All-girl Alternative Tentacles garage-surf band The Darts -- whom Blag Dahlia has said "smolder and shine like a serpent at the end of a rainbow” -- are not coming to Vancouver (at least not anytime I've heard about), but spend a minute on their Nosferatu-themed video for dark garage-surf song "Love U 2 Death," or their peppy "Breakup Makeup" or, well, anything off their bandcamp, because Nicole Laurenne, The Darts' singer, is coming, performing a more sultry sort of song under another name: Black Viiolet (bandcamp here, Linktree here, newest video for "Yin Yang" here -- spend a minute on that, too, but also maybe "Kill Me Now" or "Waiting on Me").
Black Viiolet's music gets described as "spy lounge torch chill" or (by Da Music, out of Belgium) as "a kind of cinematic voodoo-jazz, from which echoes of the Twin Peaks universe shine through." She'll be performing it with a live band this Friday at LanaLou's: sultry dark trip-hop-inflected torch songs that indeed do get one thinking about the contributions of David Lynch to contemporary musical culture (neverminding his actual music, what effect did Blue Velvet have, besides giving a boost to a certain Roy Orbison song? In Black Viiolet's case, the influence is indirect, at best, but we'll get to that presently!).
Nicole -- Ms. Viiolet -- took time to answer some email interview questions apropos of her upcoming show.
Black Viiolet at the Waldorf by Patrick Powers
ALLAN: So are the Darts done? Is Black Viiolet a side-project or your new main focus? It's quite a departure -- what was the impetus?
NICOLE: The Darts are going strong! We have lots of tours - USA, UK, and Europe - coming up in 2025 starting with a PNW tour in February. Black Viiolet is intended as a solo project for me. I began as a child studying classical piano very seriously, and then dabbled in jazz a little. As I had less time in life with work and kids, I entered the rock world in a new-wave band and then the punk/garage world with The Love Me Nots and finally The Darts. But in my spare time I listen to more jazz and triphop and chill stuff, more than almost anything else. I write songs constantly, and have been for my entire life pretty much. So I have a huge catalog of songs in all kinds of bizarre genres.
I had this idea during the pandemic to put torch songs over trip hop beats, and wrote a bunch of tracks in this style. I think I got inspired by a video of Shirley Bassey singing with Propellerheads. I added upright bass lines and horn lines, inspired by Digable Planets (and have been incredibly honored to have Digable Planets’ drummer Conrad Real with me live and on this album!). My Darts manager heard my demos in 2023 and convinced me that I should do something with them. So he helped me put together a band of top-notch French jazz musicians and a rehearsal space in the French countryside while The Darts were off tour that summer, and Black Viiolet was off and running. I wanted it to remain a solo project so that I had complete freedom to make it whatever I heard in my head, and to have musicians from everywhere rotate in and out to keep things fresh and mobile. It has been one of the most satisfying experiences of my musical life so far.
I’m actually working on writing about Ani Kyd Wolf, also signed to A/T (and a friend of Jello’s). How was your time there? Was Jello directly involved with the signing of the Darts? (I can see him really liking your music).
NICOLE: The Darts are still on Alternative Tentacles, with new music coming out this spring on the label - a split with label mates Tsunami Bomb, actually. Jello was apparently a fan of my last band The Love Me Nots and at first was skeptical that he would even like The Darts as much. But he came to a show in San Francisco and then came right to me at the merch table and told me he loved it even more. We made plans for the first seven-inch record that night. He co-produced our 2023 record Snake Oil and is one of our strongest supporters. He can be tough love but always with love (eg “You’re one of my favorite singers... but you can do even better, here’s how”). He doesn’t pull punches. He’s a legend for a reason.
The only cover on the album is Nina Simone's "My Baby Just Cares for Me," right? Do you do any other Nina Simone? (I realize it wasn’t written by her but assume it was her version that drew you?). It fits very well with the lyrics of the rest of the album – where in the process of putting the album together was it chosen? Are there other covers in your set…?
