BLUE VIOLET
SWEET SUCCESS SINGLE // 8 JANUARY
FAUX ANIMAUX LP // 24 JANUARY
LONDON THE GRACE // 25 JANUARY
SCOTTISH ALBUM LAUNCH DATES / FEBRUARY
PHOTO CREDIT: STUART J CLAPP
PRE-ORDER THE ALBUM HERE: FAUX ANIMAUX
WATCH THE VIDEO FOR SWEET SUCCESS HERE: VIDEO
“A cocktail of Ian Banks and Jane Austen” STEVE LAMACQ | BBC 6 MUSIC
“Melodic. Captivating. Beautiful. Like a young Madonna” BAD TATTOO
“Blue Violet blew the roof off and are definitely an act to keep an eye on” MUSOMUSO
“Their star is in the ascendency. They are traveling far. And fast. Catch ‘em if you can” GOD IS IN THE TV
North London alt-indie duo BLUE VIOLET – singer Sarah McGrigor and guitarist Sam Gotley – have released their new single Sweet Success, taken from the album Faux Animaux which will be released on 24 January on Me & My Records via High Head Recordings. The band will play a sold out album launch show at London The Grace on Saturday 25 January followed by three further album launch shows in Scotland in February.
Fresh from a 20 date UK support tour with Echobelly, Blue Violet share the new track Sweet Success about the never-ending search for achievement in a commercial cut throat world.
“What that means in this day and age,” the duo says, “is the price we pay for striving for those dizzying heights. The “sess, sess, sess” sample at the beginning was programmed to sound robotic to give the feel that we’re all mindlessly following the same goal without stopping to question why we want it so badly, and the assumption that, once we achieve it, it will make us happy.”
On the Faux Animaux album, Blue Violet continue their exploration of rich electronic avenues inspired by Anna Calvi, St Vincent, Radiohead, Bowie and Twin Peaks. With their songwriting as sublime as ever, they’re becoming one of the most enthralling underground propositions of the age.
The duo released a flurry of singles in 2024. They began in March with one-off single Human After All during the week that they shared the stage with The Gaslight Anthem for a number of shows at the Roundhouse in London. In April they shared the forthcoming album’s lead single Boogie Shoes, a grainy glam stomp aimed midway between Queens Of The Stone Age and St Vincent. This was followed by Imagine Me – amid dark 80s electro-rock tones akin to a more seductive Depeche Mode, the track portrays a lustful temptress (groupie, cougar, stalker or lovelorn loner) frustrated that the sexual encounter she so meticulously plots is over in a flash.
Survival followed – a gentle paean chanelling Metric, Mazzy Star, Cigarettes After Sex and Julee Cruise – while October saw the release of Barefoot On The Seine – a schizophrenic dispatch from the edges of a Parisian riot: its verses lost in graceful Gallic romance; its choruses all grunge rock eruptions; its whole a call to arms in support of essential personal freedoms. The most recent single Fire was, the duo say, “to draw attention to one of our most basic instincts – desire”.
FAUX ANIMAUX | TRACK LISTING
- Sweet Success
- Imagine Me
- Survival
- Talking To You
- The Librarian
- Cold Hearts
- Boogie Shoes
- Fire
- Teeth Out
- Barefoot On The Seine
- Faux Animaux
Preorder the album here
Recorded in J&J Studios in Bristol with Bat For Lashes and Hannah Peel mixer and producer TJ Allen, Faux Animaux is a unified and sophisticated update of modern British alt-pop, drifting from sizzling space disco to swirling, cinematic vistas. It’s a stunning amalgam of modernism and melody that spotlights not just failings of humankind but also those of its leaders. As Sam says: “The fake animals could be seen as the powers that be, leading us down paths that result in us ignoring our more natural instincts, often making decisions without our permission.”
Quietly, a beast awakens.
FAUX ANIMAUX LP | ARTWORK
JANUARY
Sat 25 LONDON The Grace
FEBRUARY
Wed 05 EDINBURGH Sneaky Pete’s
Thu 06 GLASGOW King Tuts
Thu 07 DUNDEE Beat Generator
Tickets available here: https://www.songkick.com/artists/10169018-blue-violet