PREVIEWS
FUTURE SOUND Our column celebrating music to watch continues with Blue Violet. The pair tell Fiona Shepherd about overcoming stage fright and developing a new sound
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nglo-Scottish spousal duo Blue V iolet chose their name as a celebration of contrasts (‘blue as in melancholy and violet as a warm vibrant colour,’ says guitarist am otley) which is reflected in their bittersweet music, as well as their environment. The couple are based between the urban sprawl of L ondon and the rural beauty of L och Awe in Argyll, where singer Sarah’s family live and where they’ve spent much of the last two years. ‘We got the best of both worlds: middle of nowhere, middle of the city,’ says Sarah while Sam adds: ‘some people really like the hustle and bustle of the city. I like being in a quiet space so it’s great for that. And loud guitars! ’ The Blue V iolet dream-pop sound is at the gentler end of the spectrum but grew from their previous incarnation as roots band Broken Bones Matilda. P rior to that, Sam was in a rock band while Sarah, an able singer from her youth, could only watch supportively from the sidelines, stymied by stage fright. Her live-performance epiphany came while Sam’s group were touring the US and she jumped on stage in a dingy New Orleans dive. ‘There was nobody in the audience and there was a washing machine in the corner of the room and no door on the toilet,’ she recalls. ‘I don’t know what it was about this place but I thought, “this is my moment”. I always had this vision of being onstage as being under scrutiny, but actually when I stood up there I felt this freedom. It was the opposite of what I expected.’
Blue V iolet launched during the pandemic with a couple of online covers, a smoky French language version of the Everly Brothers’ ‘All I Have To Do Is Dream’ and Edwyn Collins’ ‘A Girl L ike You’, and an online tour hosted on the Instagram feeds of various craft breweries. ‘They sent us a lot of beer,’ notes Sam with gratitude. By this point, the duo were sitting on a brand new album, Late N ight Calls, recorded in autumn 2019 with P J Harvey coconspirator R ob Ellis, which was different to anything they had made as Broken Bones Matilda. A name change seemed in order to reflect the move away from strictly roots music into llis’ more esoteric territory. ‘ e ust ignited this thing in us,’ says arah. ‘It definitely brought a lot of his style into what we were doing, so it went from that quite traditional Americana thing to being a bit more on the alternative side with more synth sounds. We wanted to bring in some of our influences from growing up in the s early 2000s, the grunge and shoegazey stuff. We also discovered a theme going through it as we were making the album, which is positivity coming out of darkness; ironic that we recorded it before covid. Now we just want to enjoy having this album out. We can’t believe it’s actually happening.’ Blue Violet play Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh, Monday 9 May; King Tut’s, Glasgow, Tuesday 10 May; Late Night Calls is out now on Me & My Records.
May 2022 THE LIST 41