If you’re raised by chefs, you probably have an interest in food. Athletes? Then sports are in your life somehow. Violet Grohl’s dad is a musician of some note, so she took in everything happening around her and turned it into a career that started a new chapter in the past week, with the release of her debut album and a tour that will bring her to the Rave on Sept. 16.
The 20-year-old garnered attention for her chops back in January of 2020, when she jumped behind the microphone at a Nirvana reunion and belted out “Heart-Shaped Box” alongside the legendary band’s surviving members. More than six years later, she released Be Sweet To Me, her first studio LP and a chance for everyone to — as she put it — “Decide for yourself if I’m worthy.”
The initial reception to the just-released album seems to indicate that Grohl’s vocals are as memorable as they were back in 2020, with the additional ability that comes with time.
The Guardian’s Katie Hawthorne pulled out a few tracks of note, starting with “Cool Buzz,” which she called “roaring and snotty. … Flashes of ska-inspired guitar à la No Doubt crash against hardcore drums deserving of a circle pit as Grohl rails against narrow-mindedness. Slow-burn centrepiece ‘Often Others’ is seething, sour and groovy, while ‘Mobile Star’ has a Lynchian strangeness that shows a softer, creepier edge to Grohl’s voice.”
To hear how that voice translates to the stage, you can check out Violet Grohl’s Sept. 16 show at the Rave, tickets for which are on sale now.
Artist bio
A native of Los Angeles, Violet Grohl has been immersed in music from her earliest days. Whether singing along to Beatles vinyl alone in her bedroom, writing her first song at the age of 12 or gracing real world stages big and small, Violet has always been focused on increasing her musical palette and vocabulary. She's a true student of the art form, whose notebooks are stuffed with poetry and influences that bend genres.
In 2024, Violet met producer Justin Raisen (Charli xcx, Kim Gordon) and went on an unexpected — and unexpectedly prolific — ride to collaborate on the music featured on her debut album, Be Sweet To Me, which was released globally May 29.
The record was recorded at Raisen’s L.A. home studio alongside musicians assembled in the spirit of the Wrecking Crew session players in the ’60s and ’70s. Its sound takes perpetual influence from the alternative sounds of the late ‘80s and early ‘90s: Pixies, Soundgarden, Cocteau Twins, The Breeders, PJ Harvey, The Muffs, Björk, Alice in Chains, L7, Juliana Hatfield.
“Everything was written in the studio,” Grohl said. “I would come in with an inspiration playlist, we would hang and listen for a little while, and then start writing.”
“Violet is so well-versed in all styles of music; every playlist was different,” Raisen added, describing Violet’s assemblages of trip-hop, new wave, Scandinavian black metal, ’70s acoustic folk and vocal jazz. “She showed me a number of things that I wasn't familiar with; her encyclopedic knowledge of music is crazy.”
