Contrasting Emotions With MICHAEL SPREITZER From VERONA ON VENUS

Interview by Kris Peters
It is too easy to get stuck into playing a certain brand of music
as an artist.
This can be for a variety of reasons such as the popularity of your
band, public expectations, being pigeonholed - any number of
reasons. This problem is accentuated when your band is well known
for releasing a certain brand of music, where often any deviation
or experimentation is met with hostility by existing fans.
It is a situation DevilDriver guitarist Michael (Mike) Spreitzer
has found himself in for a prolonged period of time, despite having
an unwavering desire to explore other elements of his music
personality.
His love for DevilDriver and the music they perform is still as
strong as ever, but there has always been a gnawing yearning to
explore another side of metal which has always held his
interest.
Industrial metal.
After resisting the urge for too long, Spreitzer finally turned his
talents to another passion within the realm of metal, forming
Verona On Venus (VOV) as a side project to DevilDriver with the
sole intent of showcasing yet another of his loves musically.
VOV has released two singles now - Rodent and Monarch Acid Test -
from their 2024 debut album Popular Dimensions, expelling some
musical demons while simultaneously feeding others.
With a strong emphasis on industrial and goth metal laced with the
heavier sounds of the 1990s, Popular Delusions is a collection of
songs that are personal in musical nature to Spreitzer, with him
also taking the surprise step of assuming vocal duties.
HEAVY recently caught up with Spreitzer to talk about his new
project.
"This is something I've been wanting to do for a while," he began.
"When I was in high school, I grew up on more… I transitioned from
heavy metal into more industrial metal and goth, and Verona On
Venus is the result. This is something that has taken me back to my
roots and gives me an outlet for that genre of music that I can't
really do with DevilDriver."
In the full interview, Mike talks more about Verona On Venus and
how long he has been wanting to do something like this, the
mysterious campaign that introduced the band and their music, the
single Rodent and what he was going for with it, stepping up to
sing and how difficult that was, what he gets differently out of
playing guitar and singing, the musical nature of the album,
covering an Acid Bath song and why, future plans for VOV and
more.