The Violet Mindfield is an American four piece Garage/Surf/Psych/Bedroom/Acid folk/Lo-fi/among other things/rock band from the Inland Empire of southern California. The group strives to project in their music the vibration of love and light, like a companion through the shadows, to all the hearts and minds venturing to enter their sonic abode
In this interview spotlight, I chat with The Violet Mindfield about the new music, challenges, technology and more.
Full Q&A along with links and music below.
Where are you from and what style of music do you create? (In your own words, not necessarily in marketing terms or by popular genre classifications.)
We used to say we’re from Pomona California because that’s where we got our start playing at the dba256. In reality we’re kind of scattered across Southern California’s San Bernardino and LA County’s, with members in Ontario (not Canada), Rancho Cucamonga, San Dimas and the Whittier area.
The Music we play is decidedly 1960’s inspired, though they’re all original tunes. I like to think of it as collage. Almost as if we had a stack of magazines and newspapers from the 60’s on the table and we just go through them cutting out the bits we like and then put them all together to make something different.
What led you down this path of music and what motivates you to keep going?
I’ve always found the sound of the 60’s appealing; I don’t know if it’s just because I grew up listening to it, maybe the first music I ever heard, in like the womb or something was from the 60’s so that to me is how music is supposed to sound, I don’t know, and rather then do a cover band (I’ve never been good at learning other peoples songs) why not a pastiche of all the sounds that sound right to me. That way I can play something I’d like to listen to and not have to conform to what somebody else already laid out.
Seeing the progress the band has made since we started keeps me going. We aren’t selling out stadiums here but we’ve gone from doing the opening spot on a pay to play bill, to being a local headlining act, I mean we’ve got a record out and a new soon to be released LP on a record label, people are wearing our band shirts, spending their hard earned cash on the stuff we make (we literally make all our merch ourselves), they’re singing along to our songs, we’re answering interview questions haha! I remember sitting on the swings at the park down the street before the band started and imagining all of that. Now it’s happening that keeps me going.
How is this new release different than previous ones? Were you trying to accomplish anything specific?
For “Odds & Ends” I thought go simple and raw, to me it feels like a natural progression from some of the stuff on our last LP “Hello Darling.”
Name one or two challenges you face as an indie musician in this oversaturated, digital music age? How has technology helped you (since we know it does help)?
It’s definitely a challenge to stand out from the crowd with so many bands out there and selling records isn’t easy with all the streaming services offering it for free, but the ability to share your music with people all over the world in an instant is definitely a blessing. If it wasn’t for the internet we wouldn’t be doing this interview so yes definitely a blessing.
What was the last song you listened to?
I don’t know what it was called but it was by The Mystery Lights and it was amazing. Definitely my next record purchase.
Which do you prefer? Vinyl? CDs? MP3s?
I go for vinyl or cassette, although I did buy a Beatles CD from Rite-Aid not too long ago.
How about this one…. Do you prefer Spotify? Apple Music? Bandcamp? Or something else? Why?
I’d say Bandcamp because you can buy a physical record, CD or cassette from a band and Bandcamp doesn’t take a cut, if it’s a physical sale all the money goes to the band. I feel a lot better about supporting the artist directly then some big corporation.
Where is the best place to connect with you online and discover more music?
On our bandcamp which is…
thevioletmindfield.bandcamp.com
our instagram…@_thevioletmindfield
or our website…www.thevioletmindfield.com
or if ya really like streaming… https://open.spotify.com/track/4i8YEKdEdiI2XMOMAqFN0Z?si=77fc3497485044f0
Anything else before we sign off?
Yeah just want to do a plug for our new LP “California Burning” on Outro Records (outrorecords.com), should be out by the end of the year due to record plant back ups. In the meantime we’ll be dropping some limited edition CD’s and Lathe Cut’s. Stay tuned 🙂
