Taken from this week’s Future Pop mailer. Click here to subscribe.
I’ve featured Hey Violet before, but since then they’ve got a new name, member and record deal. Originally known as Cherri Bomb, they formed in 2008 and were signed to Hollywood Records. For a teen girl band they were taken pretty seriously on the rock scene, and performed with big acts like Foo Fighters and The Smashing Pumpkins, but chart success didn’t follow and they were dropped. Founding member Julia left and was replaced by a male guitarist Casey, joining Rena, Nia and Miranda. They re-emerged early this year as the first act signed by 5 Seconds of Summer to Hi Or Hey Records. After courting “serious” rock fans didn’t work, the new approach makes the most of having three cool, stylish teen girls in the band, the most logical target market for which is clearly other teen girls. Most artists want to start off cool and then go pop, as the opposite approach bears the risk that muso respect may never come, and they’ll be stuck in the mainstream. That's not possible for Hey Violet now, but I’m hoping the fight against rockist snobbery will be easier with a passionate fanbase behind them, regardless of their age and gender. If Kerrang embraced 5SOS, then Hey Violet deserve the same.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFYKkneOD1w]