Apparently my humble blog is listed on HypeMachine. I became aware of that fact when Brian Tannenbaum and Mikey Sloan mentioned it upon reaching out for an interview. The pair perform under the name All Violet, with Tannenbaum singing and playing rhythm guitar while Sloan plays slide guitar. Using minimalist production techniques, the pair create an atmosphere of swirling guitars and restrained vocals set to a steady drumbeat. To my ears, as you’ll read shortly, All Violet has a dreamy quality that would sound right at home on the soundtrack to a David Lynch movie.

All Violet is a cool name. How did you decide on it, and what does it say about your music?

BT: If we told you we’d have to kill you.

How did the band get together and who’s in it?

Mikey: BT and I were friends in college and maybe jammed a couple of times, but didn’t really pursue anything musical with each other beyond that. We just liked to hang out and play drink-the-beer. I then moved to New York City like 2 ½ years ago with the intention of starting a new band. BT and I reconnected, and he immediately showed me some songs he had written with chords, lyrics and melodies already intact. As I was listening, I thought that he was exactly what I needed and I might just be what he needed. The decision to pursue this seriously was pretty immediate. 

What do each of you contribute to the process of creating a song — in terms of both writing and recording? 

Mikey: We will occasionally work out a song based on a guitar riff that I wrote, but the majority of our songs come from BT. He will usually have at least the skeleton of a song written with some vocal melodies and lyrical ideas by the time he’s ready to show me so that we can flesh it out together. As a guitarist, I kind of prefer this, because it gives me a foundation to do something creative over. And oftentimes that can be pretty immediate, as in the first few minutes of us jamming on a piece of music together might just be how the final version of a song turns out. Some songs take some reworking, some are written with almost every idea in place within a couple jams. 

For ‘misrememories’, we recorded it all in maybe 2 or 3 days in our seaside cottage studio. We didn’t have a whole lot of equipment or any top of the line gear when we recorded it. We just wanted to make something that sounded immediate. Most of the songs were performed live. We’d put mics in the corners of the cottage to capture the sound of the room. Real lofi, indie, cool guy with a mustache stuff, ya know? We’ve been growing our studio a bit and have some cool tools up our sleeves now, so future songs of ours will definitely have some different sounds to them.

Your new song “(endlessly) return” has a chill vibe, as does its accompanying track, “plead the fifth.” Given the increasingly stressful times we’re living in, do you think chill vibes are due for a resurgence?

BT: See that’s just the thing- I don’t abide by the idea that we’re living in ‘increasingly stressful times’. Sure everyone on the news is trying to convince us it’s the end times- but I don’t buy it. I think the only reason that they’re screaming at the top of their lungs about how whoever they’re ideologically opposed is destroying the world, is so that you don’t change the channel. 

When in reality the world has never been better. We’re not out in the Serengeti fighting tigers anymore. We’re the top of the food chain. We live like ancient kings everyday. We shit on porcelain.

On paper, the quality of life has never been higher and yet it sure doesn’t feel that way. And listen there are definitely problems- in our country, around the world, in each of our daily lives- and there will never not be problems, but we have to learn to appreciate how good we have it in spite of those problems. For any of us to even be alive right now is a miracle of the highest order.

Moral of the story, I think everybody needs to take a deep breath, see that they’re not in any imminent danger and realize that the only factor that’s causing them stress is themselves and only they have the power to change that. Hopefully this song can do a little to help with that. 

Mikey: I feel like fun, happy, energetic songs will always be more popular amongst the general public, but I don’t think chill, even sad songs have necessarily grown unpopular. Maybe they’ve just taken different shapes? They’re certainly not shoved in your face as relentlessly as energetic songs are. I also don’t think the mood of a song has to reflect on someone’s wellbeing. People going through difficult times may listen to happy, energetic songs as an escape. People who are living their best life may listen to chill or sad music because it just feels good to listen to. That’s the great thing about music as an art form to me. It’s there to put you in a space that doesn’t necessarily have to do with what’s going on in the world around you.

The tracks also have a dreamy feel that calls to mind the films of David Lynch. Are there any cinematic touchstones that inform your approach to making music?

Mikey: I guess first of all, thank you for saying that. We love David Lynch (rest in peace) and his approach to film making and story telling. It’s so distinctive and brilliant. Twin Peaks is one of my all time favorite shows. The way the characters are portrayed and their highly specific mannerisms make the town of Twin Peaks feel like it’s truly a world of its own. I don’t think any show has depicted good, evil, joy and sadness as well as Twin Peaks has. I also think the music (Angelo Badalamenti) is so specific to the show and really elevates the moody-dreamlike feel of many of the scenes. Whenever I hear any composition from the show, I get a very specific feeling that is only brought on by that specific music. I think our music attempts to do something similar.

