Midnight Violet share their origin story and unpacks Gardens We Grow — a deeply emotive debut that captures the beauty, strain, and evolution of relationships.
How did you all meet? What’s your origin story?
It’s quite a criss-cross spider web of paths of how we met. Mia, Paige and Tom. C met at university studying music. Paige and Mia became best friends, Tom. C and Mia started working on a few songwriting assignments at Uni, realising they had an awesome back-and-forth when it came to composing.
Tom. C then met Josh at a birthday party (more specifically, Jade McKentish’s birthday, the bass player in Paraquay), and Josh needed a guitar player for their band, Tom. C joined. Josh and Tom. C both then joined ANOTHER band. The singer of that band was best friends with a singer from another band, Tom. R was the bass player for that band. Basically Tom. C recruited Josh and Tom. R. Mia recruited Paige.
It is quite a busy timeline, but I would describe us meeting as being in the right place at the right time. Either way, we are best friends before we are a band.
The very first piece of “Midnight Violet” music actually started with Tom C, who wrote four songs for a final-year university assignment. Tom. C performed all the instruments (except for drums), but when it was time to record the vocals, he was met with the harsh realisation that he wasn’t a very good singer. Already friends and a huge fan of Mia’s talent, he asked her to sing the tunes. Seeing how naturally they worked together and how well their styles and inspirations meshed, they decided to cement the band and continue growing, asking their friends to join.
What’s the meaning behind the name “Midnight Violet”? How did you come up with that?
The name is inspired by one of Mia’s favourite albums, ‘So Tonight That I Might See’ by Mazzy Star. She introduced the album to Tom C (which he really enjoyed). The name ‘Mazzy Star’ was a name that we were slightly jealous of not coming up with ourselves; we were such a fan of how that name sounded and the atmosphere it encapsulated. We knew we had to use the name as inspiration. We took the ‘star’ from their name and connected it to the word ‘Midnight’. We needed the second word; we were doing our absolute BEST to come up with something. We wrote pages upon pages of potential names, ‘Midnight Jets’, ‘Midnight Light’, ‘ Midnight Haze’, just to name a few. We went back to the album cover for ‘So Tonight That I Might See’, being inspired by the rich, singular colour palette, therefore giving us our name, ‘Midnight Violet’.
What was the first song you wrote together that truly captured the band’s identity?
The first song we wrote entirely together was our single ‘She Takes Her Throne’. The first time that each member of the band wrote their own parts, breaking away from Tom. C is composing everything. This was the first song that Mia wrote lyrics for, Josh played the keys and Tom. R introduced his shoegazey, spacey guitar. But for us, the moment it all came together, realising we had something special, was when Paige recorded her drums. It was so refreshing hearing a properly recorded and mixed drum kit on a Midnight Violet song, giving the tune so much more breathing space and taking away the rigidness of using a drum machine (note from the band: drum machines are cool as fuck, but it doesn’t suit the indie-folk sound we are after). This was also the first song that Josh mixed and mastered, taking it to a whole other level. That song is very special for us, because it was the first time we were all showcasing our musicianship and performing on a Midnight Violet track.
How do you keep your sound evolving while still staying true to what defines the band?
The sound is evolving positively and productively. We enjoy listening to each other and the individual elements we bring to writing music. We are so proud of the album we have just released and are excited to continue writing music for as long as possible together. What defines the band and how we want to stay true to the Midnight Violet landscape is prioritising the core song. Our songs work just as powerfully with vocals and acoustic guitar, whilst still telling the same story and level of intensity as they do with a full band. Going even further with this, we ask ourselves, “Would these lyrics make sense and be as impactful if they were published in a book or read out loud as poetry?” Telling a story is something extremely important to us. When it comes to live shows, what stays true to us is making sure each member has their moment to express themselves and let the audience know who they are through the music.
Does that come through in your latest release, “Gardens We Grow”? What’s it about?
To put simply, it covers every emotion within any relationship, whether that may be the passionate beginning, the harsh middle, or the dull goodbye. The growth of one’s self during everyday life.
You can hear Midnight Violet‘s latest album, ‘Gardens We Grow‘ on all streaming platforms. This is an I Don’t Blame You Media interview.
