FOX VIOLET
Interview conducted July 20, 2021
By Dan Locke
Fox Violet Photo (credit: Anna Azarov)
London-born, LA-based dreamy, alt rock act, Fox Violet, who blends ambient ethereal vibes with dark pop rock hooks and soulful vocals that pack a dissonant punch on her new single, “Long Way Down” (out 8/6/21) from the forthcoming EP Prisms, due out this Fall. Landing high praise from LA Weekly, Buzz Music, Blurred Culture, Yorking Calling, and more, she has also received radio play in the USA, UK and Australia as a buzz band to watch. Heavily influenced by Radiohead, Nirvana, Lana Del Rey, Leonard Cohen, and Pink Floyd, Fox Violet’s lyrics examine the gradual loss of relationships intermixed with apathy, heart break, longing, and the cultural obsession with fairy tales. With soaring layered psychedelic guitars and crunchy synths Fox Violet crafts bold stories that are other-worldly, relatable and raw.
You are a London born, LA based artist. What is your upbringing?
I grew up in London but also spent a great deal of time in Scotland, where I have ancestral history. I grew up falling into rivers, hiking in the Scottish mountains, and running around in the woods and fields behind my parents’ house. I was definitely not only a tomboy but just loved rambling around.
How did you discover music?
It came about through many different ways, not just one. I in fact was always afraid of singing actually but definitely had a deep love and passion for music, and just remembering listening to this insanely talented rock band in the UK when I was a teenager and thinking what the hell, that band was Skunk Anansie.
Their music taught me that you can be both fragile and fierce in your songs, you can yell and also whisper, you can be everything at once and you don’t need to confirm. You don’t need to apologize. It left an indelible mark on me. Up until that time, I had only been playing the flute, and that wasn’t doing it for me. I remember having the same feeling about PJ Harvey when I first discovered her music. It blew me away from the ferociousness of it combined with the delicateness. I’m constantly chasing these two things.
How did you start to write music?
I always wrote poems and stories from a very young child, and when I would show them to my mother she often wouldn’t understand them as they were super abstract. I started writing music after a series of personal traumatic events.
Singing came up as a way to help me control my breath, and I just found that when I have sung it changed the way I felt inside almost immediately. The magic of that has never left me.
How did you get your first guitar, and do you still have it?
I borrowed it actually and I still have it! I love knowing that a guitar has been used by others and has gone on a journey.
What is your guitar of choice now? Year, make and model? And does she have a name?
I use a Gibson acoustic to write everything on, then I’ll switch it up to an electric Fender live. no name but just deep gratitude for what they can both do.
How did your project form?
Fox Violet came about because I wanted to create an ambient project that had some roots in folk and ambiguity. I wanted the instrumentation to be pushed as far as possible, and to create sound scape music that was raw and dramatic but still ethereal.
How did you get your project’s name?
Fox Violet is a combination of fierce (in the fox) and delicate (violet), but I also love that a fox is nocturnal and violet is in fact a color found in our aura.
Describe your music.
Dream grunge rock. Lots of crunchy guitars and ethereal tones. I like to tell heartfelt stories inspired by dream sequences and memory intermixed with fantasy.
What was your first performance at like?
It’s been amazing! It was a stripped-back two guitars set up in a bar to a room full of strangers but I loved it!
Royalties never appear like magic. Royalties are only sent to you through work undertaken by a PRO to ensure that their members are getting paid. If you’re not yet signed up to a Performing Right Organization like ASCAP, BMI or SESAC, you may not be receiving all the royalties you deserve.
Do you belong to any to songwriters’ organizations like the International singer songwriter association, SESAC, BMI or ASCAP?
BMI yes.
What makes a good songwriter?
Passion, and honesty. I really believe that when someone speaks from the soul everyone can and will hear it. It’s really about re-connecting with yourself first and foremost, before you embark on writing anything.
What was the title of your first original song? Did you record it?
The bliss! Yes! This song was about the blissful state between sleeping and waking when everything seems perfect and yet surreal, it is another topic I am fascinated in.
What is the process of writing your music?
I don’t have a one size fits all, the only thing key to what I am making is trying to feel it as much as possible, its iOS the feeling that leads me to let the words speak for themselves. I can’t write if I’m not feeling the tug. It’s a tug of war but I respect that.
Tell me the backstory of your song “Godchild”?
Godchild is all about being re-born and also deeply embedding yourself in a make-believe world where you can be a God for a day, only to realize that being a God isn’t perfect and that everything is make-believe. I’m not religious but I am fascinated by the symbolism of Greek gods and these strange beings that in literature we think can do anything.
