MEET: VIOLET

Falling somewhere between the dreaminess of shoegaze and the cock surety of Brit-Pop comes Midlands outfit Violet. Having spent most of their formative year writing and recording, the band recently launched their debut single, Feel, and hit the road for a short UK tour.

Gig reports back to the bunker were favourable, so we took the time to make them a milky tea and ask them a bit about themselves…

BM: There’s five of you. Would you mind doing the intros and telling us how you all met?

V: Hey, we’re Violet and we’re made up of Luke (Guitar & Vox), Patch (Drums), Arran (Bass), Theo (Guitar & anything/everything else) and Harry (Guitar)

We’re based around Birmingham, with most of us being from Lichfield. Some of us being related, some being born next to each other and we all went to different schools together and met through a mix of circumstances.

BM: Why call yourselves Violet?

V: We wanted a single strong word for the band and we had a few ideas for one, but Violet stuck out the most in the end. We like the connotations associated with it and it felt like it the theme that we wanted to go for.

BM: You’ve been drawing a lot of comparisons to quite a variety of bands, Slowdive keeps cropping up, and even the Brian Jonestown Massacre…

V: A lot have been thrown around us; Slowdive, Suede, Mansun and The Verve, but we hear a lot of different comparisons wherever we go, it’s never always the same one from the same place.

BM: How would you describe your sound?

V: The music we make sounds like a combination of albums that we all like and some stuff that we get told we sound like anyway. We’ve all been into shoegaze at some point and we take a lot of influence from the whole dreamy and ethereal sounds in that genre.

BM: What are the albums you all like?

V: Humbug, Abbey Road, Siamese Dream, Definitely Maybe, Either/Or are the first albums off the top of our heads that we’ve all collectively loved, they’re just bloody great.

BM: Is it just music that bonds you as a band?

V: Mostly just the music, Football is a scam x

BM: From what you said earlier, you all kind of grew up round each other. What about the musical influences as kids growing up?

V: We’re all pretty fortunate to have been surrounded by musical families when we were younger and most of us remember our parents having a copy of an Oasis album or some other 90’s classic which kinda shows in our sound now. All of our parents are into different kinda music which reflects on all our tastes too.

BM: You’ve just finished a round of live dates. Which has been your favourite gig to date?

V: Probably supporting the Warlocks in Birmingham recently as we got to speak to Bobby and the rest of the band and had a sweet time playing the gig with them.

BM: How about the worst/weirdest gig to date?

V: There was a gig one time where the sound guy was eating takeaway noodles all soundcheck and during the set, and we had to bring our microphones to have enough. It was also on a tiny stage which was lovely for the 5 of us.

BM: Rumour has it that you spend quite a bit of time in the studio?

V: We love being in the studio as its a really nice state of mind to be in. Our studio method is always an exploration into the song and it’s a really fun process of being able to dissect the song and listen to every layer that we put in and change every element of it as we like. We love adding layers and layers of sound, which is one of the coolest parts of recreating it live.

BM: Must confess to have never been to a gig in Birmingham. If I was to make the trip, who would you have me look out for?

V: There are a bunch of cool bands from brum that are decent… Ivory Wave, Spilt Milk Society and Social Contract are worth listening to.

BM: Cool. And what about yourselves? What are the plans for the rest of the year?

V: We have a couple more gigs towards the end of the year. We’ll be writing some new songs, and pretty much every band cliche out there probably.

BM: Cheers. Thanks for your time.

V: Thank you for the interview x