11 December 2024

Art by Jeffrey Boyle

All-female US garage rockers THE DARTS are one of the most energetic, exciting, pizzazy bands around since they dropped their self-titled debut LP back in 2017. On stage, the daredevils ignite a let’s-go-crazy-tonight ambiance, turning clubs into sweaty saunas as I experienced many times along with buzzing crowds.

Their creativity, on record and live, is off the charts. With this year’s Boomerang album, they had their second longplayer out in two years, and touring has become second nature.

Front Amazone/vocalist/keyboardist/songwriter Nicole Laurenne will tell us all
about her band’s 24/7 rock ‘n’ roll frenzy and her new solo persona Black Viiolet.

But as usual we start an interview with a slice of music. Let’s get in the
mood with one of TUTV’s favorite singles of the year, Pour Another.

Hello Nicole, so great
to meet and chat again.

In the past 2 years THE DARTS released 2 top albums and toured non-stop.
Where did the inexhaustible huge creativity and inexhaustive energy come
from, Nicole?

“The muse is a strange and wonderful thing, isn’t it? I honestly don’t know where all these songs come from. Even with all that we released and toured, I still write songs constantly, recorded two albums for the band and also toured with my solo project Black Viiolet, on two continents.

All this activity is a blessing and a curse. Not many people get it, or can keep up with
the schedule I put out there, or they feel threatened by it all somehow, and a lot of people tell me to slow down. But I don’t like to sit still for too long. I guess I get it from my mother, who, at 85 years old, still came on tour with us many times this year and sold merch and hung out with Jello Biafra and ran circles around both my bands.

I am really enjoying my life right now, it is turning out exactly the way I always wanted
it somehow, plus I have been sober and vegan and mentally in a good place for a good while now. That last part might sound boring, but trust me it is most definitely not. I already have new albums written for both the band and for my solo project. I hope to
get them recorded this Spring and Summer, if the labels don’t kill me for suggesting it.”

The LPS were named respectively SNAKE OIL and
BOOMERANG. Any story behind both titles?

“Both kind of sprung from the same place. Snake Oil refers to all the misinformation and fake news we are fed all the time. I was raised by scientists and it just crushes my brain when I read so much patently false information and dangerously, provocative, ignorant opinions circling out there. This has always been the case of course, which is why the old term “snake oil” was coined in the first place, but the cyber world makes it especially ubiquitous and confusing now for people.

The internet requires an advanced level of skepticism and self-education. Snake Oil is full of little warnings about taking care of yourself and not letting the salesmen get into your head, whether they are selling love, booze, food, politics, or war. Form your own opinions carefully.

Boomerang refers to two things: the fact that we turned right around after Snake Oil returned to the studio to record right away, and also that annoying type of person who doesn’t take a hint and continues to contact you despite every effort to lose them. We all have one of those. Boomerang contains a lot of messages about trying to get toxic things and people out of your life.

As you can see, I have been doing a lot of work on myself
in the past years, and it shows in the songs, obviously.

What’s your favourite track on BOOMERANG and why?

“The Middle of Nowhere” is, in my humble opinion, one of the best songs I’ve ever written. Not only do the lyrics convey well the broad sense of vacancy and disorientation I feel at times, but the echoes and chords and spaghetti-western guitar line evoke exactly the sensation I was trying to put out there.

Wandering and lost and searching for something or someone that will recharge and redirect me. And the bridge is a great shift into a little anger and frustration about the whole situation. Mark Rains produced it brilliantly; he and I sat and worked out everything on Boomerang together, just as I heard it in my head and tried to get on the demos.

In a normal world single HANG AROUND should be a hit. Catchy as hell.
And the video is pure THE DARTS. Tell us about the song and the clip, Nicole.

“The song itself was one that Jello originally wanted to put on Snake Oil but we didn’t
have time in the studio to make it happen. So it was the first track on Boomerang instead. The song perfectly captures that whole concept of trying get toxic people out of your life. It contains the lyric that inspired the album title: “I try to end it every way / but you’re a fucking boomerang”.

And it was the most fun video shoot ever. We were booked to perform in the center
of a roller rink in Seattle, which in itself is incredible, but then our long-time videographer Matt Eskew agreed to come up and film during the show. We shot all my vocals in the few minutes before the show and then he took it from there. It was just a regular live Darts performance, nothing special for the video, and captured so well by him.”

You’ve been on JELLO BIAFRA’s record label for years now. How’s
the collaboration between the band and the former DEAD KENNEDY
legend?

“Jello is a force of nature. He is rightfully a legend, with very strong opinions about
what he likes and what he wants music to be. He has surprisingly eclectic taste in genres, from eastern European folk music to metal, but no matter what the style is, it has to be instrumentally powerful and has to have great vocals.

He doesn’t suffer fools, as we say in English. He lets you know when he wants you to
push yourself harder. We have spent hours on the phone together over the years, talking about politics,  our mothers, and managing bands, and… a lot about how he thinks
I can always do even more, even better.

He is such a strong advocate for my vocals. I cannot believe it, to this day,
that someone with his experience is so staunchly in my corner on this.

Jello Biafra – Alternative Tentacles Records

But he also doesn’t pull punches. He recently told me “you are one of my all-time
favorite singers,” and, while I was dizzy from that, he followed it with, “but I think
you can write more than just love songs you know.” Jello is one of a kind, and
everything he says comes from a real love of music.”

THE DARTS played a massive amount of gigs in the past 2 years. Any idea
how many and which one was the most memorable one and why?

“I think we might have hit the 250 mark. There are bands who do more of
course, but we have crossed the Atlantic too many times too count and that
makes us maybe a little unique.