Tell me about your forthcoming EP “Prisms”, which is due out this Fall?
Prisms is a journey into my subconscious, it is a process of unraveling the huge ball of yarn where I keep my perception of relationships locked up. Each song is a stop on this train unlocking a new fear, a new daydream of events. It’s neither bad nor good, more like viewing something from the outside.
Tell me about your new single “Long Way Day”, which drops on Aug. 6, 2021?
I wanted to tell this story of being suspended in a relationship where everything morphs and feels like it is far away and far below you, you are isolated above the clouds looking at life happening to those around you but you can’t participate with it yet. I guess it sounds like a form of de-personalization.
What is your favorite track on your album?
We hurt. It’s a simple piano ballad and was a unique experience recording this. I wanted to provide something that was raw and without a filter.
What are your feelings about streaming music?
I love it for some reason, I love this immediacy which I never had as a kid, it is an amazing way to discover new artists, new songs, but think streaming services should pay more as a whole to artists. There needs to be developed in this area.
Digital vs. vinyl?
Digital for immediacy, vinyl for substance.
What song from the past is in your mind right now? Moreover, what is the meaning that song means to you?
Freak is all about feeling like you won’t get to heaven. I wrote this when I was pretty low and I just always will side with the outsider, so it is not only a cry from me it’s a cry to others to unite us, all the outsiders who like me feel this way sometimes. Again, it isn’t religious but more a reflection on identity/chaos.
How was it, once you heard that you were one of the Top 25 track on Valley FM89.5 in Australia for your song “Trenches”?
Oh, I was so excited and elated that people that far away could be listening to my songs!
If “Video Killed the Radio Star” do you think that the Covid-19 virus has killed live music? Do you feel the Covid-19 virus going to affect the music business in the future?
Sadly yes, venues shut and it’s hard to move forwards still with booking shows. It has impacted me personally but also everyone I know on both sides. I adore live music and I adore playing live shows so I am fighting for it to recover and will do whatever I can to play too, safety though of course.
Do you think that Covid-19 has been a plus to an artist career?
Yes and no. I think it has pushed us to become more resourceful, to think outside the box, to reflect on what you really want. It is a time of great difficulty but it is also, a time of re-invention.
What have you been doing with your self-quarantine?
Writing this album, and just trying to keep close to my loved ones virtually or however, I can. It’s been like everyone a process of survival.
Why is your favorite photographer Francesca Stern Woodman?
She is someone who really embodies the way I see the world. When I look at her work I feel it is me, I feel her spirit and her immediacy. There is this physical connection I have with everything she did and why she did it. I am a very visual person and studied photography in art school, and also an artist so this part of my life is so important.
Is that the reason why your first videos were in black and white?
Absolutely, I’m obsessed with her, but also, I am obsessing with form, light and shadow. The intensity of emotion you get when you take away color is fascinating.
How do you stay healthy during the lockdown?
Mediation, and cuddling my cat Pip.
Have you discovered or rediscovered any new hobbies?
I re-started painting and it has been great, I’m writing a script, and planning new photographic series.
Many artists are doing nightly concerts over either YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. In October that is going to change at least on Facebook.
Facebook is cracking down on live-streamed shows that include recorded music with new terms of service, preventing artists from using the platform for “Commercial or non-personal” purposes, unless they have obtained the relevantlicenses.
The updated music guidelines state that users “may not use videos on our products [which include Instagram] to create a music listening experience [ …]
This will include [Facebook] Live,” and stipulates that such content should beposted for the enjoyment of friends and family only.
How do you think this will change the landscape of Facebook and YouTube?
This is the first time I am hearing of this and I think that really sucks. Artists have had so much taken away from them this past year they should have the freedom to be able to post videos however they want to.
How can bands keep their fans if they cannot play live in front of the fans and sell merchandise to them at the show?
Streaming and doing videos that are prerecorded are a great way to connect.
Is pay to play still a thing? Now pay to play also means things like playlist on the internet and opening slots for a major band on tour.
I believe so, but I will 100% say no to any pay to play it really is against the way I see things.
What about Holographic concerts in our living room?
That sounds amazing!
In the past if a musician stops doing music, they find a new career. For example David Lee Roth from Van Halen became a licensed EMT in NY for 6 years, San Spitz (guitarist for Anthrax) became a master watchmaker, Dee Snider (Twister Sister) voice over work for Sponge Bob SquarePants. If you can’t do music what would you like to be doing?
