We caught up with Jonny, Charlie, Sam and Liam from up and coming Small Town Records band Violet after a more than successful set on the main stage at Hit The Deck…
HTF: How did your set go earlier?
It was incredible. Absolutely amazing. We couldn’t see floor space anywhere. There was a kid who had ‘Violet’ written all over him and our logo on his neck.
HTF: You’re a hard band to Google. Tell us about yourselves…
We started in August 2007 and originally it was just four of us. Then we thought we’d build the group up with our friend Joe who a couple of us went to college with and we just sort of added members as time went on really. We’ve been told we have a pretty big sound!
HTF: What have you got coming up after this?
Just a couple of gigs here and there. We’re touring at the end of May which should be pretty cool, with Attention Thieves and Stars of the Search Party. We’ve got a tour to announce in June and July but we can’t really say what it is yet as it hasn’t been announced. We’re support and it’ll definitely be the best tour we’ve ever done. It’s around the UK, and there’s a date in Paris too.
We’re looking to do some European dates with a band called Campus who are on Small Town Records too. We played with them last night, but we clashed with them today so we couldn’t catch them unfortunately. They’re amazing guys, so nice.
HTF: Your new EP, ‘The Brightside’, has just come out. How’s it going down?
Pretty well. We released it quite awhile ago but Small Town Records have helped us re-release it. We’ve got three bonus tracks on top of the original tracks. There’s only 200 limited edition CDs available though so they’re going pretty quick. The show today was great because a lot of kids in the crowd seemed to react well and sing along to the songs, so it seems like people have got it.
A lot of people were singing along with the singles, especially ‘The Brightside’, which we just released a video for a couple of weeks ago. Sam actually did the video himself. We’ve had a good reaction from it. We’ve definitely been picking up a lot of positive vibes.
HTF: What’s your main aim within the band?
World domination! We just want to tour everywhere and record everything. We want to be able to make this full time really, so we don’t need to do other jobs. Small Town Records have really been behind us, and they’ve helped us out so much. Originally we got added to Hit The Deck when we were still unsigned, and then to be put on the main stage was a massive thing for us because we never expected it. We’re from Derby so we’ve been coming to gigs here for years, and to finally play where we’ve seen so many of our idols is amazing.
HTF: Who are you aiming to see today at Hit The Deck?
Deaf Havana, While She Sleeps, Mallory Knox, Of Mice And Men and some others. We just saw Shadows Chasing Ghosts: they were crazy. We wanted to see Campus but they clashed with us so we couldn’t see them. The problem with festivals is there’s just too many bands playing at once.
HTF: Where can people check your new video out?
You can check out our new video for ‘The Brightside’ on Blank TV on Youtube. We have an older video for ‘Perspectives’ as well. We hope you like them!
Interviewer: Lais MW
