ARTIST SPOTLIGHT - VIOLET BLEND

Violet Blend, I'm Music Magazine, Eclipse Records — Photo Credit: Angelo Mura

Artist Spotlight is a segment that we started to introduce our listeners to some deserving up and coming artists/bands. They have made an impact on us for all of the right reasons. We think they kick ass and we hope you do too! Today we’d like to shine the spotlight on Violet Blend.

Violet Blend are an Italian alternative metal band, featuring extraordinary vocals, rich sonic power, and unbridled energy. Founded in 2014, Giada Celeste Chelli (vocals and piano) was joined by Michel Agostini (drums), and next, Ferruccio Baroni (bass), in Florence, Italy. Known for culture and fine art, many believe this city was the birthplace of The Renaissance, and while famously populated, its musical community is ironically lean and tight-knit. Therefore, it is not surprising that these four talented musicians knew each other long before the release of their debut album White Mask, which received high praise from audiences and critics, both locally and abroad.

In terms of touring, Violet Blend has opened for renowned bands such as Radiohead, Garbage, Palaye Royale, Chris Slade (AC/DC), Vinnie Moore (Alice Cooper), Starcrawler, Eva Poles (Prozac+), and Rezophonic (Mario Riso, Cristina Scabbia). Moreover, the band has won several awards, including Band Revelation of 2019 from the F.I.P.I. – International Intellectual Property Federation, #togetherforthemusic 2020 of Elio e le Storie Tese, Trio Medusa, Cesvi and Radio Deejay, and the Et Music Prize at Sanremo Rock 2019.

This kind of meteoric rise to celebrity is often launched by some sort of scholastic acclaim, and it is interesting to note that band members of Violet Blend earned degrees, or have been named members of the faculty, at some of the most prestigious institutions in Italy. As for the music more specifically, Violet Blend do not simply write and perform “ catchy songs,” but rather, they make haunting and glorious musical portraits that personify beauty, discontent, passion, and rage. The debut album White Mask exposed the fallacy of using social media to represent “the self,” and the sophomore record, Demons, continues the journey by moving the focus to the more personal, internal mechanism we use to make our own tragic masks. We do this to represent ourselves favorably to others, as our fragile, raw truths remain fatally hidden. Still, the glory is in the crucial moment we decide to unveil. Not for others, but for us. For the sake of the soul.

We sat down with Violet Blend for a short, but fun and interesting Q&A!

Every superhero or villain has an origin and a band is no different minus the radioactive spiders and secret government experiments. What is the origin of Violet Blend?

I’m afraid we don’t have as intriguing story as secret government experiments, but I hope it’ll be good the same. The band was formed by me and drummer Michel Agostini in Florence, Italy. At that time he was a session musician for my solo project, my ex producer introduced me to him, because I needed a full band for the tour. Since the beginning it was clear that there was an amazing chemistry between us and so we decided to form the band and immediately started composing new songs. After some time the bassist Ferruccio Baroni joined the band, and then it was our manager Lorenzo Fedi to join us, that was the time we decided to devote ourselves completely to the band. Actually we all knew each other by sight some time, because we all live in Florence and despite its fame, it’s a small city with a little rock and metal scene. The journey has been great so far, sometimes hard, there’s a lot of work behind a band, behind all things in music business, we’ve done millions of kilometers all around Europe, played thousands of shows, known many bands and artists from all over the world, worked hard in the studio and in the rehearsal room, but it was and it is worth it. When you work with your second family, with people you call brothers the journey is awesome, we have so much fun.

Band names can have a meaning or it can be a name pulled out of a hat. What’s the story behind Violet Blend?

The name Violet Blend combines our origins and our passion for exploration. Violet is the color that represents our city, Florence, Italy, our traditions and our background, our safe place, our home. I’ve always had a particularly sensitivity towards colors and shades, that color has the power to relax and calm me down and inspire me. Blend suggests our need to go further and what we like to do with our music by mixing things up. It’s our wish to go over the limits and safe places, the pleasure to discover new things, new sounds and blending concepts, styles, experiences, forms and genres in our music, the desire to be a person with million different faces.

What are you currently working on?

We’re writing new songs now and we’re taking the time to record the new album in the studio. It’s a long process because we always write loads of songs and I’m never satisfied with any of it, so I pre-produce them all and then we decide which ones to keep and which ones to put a part. We used to tour and write new stuff at the same time, but it was very stressful and so we decided to take just few dates only around Italy in this period and concentrate on writing new songs. There’s a plan for a new album, we already have an idea about the theme and the sound of the new record, but I’m still trying to fully figure it out. Our albums have always a common thread to follow and a general meaning, this new album will speak about hallucination, addiction, bad influences, redemption, atonement and self-indulgence. We’ll be back on tour soon too, we can’t wait to get back to the UK after a long time. We’re planning a lot of new things, including some new collaborations with other bands and artists. We’re very excited about this, you will see!

What was the first CD/album that you bought and what was your most recent CD/album purchase?

I’m lucky enough to have always had CDs and vinyls in my house, my father has been collecting them for a long time. I started listening to music thanks to his collection which mainly includes vinyl, a very large collection ranging from Elvis to Black Sabbath, from Pink Floyd to Queen. Having all this music available, I learned from an early age to look for new artists and not to settle for what was on the radio. I think I was 8 when I bought my first CD, I had heard a song on MTV that really got me excited and I wanted to know more about that fascinating band. The song was ‘Scar Tissue’, the album was “Californication” by Red Hot Chili Peppers. One of the latest album I bought is “Typhoons” by Royal Blood, it’s a band that I’ve been enjoying only in the last few years, I’m still discovering them.

What are your 5 favorite albums?

When they ask me these questions I imagine having to choose something to listen to forever, as if the world ends and you only have to save 5 albums that you will be forced to listen to for the rest of your life. Choosing an album means that I have to like the whole album, not just a couple of songs, that the sound of that band has to excite me even after many years and many listens. Here are my picks:

Seether – Finding Beauty in Negative Spaces

The Servant – The Servant

Him – Venus Doom

The White Stripes – Icky Thump

The Libertines – Up The Bracket