A solo artist for you today, the trans-Atlantic Fox Violet!
Simple things first – where are you from?
I’m from London, but I live in sunny Los Angeles.
How long have you been playing?
I’ve been playing and writing for 8 years, singing since a child.
Before you get sick of being asked… where does the band name come from?
Fox Violet is a word that I want to stand for the unconscious, the sleep life that we lead. It’s about running through forests at night, drunk on dreams.
What are your influences?
Life itself! I try to just allow myself to really feel things as I feel them without judgement. The way in which I think is mostly all visual and I tend to remember events based on a visual story line that is mixed in with some fantasy. I then work to pull that fantasist out bit by bit into a song. I am really inspired by visceral colors all blended together in a prism and the subtlety of life.
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
I just want to be both direct and yet not at the same time. I would love for people to feel a sense of intimacy at the same time as feeling an abstract experience. I am pretty obsessed with soundscapes and tension and how they play out together in some kind of dance. I hope that comes across in the music. It’s an endless journey to work on it.
Do you have any particular lyrical themes?
Yes, an obsession with the sleep world, the subconscious, mixed in with some fairy tale and old folk tale elements. I spent a lot of time in the Scottish mountains as a kid and the vastness of the landscape mixed in with the fierceness of it had an impact on me definitely. As does isolation. I think a lot of my songs stem from a point of isolation on looking out at the world from a far off vantage point, like looking through a microscope of some kind back at yourself. I would say that melancholy and its influence on nostalgia runs as a concurrent theme in everything I do.
What’s your live show like? How many shows have you played?
At this point I have played too many shows to count. The live experience (pre-social distancing) was energetic, with a full loud band. I would say it is more angst driven whilst the recordings are more intimate.
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
This isn’t really wild, but I adore the music artist Patrick Watson. His live show crosses so many boundaries, he has an intense and amazing light show that truly elevates you into another world. I love projections and create a projection for all the shows I do, or try to, this has periodically been played on my wedding dress which I used to wear to perform in. I do want love to provide an element of performance art to the live experience.
What kit do you use / guitars do you play / etc.?
Some dope pedal boards on live guitar and some fuzz too. Everything is live and in the moment.
What are your plans for 2020?
To write and record as much as possible include writing with and for other artists. I really want to push myself to write in multiple genres and disrupt my normal musical order of things. I need to challenge my thought processes as this also usually triggers some new sounds that turn into songs over time.
If you were second on a three-band bill, which band would you love to be supporting and which band would you choose to open for you? A chance to plug someone you’ve toured with, or a mate’s band we’ve not heard of before!
Lana Del Rey, Phantogram, Daughter or Radiohead would be dream bands to open for I don’t think any of them would be in support of me, though!