I heard that David Lynch wanted Beach House to be the reccuring band performing at The Roadhouse in the last season (which would’ve been amazing), but I think they were too busy. Beach House has such a dreamy sound that covers so many emotions. They were definitely a big influence on me when making ‘misrememories’. Anyways, yeah, watch Twin Peaks. 10/10.

And it’s the second single from your forthcoming lo-fi project misrememories. What was the first single? 

BT: The first single was ‘plead the fifth’ which was actually the last song that was written on the whole project. It’s a relatively simple song that we recorded fairly quickly, but after it all came together it took on this charming nostalgic quality that I think encapsulates the vibe of ‘misrememories’ as a whole. I also really like the idea of a lead single that doesn’t have any repeated phrase or hook yet still remains catchy (I hope).

I’m curious about the “lo-fi” designation. Assuming that going lo-fi is a decision rather than a matter of dealing with the limitations of the recording technology available to you, why do you gravitate toward that kind of sound?

BT: I think with the current technology available, anybody has the ability to sound super polished, but as a result of that, a lot of music today feels sterile or robotic. From the start, we wanted misrememories to push against that. We recorded the entire project in three days with some audio equipment I had amassed over the past couple years. This included a used drum machine pedal that I got for free- probably because it’s half-broken and very much has a mind of its own. 

We also instituted some rules for ourselves in order to meet our 3-day deadline:

1. No phones

2. No headphones

3. Three takes max

4. No comping (recording by section/piecemeal)

5. No direct input (record through a mic only)

6. (and of course) Have fun

When it came to the mixing phase, we also had to hold ourselves back from using methods that are super commonplace today but may have ruined the authentic integrity of what we recorded.

These ‘limitations’ actually turned out to be boons for our creative process. Because of how little time we had, we had to remain super present and focused on the task at hand. If we ran into an issue we had to react on the fly. A lot of my favorite moments on the project were actually unplanned or unintentional. I feel like each song has a very lived-in quality and sounds very different than a lot of the other stuff coming out today- which was kinda the whole point. It’s like they say, “Perfection is in the Imperfection” or something like that.

All Violet is based in New York. Do you get to play out much? If so, where do you play, and what’s the scene like?

Mikey: We’ve been in full-blown recording and writing mode the past few months, but are definitely itching to start performing again after we’re finished with some other projects. It’s just BT and I currently, so we’re working on finding some musicians to join us. We frequent an open mic in Brooklyn to try out new material and scratch the itch to perform in front of others. It’s called The West. It’s a great place with great people and great musicians.

New York is so diverse in terms of original artists, and I think that’s a reflection of the many types of people that live here who come from all walks of life. There are so many artists and bands, it’s tricky to figure out where you fit in. I don’t know where we fit in. I don’t even know what genre we are.

What are your plans to promote misrememories?

BT: In a similar fashion to the way we recorded this project,  we’re taking a very different approach to promoting it. This summer, I bought a 35mm point-and-shoot at a flea market and more recently, I found a cheap Super 8 camera on eBay. I feel like film (and black and white film specifically) perfectly compliments the sound and philosophy of misrememories.

You don’t have unlimited takes with film like you do with digital. It’s finicky. It’s harder to edit. You have a lot less capabilities with a film camera than you have with an iPhone. You can’t even see what you’ve shot until after you’ve gotten it developed. But there’s a certain magic to shooting with film that can’t be replicated digitally.

So we’ve been running around with friends shooting music videos for a few of the songs and it’s been a whole lot of fun. And after having finally gotten some of it developed and seeing the end product, it’s clear it was a good decision and something I can’t wait to share. 

We both believe that the visual component of music is extremely important. We want each of our projects to have a unique visual style that goes hand in hand with the sonic element. Sure it may make it harder on ourselves, but I think all of the thought and care that went into everything will shine through and result in a really special group of songs and videos.

And what’s on the horizon after that?

Mikey: From the very beginning, we decided we want to be a band that tries something different with each project. We like bands that take on a whole new sound, genre and even look with each album (Ween is a great example for me). We feel like we accomplished that with ‘misrememories’ in comparison to our first mixtape ‘Neon Seeping from the Pavement’. And we definitely feel like we’re accomplishing that with our next project (*eyeballs emoji*), which we’re almost done recording. Ideally though, no matter what the song or project is, it will still sound uniquely like All Violet. A friend told me that we “have a very high ceiling”, which is the best compliment I’ve received. I hope we honor that and keep improving as musicians and songwriters.

Live performances are becoming increasingly important to us now too. Expect to see us at a venue near you, hopefully.