The band co-wrote all songs on the album which was produced by Julian Bunetta. Watch the video for their new single “Break My Heart,” HERE: https://heyviolet.lnk.to/BreakMyHeartVe.
The song was included on Spotify’s New Music Friday Playlist and has racked up over eight million streams combined. Idolator says “Break My Heart” is a “monstrous electro-anthem” and declares, the band is “destined to have a massive year.”
Alternative Press calls the track “irresistible,” while Nylon raves, “Hey Violet knows how to write a good pop hook and ‘Break My Heart’ is a testament to that. This song has spunk.” “Break My Heart” is the follow-up to Hey Violet’s smash single “Guys My Age,” which has more than 41 million combined streams, while the video has over 14 million views.
Watch the video HERE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LzWUAkpNrQ.
“Guys My Age” was named one of the Best Songs of 2016 by The New York Times, who called it “teen-pop’s revenge: an urgent dark song about sexual rebellion” and one of the 20 Best Songs of 2016 by V Magazine. Hey Violet was also nominated for a 2017 iHeart Radio award for Best Underground Alternative Band and been dubbed an Artist Primed For A Breakout in 2017 by Billboard and a 2017 Artist To Watch by The Guardian, PopCrush and more. The band recently wrapped up a sold out North American headline tour, graced the March cover of Alternative Press, and performed “Guys My Age” on both The Late Late Show With James Corden and Late Night With Seth Meyers. Check out their new track “O.D.D.” which Rookie Magazine says is “a track dedicated to a feeling of unrest and a lack of belonging that strikes home to many.”
Listen HERE: https://heyviolet.lnk.to/ODDYO.
Hey Violet’s Brand New Moves EP debuted as the #1 album on iTunes in the U.S., and U.K. The Los Angeles Times compared their move “from grimy punk to shiny pop” to the Go-Go’s, while Galore declared front woman Rena Lovelis, “emits an unheard of level of rock-stardom for such a small girl without even singing a single note. But when she does sing, it’s as if Courtney Love, Gwen Stefani, and Hayley Williams crashed into each other and made a whole new generation of rock star. ”Hey Violet is Rena Lovelis, her sister Nia Lovelis (drums), Miranda Miller (keys, vocals), Casey Moreta (lead guitar) and Iain Shipp (bass).
From its very first seconds, Hey Violet’s full-length debut bursts with the unstoppable energy of a band that’s truly come into its own. Building off the gritty alt-rock of their early days and boldly expanding their sonic possibilities, From the Outside dreams up a sharp-edged pop sound full of new-wave synth and bubblegum melody, glossed-up grooves and shimmering beats.
In the past year, the L.A.-based five-piece have more than proven the power of their immaculately crafted alt-pop. Having amassed over 40 million combined streams since its September release, Hey Violet’s smash single “Guys My Age” was named one of the Best Songs of 2016 by the New York Times (who hailed the track as “teen-pop’s revenge: an urgent dark song about sexual rebellion”) and one of the 20 Best Songs of 2016 by V Magazine. Along with touring North America on a sold-out headline run, Hey Violet were recently crowned an Artist To Watch by the likes of The Guardian, PopCrush and more. Adding to that acclaim, the Los Angeles Times lauded the band for “moving from grimy punk to shiny pop like the Go-Go’s once did,” while Billboard declared Hey Violet primed for a breakout in 2017.
From the Outside arrives as the follow-up to 2016’s Brand New Moves—a critically praised EP that debuted as the #1 artist album on iTunes in the US and UK. Throughout the album, frontwoman Rena Lovelis joins her sister Nia Lovelis (on drums) and fellow bandmates Miranda Miller (on keys/vocals), Casey Moreta (on lead guitar), and Iain Shipp (on bass) in turning out hook-driven pop that’s emotionally intense but massively catchy. According to Rena, whose magnetic vocal presence electrifies each song, that heightened emotionality has much to do with a creative atmosphere conducive to secret-spilling. “A lot of the time, ideas came from conversations we had in the studio about what was going on in our lives,” she says. “Everyone would open up and we’d draw from all those experiences and then turn them into songs.”
