Venom Prison's Larissa Stupar: "Maybe We Could Have Cello On The Next Album!"

2019 was the year that Venom Prison arrived on the Kerrang! cover for the first time – and that was just the beginning of Larissa Stupar’s highlights…

How was 2019 for you, Larissa?
“I would say 2019 was pretty good. We released a new album [Samsara, in March], we toured, we went back to America… 2019 was an amazing year for Venom Prison. And we made it onto the cover of Kerrang!”

Yes! How did that feel?
“I couldn’t believe it! It was an amazing feeling, and I was very excited about the photo shoot we decided to do. I was a bit scared, because I worried that people might think we were exploiting the snakes that were used in the shoot. So that’s why we went to a local reptile shelter to see if they had any snakes we could take photos with. I’d never touched a snake before, and I was shitting myself (laughs)! They had about 10 snakes they thought we could use – one was so huge that I couldn’t hold it on my own! At first I was scared of them, but once I got comfortable, I actually thought they were really cute. The shelter also named one of the snakes after me, because it had just come in and didn’t have a name yet!”

What do you put down as being your favourite moment of 2019?
“I would say playing our K! Pit show [in April]. It was the first show we had played since September 2018, and we played mostly new songs that we had never played before. Plus, it was the first show with our new drummer [Joe Bills], so we didn’t know how it would vibe! Playing a show that intimate, to 50 people, being so excited about the new songs and having such a great time… That was definitely my favourite moment of the year.”

Do you enjoy playing really small venues?
“Now that we’ve experienced playing such big stages, like we did with Trivium and from playing all kinds of festivals, we always try to mix it up and play smaller shows in between – things like house shows, or after Damnation festival when we played a practice room show in Cardiff. Being in these tiny, packed rooms, where everything is really intimate and you can see people’s faces right in front of you, I think those are the best shows to play. The energy you create with the heat and the noise is my favourite.”

How was it headlining the second stage at Damnation in November?
“That was super crazy, because we played that stage at Damnation three years ago in an early afternoon slot. We couldn’t believe we were going to headline the same stage! When we were offered the headline slot, we decided to do something special to make it memorable. So we had [cellist] Jo Quail play on stage with us. She was playing Damnation festival as well. That was one of my favourite shows to play this year. I could feel the energy coming back from the audience – it was so intense.”

Is playing with a string accompaniment something you’d like to do again?
“Yes, I’d love to. We’d love to have Jo out playing with us again, or maybe even have her be a part of the recorded songs. Maybe we could have a cello on the next Venom Prison album!”

It sounds like 2019 was a great year for Venom Prison. Were there any low points, though?
“In relation to the band, the music and being on tour, I think that it was the best it could be. I don’t think that there were any points when we were really unhappy. But there were some points where our mental health wasn’t as well as we wanted it to be, especially when we were coming back from tours, where it can be really difficult adjusting to a normal life again. The tour we did with Fit For An Autopsy in May was the first tour of the year for us. It had been a long time since we had toured, and I was nervous about it. For me personally, being away on tour is absolutely fine, but coming back, the after-tour blues were so bad that I had to start taking medication again. I had been off medication for about six months at that point, so now I’m back on it, and that has really helped me during all the other tours this year. That was probably the only low point that I had this year.”

What are you looking forward to the most in 2020?
“We started planning 2020 a few months ago. There are going to be more first times for us: we’re going to Australia to play Download, and we’re so excited to go there because we’ve never played there, and I’ve never been! I think that’s one of my favourite things about being in a band, getting to see all these places that you’ve always wanted to go to but probably wouldn’t have been able to afford otherwise. Also, I was a big My Chemical Romance fan when I was younger. If I could tell my 14-year-old self that I’d be playing the same festival as My Chemical Romance, I wouldn’t believe it.”

What else have you got planned?
“We’re going on a European tour with Parkway Drive, Hatebreed and Stick To Your Guns. We’re going to be playing arenas! That’s something that’s insane to us: an underground death metal band supporting Parkway Drive at Wembley Arena. It doesn’t sound right! (Laughs) It will probably be a bit scary, but we’re more excited than scared, because we like challenges. When you go out on tour with these big bands that you looked up to as a child, you get to see how everything happens: how they plan, what they go through, and you can take so much away from that and learn and grow as a band. I think this is gonna be the tour of the year!”

Venom Prison are touring Europe this April with Parkway Drive, Hatebreed and Stick To Your Guns. Get your tickets here.

Venom Prison UK/Europe tour 2020

April 2020

01 Hamburg Sporthalle
02 Leipzig Arena
03 München Olympiahalle
04 Zürich Samsung Hall
06 Budapest Papp László Budapest Sportaréna
07 Vienna Stadthalle
09 Frankfurt Festhalle
11 Dortmund Westfallenhalle
15 Paris Zenith
16 Brussels Forest National
18 London SSE Arena, Wembley