For emerging Geelong indie band Violet, the launch of their first EP at the Barwon Club has been a long time coming.
Formed during their years together at Geelong High, the trio is composed of Harry Jones (guitar, vocals), Wanda Dohl (drums) and James Elliott (bass).
Violet’s music ranges from beautiful, delicate songwriting reminiscent of Jeff Buckley to the down and dirty indie rock one might hear on an Arctic Monkeys or The Strokes record.
Their debut EP If Anything At All, recorded at JMC Academy in Melbourne, captures that breadth of sound, although frontman Jones said it “should have taken a lot less time than it did to put out”.
“(The recording) kind of spanned the entirety of 2024 because we didn’t book a bunch of days in a row and just smash it out; we had maybe one session every two or three months, because we all were based in Geelong,” he said.
“We’ve been sitting on it for eight months maybe, getting it mixed and mastered, and it took us so long to come up with the artwork.
“But we’re very, very excited. It’s nice coming back to the Barwon Club because we played our first gig there in 2021, so it kind of feels like coming home.”
Gigging locally and in the city for the past four years, Violet are starting to make an impact, with a number of support shows coming up in Melbourne venues.
Jones, who finished high school in 2023 and has recently relocated to Melbourne, said the strength of the band lay in their “incredibly strong” relationships.
“It feels a lot like a family now, because we grew up together and we always had each other while we were going through these massive experiences so young,” he said.
“Playing in these really rowdy venues, going through the personal troubles of growing up, and then going into adulthood… we’ve always stuck with each other through every massive experience of our lives.
“And that makes the whole songwriting and gigging process so incredibly easy because we have that familiarity and respect for each other.”
Violet’s EP launch is at Barwon Club on Friday, August 15, supported by local bands Grimwoods, Red Eyed Rumours and Jasmin Adria.
