EMQ’s With VIOLET BLEND
EMQ’s With VIOLET BLEND
Hi everyone! Welcome to another EMQs interview, this time with Italian Alternative Metal band, Violet Blend. Huge thanks to Vocalist, Giada, for taking part.
What is your name, what do you play and can you tell us a little bit about the history of the band?
Hi, my name is Giada Celeste Chelli, I sing, play the piano and write songs for Violet Blend. We’re an Italian alternative metal band, from Florence. We describe our music as a blend of different musical genres, forms and styles. We always try to paint a musical discourse of clear sonic eloquence with the right expressive power to describe and dissect feelings. We mix metal, rock, punk, progressive and classical forms which are part of our background and obviously reflect our tastes. We speak about fears, anxieties, broken dreams, aspirations, joys and hopes of our life. The band was formed at the end of 2014 by me and drummer Michel Agostini. At that time he was a session musician for my soloist project, my ex-producer introduced me to him. With time we began to understand the amazing chemistry between us and the great things we could do together, so we formed the band and started composing new songs. After a couple of years, Michel and I had to understand what we wanted to do with the band, and in 2017 Ferruccio joined us and that was the year when everything began and we started doing this job. We released two albums and some singles over the years. 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 mechanisms 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. We are currently working on a new album. I think that music is better than a thousand words about it, so go listen to it!
How did you come up with your band name?
We wanted to combine our origins and our passion for exploration in our name. Violet is the color that represents our city, Florence, Italy, our traditions and our background, the place we call home and that makes us feel safe. I’ve always had a particular sensitivity towards colors and shades. Color has the power to relax and calm me down, I can actually hear its vibrations and positive sounds that it emits. Blend suggests our need to go further, to go over the limits and the safe places, the pleasure of discovering new things, new sounds and blending concepts, styles, experiences, forms and genres in our music, the desire to be a person with a million different faces.
What Country / Region are you from and what is the Metal / Rock scene like there?
We’re from Florence, a very famous but also small city in central Italy. Known for culture and fine art, Florence was the birth-place of The Renaissance and opera, it was the stage of many cultural and musical movements until the 80’s, but now it just keeps the memory of it. The musical community is ironically lean and tight-knit, there are very few venues for live music and rockers. The 2020 pandemic didn’t help at all, many venues and rock pubs closed and we just got used to it. The metal and rock scene is alive despite everything, we all know each other and in the recent couple of years we saw many young people join the community, this is awesome.
What is your latest release? (Album, EP, Single, Video)
We recently released a new single called “My Head Is Broken” and it’s a collaboration with the American post-hardcore band Tired Violence. We’re very proud of it. The song speaks about all those moments when you felt wrong, unfit, so damaged that you can’t be fixed. When you feel empty, dizzy, confused, like you’re sleeping with your eyes open and you blame yourself for not being able to wake up. Sometimes I feel like a broken machine that no one is going to fix, and I wonder why I couldn’t just live my life and make normal things like everyone else does, it makes me believe there’s something broken inside me that causes things not to work out. There are days when I find myself staring into space, without the strength to be able to think, thoughts get confused and a sense of guilt crushes me, leaving me helpless. It’s like my head is broken, inside something breaks and can’t be fixed. Outside everything seems to be fine, because the deepest wounds are never visible on the surface. I’m so proud and honored to have been able to collaborate with such a great talented artist like Tired Violence. Tyler with his voice gave the song both suffering and rage to express the emotional and mental state of the song. He captured the sense of hopelessness of the song I wrote and translated it with his own style and language. The result is pure magic.
Who have been your greatest influences?
There is a kaleidoscopic world of genres, forms, styles and influences in my education and view of music. This background makes me mix and blend – sometimes unconsciously – lots of different styles. I can say that the base of our music is rock, but you can hear echoes of classical forms, jazz chords, metal riffs and punk attitudes. It combines different musical genres and unravels between them. I started with classical music, then went from gothic metal to grunge over the years. The drummer loves classic metal and art rock, and the bassist is into prog music. We arrange songs together, so all the different backgrounds and tastes of each member model the songs.
