INTERVIEW: HEY VIOLET

 
words/Erica Russell

photos / Eric T. White

The opening track of Hey Violet’s glittery album, From the Outside, features bubblegum-haired lead singer Rena Lovelis’ disembodied voice making a bizarre request. “Break my heart!” she shouts amid a flurry of hazy, sparkly synths, laying out the record’s reckless manifesto in three simple words. But while the band’s emotional sophomore studio album will split your bleeding heart right down the middle like a BFF necklace, it will also heal you, offering up a safe space to nurse your mortal hurt and heartache.  
Comprised of vocalist Lovelis, guitarist-keyboardist Miranda Miller, drummer Nia Lovelis, lead guitarist Casey Moreta and bassist Iain Shipp, the quintet craft electro-charged power pop that sits somewhere between Hayley Williams’ riotous emo pop-rock with Paramore and Halsey’s R&B infused Top 40 synth pop. Tackling relevant topics like mental health (“ODD”), fuckboys (“Fuqboi”), sex (“Brand New Moves,” “Like Lovers Do”) and feeling alone in the world (“Where Have You Been”), teens and Millennials alike can relate to the magnified drama and emotional, painful, hopeful themes found on the record.
Currently signed to 5 Seconds of Summer’s Hi or Hey Records, Hey Violet got their start in 2008 as the Los Angeles pop-punk band formerly known as Cherri Bomb. After changing their name and shuffling a handful of members, they released their debut EP, I Can Feel It, in 2015. The following year, the group ditched their original rollicking rock vibe for a poppier groove on 2016’s Brand New Moves. The EP was followed by neon-hued lead single “Guys My Age,” a hypnotic slice of sensual, attitude-laden synth pop, a breakout track which eventually found its way onto the band’s bop-filled 2017 album (released June 16).
During a break between touring, Lovelies opened up over the phone about writing much of the album during a crazy Palm Springs trip, the importance of finding solidarity with fans and why labels like “pop” and “rock” don’t necessarily matter when it comes to emotional songwriting.
How does the dynamic work with the band when it comes to the creative process?
Basically, if we go into a writing session it will be two of us that pair off and the other two will go into a separate writing session, just because with all of our opinions and our abilities, it gets to be too much in the writing session. We’ll just pair off and write. We’ll usually collaborate with a producer or another writer or another artist or something like that. And then, with the dynamic in the band, we’re all pretty crazy with each other in a good way. We all know how to laugh with each other and make fun of each other and stuff like that. On tour, we know how to give each other space, but we’re also best friends.
I’m enamored by how diverse the album sounds and how each song has a different energy and vibe. Which track was the most fun to write?
Probably “Hoodie.” Just kidding, we didn’t write that one. [Laughs] That was one of the only ones we didn’t write, and yet it’s my second favorite. But I would say one that I really like is… Nia and I went to this crazy writing session where we literally spent a week and a half in Palm Springs. We rented out a house and we and like, ten other writers or so went to this house and hashed out songs for a week and a half. Like, multiple songs a day. The writing was happening in every single room in the house, even in the kitchen. It was just amazing. I feel like the songs that came out of that were probably the most memorable. “Guys My Age” was written in that time. “Where Have You Been” was written in that time. “O.D.D.” and “What Lovers Do” was written then. So many of the album’s songs were written during that really amazing time.

I love that you guys got to have that free creative outlet to bond and learn different things.
I just remember it was right before last year at Coachella. It was just so amazing to be around all these creative spirits and it was really nice vibes and good people. Everyone was out smoking in the backyard, jumping into the pool. We would sneak out onto the golf course that was next door and play golf. One of the writers had us play golf and she was like, “I’m gonna teach you how to do it!” It was nice to be around all those nice people.
I was laughing when you mentioned “Hoodie” before. That song makes me feel sad in a way because it’s so relatable. It’s a nice moment on the album where I can be a little bit in my sadness if that makes sense.
Totally! I remember the first time that we heard that our executive producer showed it to us like, “Hey, we have this song, I wonder if you guys would be into it.” Immediately, when I heard it, I was like, I have to [have it]. The original vocal on it was a guy’s vocals. I thought I have to sing this. There’s no way that I’m not singing this. I think there’s that weird desperation in it. When I heard it, I was like, this makes me sad, but it makes me wanna rock out at the same time.


