The Violet May’s front man Chris McClure may look vaguely familiar. If I told you his face appeared on the cover of a certain Sheffield band’s debut album, would it jog your memory….?
McClure was just helping out a friend when he agreed to be photographed smoking a cigarette for the Arctic Monkey’s iconic album cover ‘Whatever People Say, That’s What I’m Not,’ but one month later and this humble Sheffield lad suddenly found himself elevated to local celebrity status. This taste of fame—however unlikely and unconventional in form–will certainly be good training for McClure’s career with The Violet May. Here is a band who will no doubt be skipping to the top of the indie ladder this year faster than you can say ‘I Bet You Look Good On the Dance Floor.’ Breathing life into a stale old scene, The Violet May make full-throttle, dirty rock and roll a la BRMC, with a stadium-sized stage presence and electrifying live performances to boot.
This Sheffield based group were brought together by a mutual love of The Jesus and Mary Chain and a growing disillusionment with the current dearth of credible British indie bands. Could this explain their predominantly American sound? “I definitely think our music sounds more American because it’s loud and dirty,” says McClure. “There are no British bands at the moment who properly inspire me, it’s all about Queens Of the Stone Age for us, that’s where we’re coming from.”
You won’t be surprised to hear then that The Violet May’s sound has already reached the States and has had multiple airplays on one of its best known radio stations, KROQ. So where some bands spend years tirelessly trying to break through the impenetrable barrier that is the American music industry, so you could say that The Violet May have done things the wrong way round and have already broken the States before even properly making their mark over here.
Their transatlantic success is all down to the band who decided to take promotional matters into their own hands and sent a demo to Rodney Bingenheimer of KROQ fame. The next thing they knew, their single was being played every week by the radio giant and so began their musical journey.
Big riffs, big sounds, and big hearts, Sheffield band The Violet May fearlessly channel a genre of music which has long been in need of a facelift. They prove that a little bit of perserverance goes a long way, even as far as the U S of A. Keep your eyes and ears peeled for their first single ‘Bright Or Better/This Crowd is Overcrowded’ which is out May 24th on Oh! Inverted World Records! We simply cannot wait to hear more from these lads in the not too distant future….
Read a live review of The Violet May HERE