What first got you into music?
Italy has an incredible tradition of music, both classical and modern, every time you look around in our country you can find art in all of its forms. I raised in a family that loves art, my father painted and my mother drew and they listened to lots of music. I’ve always had an aptitude for music, since I was a child. My parents brought me to my first music school when I was three years old and I started studying musical theory, solfeggio and singing. After a couple of years I began to attend academic studies for saxophone (my first love and instrument), piano and singing. My family always encouraged me to pursue my passions and follow my dreams, so I did it. I graduated twice in two different fields of Disciplines of Music in two different colleges, one in Florence and one in Bologna. That was the academic part of my education, the love and the need of rock ‘n roll is grown beside and always took a great part of my studies and my life. I was lucky enough to study and play different genres in different situations, classical, jazz and rock, experiences that blend together in my life.
If you could collaborate with a current band or musician who would it be?
My dream would be to collaborate with Jack White. I have a kind of adoration for Jack White, I consider him a genius, every piece of his music is a rare gem. He has the ability to reinvent and evolve year after year and is an inexhaustible mine of ideas. I believe we could do something amazing together.
If you could play any festival in the world, which would you choose and why?
Festivals are unbelievable experiences and even the smallest ones have the ability to connect people and create unique memories. If I have to choose one in particular, I’d pick Download Festival, the line up is always a dream come true and it’d be amazing to join it.
What’s the weirdest gift you have ever received from a fan?
A blanket with a printed picture of me. I really enjoyed the gift, I keep it at home but I don’t use it, because I’m afraid to spoil it. A guy after a concert in Rome gave it to me and it was quite unusual. Who gives a blanket as a gift at a metal concert? This guy really surprised me!
If you had one message for your fans, what would it be?
We believe that music is one of the most important forms of union between people, it has the superpower to heal souls and turn strangers into friends. When people listen to our music I want them to feel understood, comforted and encouraged to face their demons. It’s like we’re saying “you’re not alone, we all have dark moments, but we have to find a way to live well”. This is what we’d like to say to our fans. I really hope that our music has helped people in some way, like it helps us everyday.
If you could bring one rock star back from the dead, who would it be?
Kurt Cobain, no doubt. I always separate the artist from the person, and as an artist I like to imagine him like a pure soul sunk in pain. He wrote such great songs in so little time on earth, imagine what he could have done if he hadn’t let the pain overwhelm him. Some artists get so under your skin that you start to believe that you know them deeply.
What do you enjoy the most about being a musician? And what do you hate?
My relationship with this work is strange, I love it with all my heart but at the same time I fear it and it causes me moments of suffering. 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. The artist gets naked in front of many strangers and waits for their reaction, it’s a kind of weird masochism inside each of us. You have to take the good and the bad and keep concentrating on what you are and where you want to go. I risked getting lost in the past, focusing too much on the negative comments and mean things people spit at you, it took me some time to find my center and process the bad moments. On the other hand this work gives you the opportunity to express yourself and to talk to people through your music and there is nothing more beautiful. It elevates communication to a higher level and it is the greatest satisfaction when you are listened to and understood.
If you could change one thing about the music industry, what would it be?
In the music industry, music is the least important thing there is, other things matter so much more, this is the first thing I’d change. We should go back to making content the center of the music business, rather than the cover. Attention spans are getting shorter and shorter these days, we live in a world where speed is the key to everything. We should get back in touch with reality and with beauty, we should get to know and listen to each other again, but this is obviously a broader discourse that does not only concern the music industry, but today’s society as a whole.
Name one of your all-time favourite albums?
I can name all the discography of Seether, my favorite band of all time. In their music I can find something for every possible emotion and state of mind, they have the ability to dissect feelings and reassemble them under a different light. The artist is the one who takes a simple concept and makes you look at it differently, from another perspective that you hadn’t thought of. And Seether do it with a million different shades. “Finding Beauty in Negative Spaces” by Seether is my favorite album, if I had to listen to one album all my life it would be that one.