It reminds me a bit of Avril Lavigne’s “I’m With You.”
No way! I knew you were going to say that!
Yeah! That’s one of my all-time favorite songs. Not that it necessarily sounds like it, but it gives me that same feeling.
Yeah, totally.
One of the major themes on the album is being an outsider and that feeling of not belonging or trying to find where you fit in. I thought that was a really important theme to explore, especially since you guys have a lot of younger fans, too. With your growing fan base, have you found solidarity with other people who feel like they’re on the outside looking in?
Yeah, I mean, what’s interesting about our fans is that they have—as we all do—this flurry of emotions and feelings. What I really love is that our fans are so in touch with their emotions. I love that we can all go to these places of feeling and that we’re different and there’s something a little off about it in a really good way. We’re all a little bit left field, we’re a little too sarcastic, we like trying new things a little too much. I think that’s amazing.
I mean, same.
I really like that our fans embrace that about themselves. Even if sometimes they don’t, they can feel at times that it’s okay to be different. It’s okay to have a little weirdness in you. That’s what makes you unique, that’s what makes you different. That’s what makes you the person that you are. You have all these likes and dislikes and these emotions that make you a human being. It makes you original. Why be a copy of someone when you can be your own person?
I really feel like we connect to our fans in that way, but also in a way that… you do music to inspire people. It keeps us going. When we hear that someone picked up the bass because of us or someone started singing or started a band, that’s the reason why we do this. If our fans can have an outlet for their emotions, in any way shape or form, whether they wanna do something creative, whether they wanna be the next professional sportscar driver… as long as it makes them happy, we are gonna 100% support them in what they wanna do. That’s what it’s all about. Whether we’re outsiders or feeling the same crazy emotions, I’m just glad that we have such a good family.
I appreciate that you brought up how you can be more than one thing at once. That’s super reflective in the sound of the music. You guys started off with a really rock sound, now you’ve been exploring more of the pop side. It’s a cool fusion of a lot of different genres. How did that transition happen over the past couple of years? When did you realize that you found that musical sweet spot?
I think it was a gradual thing that was happening sonically. We knew where we wanted to go musically. We knew that we wanted some pop. We knew that we wanted to have these roots, indie pop, whatever. But other than that? We didn’t really know what we were doing in that aspect of things. We were so guitar driven and we still obviously have guitars in our album—that’s our foundation—but we really started relying on Miranda’s part in the band more. I feel like how we found that musical sweet spot is… Actually, I don’t know if we were ever like, “That’s it!” We just knew what we loved to hear. We knew what we wanted to listen to and we drew from that. We weren’t like, “We need a hit song.” We weren’t focused on that. We were just writing songs that were really true to us. We focused on how we were going to express how we felt rather than needing to write a certain song. We just needed to write it because we felt a certain way, not because we felt that we needed to write it for the sake of writing it. Does that make sense?
It does. It makes a lot of sense. Even taking the sound out of it, just the lyrics and the energy of each song comes across in a very specific way. When you put the music back on top of it, it’s still telling the same story no matter what.
Right. Exactly!
I also feel like your music is emotive and comes from a very narrative place, so it would be perfect to soundtrack a film or a TV show. That said, if you could place a song in any series or movie, which one would you choose?
Oh God, I’ve never been asked that question before! Oh my God, that’s a difficult question. I don’t know if this will make sense but I would die if we were on this one show. If our song was on Black Mirror—do you know that show?
I’m obsessed with Black Mirror! It fucks my head up, in a good way. But I feel like it could work. Every episode is so thematically different and trippy, that there would definitely be a way to make it fit perfectly!
Thank you! If we were on Black Mirror, I would probably have a heart attack and die and never be able to write another song. But I would die so happy.


 




 

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