Violet is the solo bedroom born project from young Sydney sider Jess Meier. Starting singing at a young age, Jess began writing songs in her early teen years, and it was when she started producing her own songs that Violet was born.
Sydney’s Violet takes issue with the treatment of indigenous rights in her new song Ivory. It’s a moving and clever piece of music with a worthwhile message.
Her latest single Ivory, as Violet tells me, is a “Response to the naïve and careless approach many young Australians have towards the treatment of our indigenous people”. The single was written as a reminder to other non-Indigenous Australians what our indigenous population have gone through and the discrimination they still face. Violet wants Ivory to be “A raw and possibly uncomfortable reminder that Australia needs to support and respect its indigenous people and to stop attempting to remove and displace them again and again”.
Apart from the awesome message, what makes the song even cooler are the beats and different sounds produced throughout it. Violet has used a range of sound samples to compose Ivory, with a lot of the samples having significant relevance to the song’s message. She has pulled samples from television documentaries about immigrants coming into Australia, life in a “white” Australia and the stolen generation, just to name a few. There is also a lot of sound manipulation used to produce the track too. The chords you can hear in the verse that sound like a vintage synth are actually Violet’s vocals recorded onto a reel to reel tape machine, and the percussion sounds are a mix of Indigenous and tribal instruments that have been distorted to sound more modern.
Recorded at Palmgrove Studios in Avalon, this was the first time Violet has recorded in a studio, and after hearing the mature and soulful sounds she has produced, you wouldn’t know it. All the sounds she produces, along with her haunting, pitch perfect vocals mesh together brilliantly to make a beautiful, striking and eerie single. Ivory has similar tones to Violet’s earlier tracks like Lines of Loneliness and My Dress Hangs There. They are all a collaboration of sample sounds that come together to create a funky blues/tribal/sadcore pop sound. It’s pretty fresh!
Ivory is a nice reminder that not all of us youngsters are only thinking about what photo to upload to Instagram next, and through Violet’s lyrics and song composition her message is conveyed really well. So if you haven’t already done so, definitely go and have a listen.