Produced by Julian Bunetta, From the Outside channels Hey Violet’s true-to-life subject matter into love songs both deeply romantic and defiant in attitude. The album-opening “Break My Heart,” for instance, offers up a dreamily masochistic track dubbed a “monstrous electro-anthem” by Idolator. Alternative Press calls the track “irresistible,” while Nylon raves, “Hey Violet knows how to write a good pop hook and ‘Break My Heart’ is a testament to that. This song has spunk.” On “Hoodie,” throbbing beats and wistful melody meet with painfully detailed lyrics about post-breakup obsession. “We all have those old things of our exes’ lying around the house,” says Rena, referring to the keepsake of the song’s title. “You hold onto it because you can’t let that person go, but then one day you don’t need it anymore—you can finally move on.” On “Like Lovers Do,” meanwhile, Hey Violet show the ever-expanding scope of their sound and deliver a dreamlike waltz laced with gossamer guitar lines and Rena’s beautifully spooky vocal work.
A different form of serenade, “O.D.D.” was conceived as “an ode to our fans who feel different and outside the norm,” as Rena explains. “I think a lot of people who listen to our music have had those moments where it’s like you were just dropped down from Mars, and you’re completely out of place on Planet Earth,” she adds. Powerfully haunting, the acoustic-guitar-laced track delicately explores isolation in its clever but cutting lyrics (“I’m the girl in the back of the class/Pink hair but I’m wearing all black”). And on “This Is Me (Breaking Up With You),” Hey Violet close out From the Outside with a gloriously hyped-up anthem fueled by crunchy guitar tones and a fiercely chanted refrain. “When we wrote that song, I sat down and listed all these things to tell the poor guy I’m breaking up with in the song—stuff like, ‘Please don’t cry, ‘cause I’m not in the mood,’” says Rena. “It’s a little sassy and a little rude, but in a way that’s so fun.”
For Hey Violet, a spirit of fun reigned supreme throughout the making of From the Outside. During the pre-production period, the Lovelis sisters headed out to the desert with a team of co-writers for a low-key writing camp complete with elaborate pancake breakfasts. “I have two mice—Clementine and Ramona—and I brought them with me to the camp,” Rena recalls. “We were staying right next to golf course and sometimes we’d sneak on and play golf, and I’d take my mice and let them walk on the grass. We ended up getting in trouble, but it was so much fun. What sticks in mind now is not just all these great songs we came up with, but all the beautiful experiences we had and all the memories we made with these new friends of ours.”
Born in New York but raised in L.A., the Lovelis sisters grew up on bands like Nine Inch Nails and began playing music before the age of ten. In middle school, several years after Nia took up drums and Rena started on bass guitar, the sisters posted an online ad seeking bandmates and soon hooked up with Miranda (a Florida native and sometimes poet who learned to play piano from her grandfather). Several years later, the trio connected with Casey (a fellow music obsessive who’d picked up guitar at 7-years-old) and asked him to officially join the band with an onstage proposal at the Viper Room. By 2015, Hey Violet had earned a passionate following, largely due to their years of gigging around L.A. Soon after they’d signed with Hi Or Hey Records in March 2015, their debut EP I Can Feel It shot to #1 on iTunes in five countries. After releasing Brand New Moves and playing to a sold-out Madison Square Garden crowd as a support act for 5SOS, Hey Violet added Iain to their lineup and, in early 2017, embarked on their headline tour.
Recently nominated for an iHeart Radio award for Best Underground Alternative Band, Hey Violet took home the Next Big Thing prize at last year’s Teen Choice Awards. As they gear up for a headline tour of Europe, the band members are building up their live show by experimenting with electronic production and creating their own interludes to weave throughout each set. “Over the past year we’ve become much more self-sufficient as a band,” says Rena. “We put all of our hearts and our souls into this album and came up with something that we all love and feel really connected to, and because of that we’re stronger than ever before.”
360 MAGAZINE 