I’m always pushing him to drum more,” she laughs. “He’s always a little careful about respecting my voice and my lyrics. I have to be like, ‘Hey! I have Dave Lombardo sitting here! Can I get the drums?!’”
To Cross Or To Burn is out now via Ipecac.