What’s best? Vinyl, Cassettes, CD’s or Downloads?
My favorite music format is the CD. I love looking at the booklet, reading the lyrics, and admiring the cover. Buying a CD also means owning a copy of that music and having the freedom to listen to it whenever you want. I also have a turntable for playing vinyl and have a small vinyl collection, but if I have to choose I prefer CD. I think people are starting to appreciate tangible things again. This whole internet thing, the digital era, having everything at your fingertips, is an incredible resource and I’m grateful that I was born in this time of technological evolution. On the other hand we lack the concrete, the tangible, we lack contact with reality, we lack contact with people and this will always get worse. I think it’s for this reason that we are witnessing a sort of revival in all fields, certainly starting from music, people are returning to vinyl, to audio cassettes and stuff like that, in my opinion we’re trying to recover a real contact with ourselves, with people around us and with things around us.
What’s the best gig that you have played to date?
We have had the honor of sharing stages with so many great artists and playing spectacular venues throughout our career and choosing just one will be difficult. Among the most memorable experiences there is certainly the I-Days Festival in 2017, in support of Radiohead. It was one of our first dates and bassist Ferruccio had just joined the band, it was only his second concert with Violet Blend. We stood in front of 65,000 people and were terrified and thrilled at the same time. It was also the moment we decided to invest everything in the band and that we would make it together.
If you weren’t a musician, what else would you be doing?
I would probably run a live music venue and organize events. This is what I was doing before I gave up everything to work full time with Violet Blend. Music is the spice of my life, so I’d still work in this industry one way or another.
Which five people would you invite to a dinner party?
I would invite a painter, a poet, a sculptor, a dancer and a filmmaker to dinner. Imagine what a wonderful conversation we could have, all the arts together. I don’t know any poets or sculptors, sooner or later I hope to meet them and bring all these artistic minds together at the same table.
What’s next for the band?
We’re writing new songs now and we’re taking the time to record the new album in the studio. We always write loads of songs, pre-produce them and then we decide which ones to keep. There’s a plan for a new album. We already have an idea about the theme and the sound of the new record, because our albums always have a common thread to follow and a general meaning. It will speak about hallucination, addiction, bad influences, redemption, atonement and self-indulgence. We’ll also be back on tour soon, we can’t wait to get back to the UK after a long time. We’re planning a lot of new things, including a couple of new songs to be released as singles in the next months before the new album, and also some new collaborations with other bands and artists. We’re very excited about this, you will see!
What Social Media / Website links do you use to get your music out to people?We are everywhere!
Sounds like a threat. You just have to type the two magic words Violet Blend and we will appear. Here is a list of links:
Website: http://www.violetblend.it
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/violetblend/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/violetblend/
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1CKILvBNg7lmo6LJUvjzX6?si=FjDckaI3Qu2gSx95Jd1LTQ
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/VioletBlend
Twitter: https://twitter.com/VioletBlend
Time for a very British question now. As an alternative to the humble sandwich, is the correct name for a round piece of bread common in the UK either a Bap, a Barm (or Barm Cake), a Batch, a Bun, a Cob, a Muffin, a Roll or a Tea Cake?
This is the hardest question I’ve ever had and I’m totally terrified of answering wrong. My British friends will kill me, I know, but please remember that I’m Italian! I think, but maybe I’m wrong, that “Bap”, “Cob” and “Barm” mean the same thing in British slang, that is a bread roll. This is the best I could do. Don’t leave me hanging, please let me know which is the right answer 🙂
Thank you for your time. Is there anything else that you would like to add?
Thank you very much for having me, I had so much fun! Greetings from Italy!
Giada Celeste Chelli
Disclaimer: This interview is solely the property of Ever Metal. It is strictly forbidden to copy any part of this review, unless you have the strict permission of both parties. Failure to adhere to this will be treated as plagiarism and will be reported to the relevant authorities.
