The South African Rock Encyclopedia > Rock Legends > 2000s > Venessa Nolan > Venessa Nolan – Dashboard Culture
Tracks
- Music in Me [03:09]
- Malfunction [02:45]
- New Day [02:54]
- Don’t Leave Your Heart at Home [03:10]
- Unspoken Love [04:05]
- Elemental Living [03:37]
- Dashboard Culture [02:55]
- Goodbye My Love [03:23]
- Sensitive Perceptions [03:08]
- Blissful Rapture [02:57]
All songs written by Venessa Nolan.
Produced by Theo Crous.
Session Track
Release Information
CD: June 2009, Mixed Up Music, listed as 1 January 2010 on some sources
Press Release
About Venessa Nolan
Venessa was scouted by South African Indie label Silver Tulip. This encounter led to regular session work with her playing keyboards on Louise Carver’s first album as she was also signed with Silver Tulip at the time. Silver Tulip allowed Venessa to build a solid reputation as a top session musician and this extraordinary work environment also provided a unique opportunity for her to explore recording her own original compositions.
Venessa’s solo efforts culminated in the critically acclaimed Burn, which SA Rock Digest named fifth best South African rock album of the year. The single With You charted on the Ericsson Hi5 phone-in show on Cape Town’s popular 5FM shortly thereafter. Upon Burn’s release, the singles Fragile, Emptiness High, Glorious Gem and Why also climbed high atop SA Rock Digest’s charts.
The past year has been one of unprecedented and exciting progress as Venessa’s voice or keyboards have graced numerous South African TV commercials like Sissy Boy, Old Mutual, Castrol as well as Flat Stanley’s stirring single Song for the Broken Hearted. Venessa’s second solo album, This Life was released on her own Mixed Up Music label. Co-written and produced with Jürgen Kuhnel. This Life is an electro-acoustic set best described as acoustic instrumentation subtly merged with electronic beats and programmed rhythms.
In October 2008 she teamed up with producer Theo Crous to record Dashboard Culture, a strong piano driven rock album. Theo produced top S.A. bands like the Parlotones, Prime Circle and The Dirty Skirts. He cleverly combined Venessa’s songwriting style with driven guitar, beautiful string arrangements and prominent piano throughout the album.