NICOLE: I haven’t done any other Nina yet; honestly, I don’t really like to do covers because most of these great songs are already perfect the way they are and I don’t want to touch them. But this one spoke to me. It was one of the very first tunes that for some reason I thought of adding a triphop beat underneath, to see how it might fit. And it did. I loved it. The two styles seemed to blend seamlessly. The torch sound brought a classiness and timelessness to the triphop, and the triphop brought a modern edge to the torch. I am adding one more cover song to the set in 2025 - which we will also record in France while on tour in March - because it was the first jazz standard I ever learned, and because I owe an homage to the cartoon character Jessica Rabbit for my love of torch songs.
Are there other singers or musicians who played a big role in crafting Black Viiolet?
NICOLE: Really it all comes from my weird brain. I write all the parts, the beats, the strings, the vibes, the trumpet, everything. Just like with The Darts, I almost always start with a bass line and then move into drums and beats from there. The musicians I brought on board have of course add beautiful nuances and textures and fills and solos, but it is still very much what the demos began with.
“Too punk to fuck” is a pretty fun lyrical image, in “About a Woman.” Was there a particular experience or encounter that informed that image…? (Some would-be Darts groupie, or…?).
NICOLE: Good eye! Actually that line is a direct homage to Jello Biafra. The Dead Kennedys' song “Too Drunk To Fuck” is one of my favorite songs lyrically and musically. And I even love Nouvelle Vague’s lounge take on it. I don’t want to throw anyone under the bus but I have been in a long-term relationship in the past where I honestly think the punk-rock persona of not caring, not wanting and not attaching really did get in the way of this person’s interest in physical intimacy. Too cool for school and too punk to fuck. I was never cool enough for him, and I killed myself trying to be. The whole song is really about that person specifically, if I’m being honest.
Ouch, but... it seems like all the songs could follow the trajectory of a single relationship – that it could be a theme album, with one specific “you” in the After You. Is it? Do you tend to “go all in and roll around…?” (that lyric is almost worthy of Dashiell Hammett or Raymond Chandler or something -- very hardboiled image; nicely phrased!).
NICOLE: I absolutely go all-in and roll around, in everything I do. I don’t know the meaning of half-assed, or procrastination, or maybe. I am working on moderation in my life, but I’m not very good at it. When I want something, I stop at almost nothing to make it happen. The result is that I am left pushing forward alone most of the time, as not many people actually can relate to this level of intensity, in both music and love. The lyrics on this album were written over a long period -- I keep a note folder on my phone of lyric ideas and pull from it when I get a good musical foundation for a song started. So the lyrics reflect a lot of different points in my life, and they are kind of my own self-therapy. I feel like I am always starting over again “after you,” and there have been far too many “you”s. There is a pattern, clearly, and I don’t blame anyone but myself for that. But here we are.
Is "Not About You" [no video for that one yet!] an original? I love it -- I love how you create a whole picture of loss and frustration out of negatives and denial... wonder if there were other songs that do that sort of thing that might have been in your mind when you wrote those lyrics?
NICOLE: Yes that is one of the most recent originals I wrote for the album. I was actually sitting in a hotel room in Hawaii at the time, looking at the sunset and reflecting on my dad’s death, and the end of yet another long-term relationship with someone, and I told myself that I needed to stop writing songs about relationships ending. So I wrote another song about relationships ending. I’m so glad you get it.
As far as other songs with this vibe that I love: “In My Room” sung by Verdelle Smith (a song Jello first brought to my attention and I fell in love with it) and Otis Redding's "I've Got Dreams To Remember.” Both songs are so wistful, perfectly painting pictures of moments, and both hit me right in the center of my heart.
Black Viiolet by Mike Mitchell
Curious about cinema and its influence -- if there were films or filmmakers that played a role in your image or the presentation of the music? (Curious about David Lynch; I figure that between Blue Velvet's nightclub scenes and Julee Cruise, he actually played a role in keeping people aware of this sort of music... he would have liked this album... I could see Black Viiolet and Blue Velvet having an echo, namewise…?).
NICOLE: Oh you do not want to ask me about my taste in films as I am notorious for having the worst possible taste ever in this medium. But some of my most memorable film moments not surprisingly come from musical moments that blasted into my brain, like seeing light for the first time or something: Prince singing “The Beautiful Ones” in Purple Rain or Juliette Lewis singing “Hardly Wait” in Strange Days or any of the James Bond themes with the accompanying graphics. Those are seared into me and make me want to present music with that much intimate power.