Art of any kind, probably huge photographic installations and making films. I actually, do intend to make short films and have made them previously.
What is your happy place?
Making and creating, but also being in nature and with loved ones.
Red Hot Chili Peppers are about to sell their entire song catalog for $140 Million.
In the past year a lot of musicians such as Stevie Nicks ($100 Million), Bob Dylan (over $400 Million), Taylor Swift, Journey, Def Leppard, K.T. Tunstall, and Shakira have sold their catalog rights within the last year. Bob Dylan sold his entire catalog for a reported $300 million. Neil Young song 50 percent of his worldwide copyright and income interest in his 1, 180 song catalogues to Hipnosis Songs Fund limited. Once you get to the age of about 70. Publishing is far more lucrative than the mechanical royalties paid to artist based on sales, airplay and streams. A good example of this is Michael Jackson brought the rights to the Beatles catalog in 1985. And in the late 80’s the Beatles Revolution appeared in a Nike commercial.
The lump sums being offered by publishing firms are more tax friendly concerning estate planning.
Someone who was totally against selling his rights was David Crosby. He did not want to sell his publishing rights. And it was not an easy thing for him to do. But by making a deal with Irving Azoff’s Iconic Artists Group, it took a big weight off of his shoulders. He could pay off his house and cover other bills. And now he doesn’t have to work for a living. It should be noted that David is battling tendinitis in his hands which hurts his ability to play guitar.
Do you think you would be willing to sale your back catalog if someone like?
Great question. I feel that my songs are so personal to me I couldn’t just give them away like that I hope to believe there could be some form of negotiation.
You scored at the end of the year of Spotify 20.1 K Streams
527 hours
14.2 K listeners
72 countries
Spotify’s ‘Stream On’ event on (February 22), the company confirmed that more than 60,000 new tracks are now being ingested by its platform every single day.This means people are added new tracks uploaded to its platform every 1.4seconds.
The figure, announced by Spotify’s Co-Head of Music, Jeremy Erlich, means that across the course of this year, approximately 22 million tracks will be added to Spotify’s catalog. Spotify confirmed in November last year that its platform now played host to around 70 million tracks.
Therefore, it’s reasonable to assume that, by the end of 2021, SPOT will be home to over 90 million tracks. And that in the early part of next year, it will surpass a catalog of 100 million for the first time.
But still back at the beginning of the year Spotify deleted 750,00 songs, mostly from independent artists. What do you think what that could mean to independent artist?
They usually only delete tracks only if they have been involved with bots. I don’t think it is a bad thing to try to keep the platform more quality over quantity but it is still confusing and concerning
Over half a billion active users around the world share their favorite music on TikTok either with something like a dance challenges and lip-sync videos or
creating a funny skit or candid camera moment.TikTok has become a great platform for music promotion, sharing songs, and finding new listeners. In which it has become a place for music artist to earn revenue when people use their music. Which in many cases the daily promotion on TikTok has led to hug boosts on other platforms like Spotify, Facebook and YouTube.
TikTok does this with the become algorithmically generates a feed of content for each user, which you see as the displaying of#. The more a user engages withcontent, the smarter TikTok gets at guessing what kind of videos the viewerwants to watch.
Because a song can go viral because of this.
Sony Music and Warner Music Group- , The ByteDance-owned video app revealed that it has struck an “expanded” global licensing agreement withUniversal Music Group. Now that TikTok is now fully licensed by all three major record companies, will you start using TikTok more?
I am already on their yes, I like it! It’s fun and very much like Instagram.
Breaking news: TikTok is launching TikTok Radio, a full-time SiriusXM musicchannel going live this summer. The station will be available in vehicles and as a streaming channel on the SiriusXM App, desktop, and all connected devices.
Some of the on TikTok include Cassyette, YukoEXE, Ashinikko, Palaye Royale,Josh Dun (Twenty-One Pilots), Yungblud, Morrissey, Ozzy Osbourne, Joan Jett, Gene Simmons, and Mick Jagger.
The station will be part of a new TikTok collaboration with SiriusXM and itssubsidiary, Pandora, to jointly promote emerging talent. Do you think this platform could became a force in the future of streaming music?
Yes, absolutely I think that it is a great idea, I just hope they include indie artists and it isn’t just all mainstream music.
With more and more live music happening. And the virus is still here. Are you willing to play large concerts and festivals and what precautions would you like to have in place?
DEFINITELY, live is what I live for. I will always endeavor to follow any and all precautions available and I am myself fully vaccinated.
Anything you would like to say in closing.
Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it xo
