A Q&A with Violet Blend
Italian alt-metal, here’s singer Giada from Violet Blend…
What’s the title of your latest release, and what does it mean to you?
We’ve just released a new album called Live and True and we’re very happy about it. It’s a live album, our first one and contains a full concert that we performed here in Italy in 2022. The concert has always been one of the fundamental experiences and part of our work, an important piece to fully understand our music. During the performance, a deep connection is created with the audience and a synergy that cannot be reproduced in the recording studio. For this reason we decided to release a live album, to share this experience with all our fans around the world. The album includes many of the songs from the Demons album and some from our debut album White Mask, 17 songs in total. The performance is real and we wanted to leave it as raw as possible. Live and True is exactly the mirror of how we present ourselves to the public on stage. It is an important step forward for us and we are proud of it.
What was the hardest part about putting this release together, and why?
It wasn’t something really planned, I mean when we performed that concert we didn’t have any idea of releasing it as a live album. Our sound engineer Andrea Dell’Olio records almost all of our shows, just to know how things went, to listen to them and then adjust the performance. We always want to improve our performance and ourselves too, concert recordings help us a lot in this sense. After an interview with an American radio station, we realized that many of our fans around the world hadn’t seen us live yet so we started thinking about releasing one of our live performances as an album, that’s how things went. The mixing phase was a bit of a challenge for us, it was the first time we worked with material recorded live, the approach method is completely different from the studio. The performance is final and you can’t do much about it, you can’t fix mistakes or flaws like in the recording studio. To tell the truth, I even got a couple of words wrong on some songs and the songs will come out with those mistakes. Fortunately, our sound engineer always takes care of our live performances down to the smallest details and for this reason, the mix turned out to be less complicated than we expected.
Who produced the release – what did they bring to it?
We have been lucky enough to work with great professionals and producers over these years who have taught us a lot, the last one we worked with is Alessandro Del Vecchio (L.A. Guns, Nanowar of Steel, Hardline), but usually this translates more in a collaboration that is a real production. I take care of the production of all our music, when I write I build a precise idea of the song in all its aspects and I like to respect that project. I graduated in production and sound engineering, I have studied studio production a lot in recent years. Of course, in regards of recording, mixing and mastering, we rely on professionals, and we are always attentive to the advice and solutions that they propose to us, but I take care of the final decisions and the production intended as the processing and finalization of the music.
What do you want the listener to take away from listening to your music?
When people listen to our music I want them to feel understood and know that they’re not alone, we all have dark moments, but we have to find a way to face the problems and overcome the obstacles. We talk about fears, anxieties, broken dreams, aspirations, joys and hopes of our life in our music. We also talk about the importance to stand and react against everything that hurts us. Music brings people together in a profound way and can give the strength to carry on in the darkest moments. I strongly believe in the healing power of music, it has saved me many times. Our greatest satisfaction is when a person tells us that one of our songs has helped them overcome a difficult moment in their life. It’s a wonderful feeling to have confirmation that what you’re doing helps someone feel better.
How does a track normally come together? Can you tell us something about the process?
I write almost all of my songs in one go, I sit at the piano and then words and notes come naturally in relation to my mood, the feelings I’m experiencing at that moment and the thoughts I’ve in mind. To write music it’s like an atonement, I feel immediately better, it cures me. I try to speak honestly in my songs, to be real and true, both in the music and in the lyrics, that’s the real me without any mask to protect me. This is the most important thing when I write a song, to be authentic and tell things for what they are. Then the process is a bit complicated, first, we go to the rehearsal room and adapt the parts to the instruments and to the tastes of each member, we fix it and give it a shape. Then I pre-produce the song in my home studio, we record the first draft. This is the hardest part because I change my mind a thousand times, but it’s also the funnier for me because I can play a lot with sounds and ideas. When the song is pre-produced we enter the studio and record it with the sound engineer. I often happen to change things at the last time, you never know when the inspiration will strike, but I need to be happy with every single detail of every songs.
What band/artists have influenced you the most since you started this project, and why?
I listen to everything and I’m influenced by everything. My music has been influenced by so many bands and artists along the way that it’s hard for me to name just a few. I have two college degrees in musicology, I’ve studied different instruments (saxophone, piano, guitar) and different genres, I’ve been playing classical music since I was a kid and this resonates when I write songs. I was lucky enough to study and play different genres in different situations, classical, jazz and rock, experiences that blend together in my life. Every time I listen to music I learn a new technique, a new way of communicating and I translate it according to my sensitivity. If I had to point out some artists in particular who have had a great impact on me I would say Hole, Edgard Varèse, Frank Zappa, Seether, White Stripes, HIM, Linkin Park, The Smiths, Amy Winehouse, Placebo and The Libertines. But these are just a few examples, I have been listening and studying music all my life, the list is very long.
What countries would you like to tour? Are there any standout venues you’d like to play in?
We’re looking forward to going back on tour in the UK, we’re planning some dates for 2024. We’ve been there twice on tour and it was amazing, we’re very excited to perform again in the UK. A long-cherished dream is to tour in Latin America and meet all of our supporters there. We were planning it in 2020 but the pandemic stopped us, then things got more complicated and we still didn’t make it.
If you could pick one track for our readers to listen to in order to get a taste of your music, what would you pick, and why?
This is a very hard question because even if we have a defined sound that describes our music, we change our face and style in each song. Our songs describe moments of life, feelings and emotions we’re experiencing while we’re writing them, and I have a strange relationship with the songs I write because they remind me of dark moments of my life. You need a particular state of mind to understand and appreciate our songs. If you feel blue, confused, like you’re sleeping with your eyes open then listen to “My Head Is Broken”, it is about all those moments when you felt wrong, unfit, so damaged that you can’t be fixed. The song embraces feeling numb and the fear of being happy speaks about all those days when I find myself staring into space, without the strength to be able to think, when thoughts get confused. If you need a push to make things right and you’re fighting with your fears then listen to “Voices In My Head”, it’s an inner conversation that describes the perpetual situation of anxiety that stagnates in my mind. The song talks about insecurity, fear and the doubt of not being up to it. It’s a furious urge, a violent need to free yourself from all those mental chains and thoughts that prevent you from living freely. If you’re happy and just want to have fun then listen to “Rock DJ”, the song is a carefree dream where music appears only as a fun, free from the constraints of the music business.
What ambitions do you have for the band/your career?
I would like to see Violet Blend united as they are now in the future, we consider the band as a second family and I think it’s the most important thing to keep over time. Friendship, brotherhood and the common goals that unite us are the core values that I would like to see always vivid over time. When you have a shared vision of life and the purpose of your work, you can face any obstacle and nothing can stop you. I hope to retain the joy and satisfaction I feel in writing music and performing on stage, and I hope to continue to enrich myself intellectually as an artist and as a person. I also hope to continue to grow as a band, hit bigger and bigger stages, reach as many eyes and ears as possible with our songs and keep the spark of authenticity in our music.
Finally, as you leave the stage, what are your parting words?
We usually do a special finale for the shows, we present each member of the band, do a short solo for each instrument, thank everyone who participated and organized the event, and invite people to meet us at the merch table to have a chat. It’s always great when it’s possible to meet and know people who listen to your music and attend concerts. I usually also take some time on stage to talk about our project “La Donna Mobile – Campaign against gender discrimination and violence” and I invite people to visit our site and reflect about gender discrimination, it’s a very important topic for us and every occasion is a good one to make people think about it.
Listen to Violet Blend on Spotify