Several people have mentioned the connection with David Lynch but I never really delved into the catalog; I promise to do it, I know I will be obsessed with it, and I’m not sure why I never did. Too busy watching bad time-travel movies like Terminator 1 and Highlander probably. Sorry about that Mr. Lynch. I’ll do better.
You've played Vancouver before -- so any stories about your experiences here or associations with the city?
NICOLE: The Love Me Nots played Vancouver once or twice I think, way back when, with a Victoria band I loved called The Laundronauts. Black Viiolet just played at The Waldorf this past fall for the first time. The show was very eclectic - goth, indie, and garage, all done very very well, and then.. my little lounge thing in the middle. I was sure it would not go over well with that crowd. But even from the first song it was met with a surprising amount of love and girls were coming up to me in the bathroom later saying “oh my god, what was that, I loved that” and so now I love Vancouver forever. I haven’t explored the city very much and one of these days when I’m not on tour I’ll dig in.
Is there anything I missed, that you want to say about the touring band, the show, etc…?
NICOLE: Black Viiolet’s album release shows are going to be very special to me for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is that this is the first full-length album, but also I am beyond thrilled to have one of my favorite drummers on board for the tour in the US and in Europe. Gregg Ziemba plays in the incredible hip hop act Wheelchair Sports Camp out of Denver, and they are labelmates of The Darts with huge support from Jello also. Gregg is a mind-blowing drummer with such style and creativity and showmanship - I cannot wait to have the best seat in the house while he plays these songs live and on the new recordings. Also joining me on the US dates will be Bellingham’s legendary trombonist Andy Codrington and the trumpet-and-sax team of Amara Cairns and Charlie Merth, from Seattle band Out of Stock. And of course bassist Evan Strauss, who has dialed in the most bass sound that speaks over the triphop beats, using a combination of compressors and pedals and a beautiful electric upright bass. When we go to Europe in March, Gregg and Evan will be joined by an all-French horn section, including my original trombonist Basile Conand and trumpeter Jean-Gatien Pasquier. 2025 is really going to be amazing with both of my bands touring hard all over the place. My house is full to the top with merchandise and gear, poised and ready for action. I think I need a plane.
You've played Vancouver before -- so any stories about your experiences here or associations with the city?
NICOLE: The Love Me Nots played Vancouver once or twice I think, way back when, with a Victoria band I loved called The Laundronauts. Black Viiolet just played at The Waldorf this past fall for the first time. The show was very eclectic - goth, indie, and garage, all done very very well, and then.. my little lounge thing in the middle. I was sure it would not go over well with that crowd. But even from the first song it was met with a surprising amount of love and girls were coming up to me in the bathroom later saying “oh my god, what was that, I loved that” and so now I love Vancouver forever. I haven’t explored the city very much and one of these days when I’m not on tour I’ll dig in.
Is there anything I missed, that you want to say about the touring band, the show, etc…?
NICOLE: Black Viiolet’s album release shows are going to be very special to me for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is that this is the first full-length album, but also I am beyond thrilled to have one of my favorite drummers on board for the tour in the US and in Europe. Gregg Ziemba plays in the incredible hip hop act Wheelchair Sports Camp out of Denver, and they are labelmates of The Darts with huge support from Jello also. Gregg is a mind-blowing drummer with such style and creativity and showmanship - I cannot wait to have the best seat in the house while he plays these songs live and on the new recordings. Also joining me on the US dates will be Bellingham’s legendary trombonist Andy Codrington and the trumpet-and-sax team of Amara Cairns and Charlie Merth, from Seattle band Out of Stock. And of course bassist Evan Strauss, who has dialed in the most bass sound that speaks over the triphop beats, using a combination of compressors and pedals and a beautiful electric upright bass. When we go to Europe in March, Gregg and Evan will be joined by an all-French horn section, including my original trombonist Basile Conand and trumpeter Jean-Gatien Pasquier. 2025 is really going to be amazing with both of my bands touring hard all over the place. My house is full to the top with merchandise and gear, poised and ready for action. I think I need a plane.
Black Viiolet's release party for After You, also featuring Cass King and the Cassettes and the Judys, will take place this Friday at LanaLou's (362 Powell; Black Viiolet will be second on the bill, note, with the Judys opening). Facebook event page here!
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