The memorable ones are also too many to count but if I had to pick one that
I can’t really believe even happened, it would be our performance at Barlinnie
Prison in Edinburgh Scotland, in the actual prison chapel, on the actual altar
itself, for the prisoners, while my daughter was there also as crew.

The prison in Scotland where The Darts spend a night this year (to play)

It was like some surreal dream sequence, with beams of sunlight pouring over
us from the stained glass above the altar while I sang songs with veiled lyrics
about booze and sex, inside the prison walls. You can’t make this stuff up.

The tiring travelling, the many interviews, the explosive gigs. What keeps the
band going on and on and on? Energy drinks? Caffeine? Naps between shows?

“It looks like a lot of physical stuff, but in truth, we spend 6-7 hours a day usually just
sitting in the van, on the way to the next show. For me that means lots of gas station coffee, writing songs on my laptop, dozing (I am an expert at dozing in vehicles), and responding to a zillion emails and social media messages to help arrange and promote
the next shows.

Just managing guest lists and interviews and accounting and the whole business end of running the band with my agents Ludo (Adrenalin Mix Music) and Mickey (Ivy Agency) for two bands with lots of releases is really a whole additional hugely time-consuming
job that no one sees me doing when I’m not on stage. So yeah: caffeine. Lots, please.

Brussels, 18 October 2024 – Photo by TUTV

When, in the van, what songs/music is on the stereo?

“Our driver gets to choose. The rest of us have ear buds in anyway. We have had drivers over the years who play Scandinavian stoner rock, American classic rock, Belgian triphop, Serbian garage rock, you name it. My favorite was when someone programmed the GPS
to have a Mr. T voice giving us directions in French.”

How is it to live so close together with 4 individuals on
the road for such a long time? Lots of pillow fights?

“Honestly, you get into a routine with that much touring. Van, soundcheck, dinner,
set, load-out, hotel. By the time we load out of the venue every night, sometimes at
3 am, knowing we have to get up early and get back in the van and do it all again and again, all of us pretty much skip the party and crash hard these days.

You really have to take care of your body with this schedule; if you get sick, or if I lose
my voice, or if someone gets injured, it means everyone involved – promoters, drivers, agents, fans – is affected.

I have had to get an MRI in France, gone to emergency clinics in Spain, we have a huge bag of weird medicines we have picked up at pharmacies everywhere over time that we can’t even recognize – staying healthy is a real thing. And since there is virtually no privacy ever, we have to give each other a lot of space, physically and emotionally, whenever we can.

I go for a lot of solo walks in strange cities in the mornings before the van leaves, we all find little niches where we can talk privately with our loved ones each day on the phone, and I absolutely detest any kind of drama so I try to steer clear of any of that and stay focused. The only fight I have with my pillow is that I don’t get to see it often enough.

What can we expect from THE DARTS in 2025? New music? More concerts?

“All of the above. Of course. Alternative Tentacles will release a 7-inch split of our
new song “Get Spooky” (also the name of our new tour!) with our labelmates Tsunami Bomb. We are also talking about possibly an all-Darts 7-inch European release with two
new songs. I doubt Jello wants to release another new album so soon again, so I’m
holding back on a new full-length release in 2025, but I am sure we will be back in
the studio recording one at least.

The tour schedule this year will feature a lot more USA dates – long overdue! –
including tours with SERVICE (Russell Simmins’ amazing band) and my garage rock hero
Dion Lunadon, in addition to Darts-only dates. There will be plenty of really cool European festivals and club shows around those appearances. With this kind of pace, you’ll see Darts lineup changes again, as always, but I promise you the show will always, always be one-hundred-percent Darts. It will be a really incredible year, I can already see it.”

Despite the immensely, busy schedule, you found the time for your excellent debut solo EP under the moniker of BLACK VIIOLET. A totally other musical affair than the band’s garage punk ‘n ’roll. What and/or inspired you for this project?

“I used to dabble in jazz, playing piano in a trio a million years ago. In my downtime at home, I listen to jazz and triphop and downtempo stuff a lot more than anyone would
ever suspect.

This project started as just me, alone in my room during the pandemic, writing songs inspired by such varied influences as spy movies, Shirley Bassey with Propellerheads,
Jessica Rabbit, Nouvelle Vague, Forniquette, Sneaker Pimps, Nina Simone, Portishead and
even Digable Planets… sounds like a weird playlist but, believe me, it works.

I had this idea to write vintage-sounding torch songs and then put trip-hop beats underneath them. Stuff I myself might turn on in the evenings at home. The songs
just flowed out of me, nonstop. I wrote eighteen songs over the year and have about eighteen more ready to go.

Who’s your utterly sensual alter ego BLACK VIIOLET?

“It’s all me. Just completely me. I have a lot of sides and facets. I’m not a cube but some kind of irregular 3-D octagon. I think, in the slow songs I’ve written for The Darts and The Love Me Nots, you can hear some of these quiet lounge stylings peek out.

But Black Viiolet actually throws off the gogo boots altogether and puts on a velvet-lined feather boa. It has been an absolute joy to perform these songs live, with different musicians in different parts of the world, letting the sultry stuff in my brain run free.”

The EP is titled KILL ME NOW. Could be the theme music for
a classic film noir movie. Sounds a bit scary, Nicole. Right?

“It is a little bit tongue in cheek of course, “kill me now” is an expression we use often in English when we are really annoyed or frustrated (“my last date turned out to be a hoarder, kill me now”) – but also it is a funny allusion to spy movie plots, from which the chords and lines definitely sprung.

But the lyrics take it even to a third place, the idea of a big passionate love that you know will be the death of you when it ends, so… you might as well just kill me now and get it over with.

So the song says a lot of things at once. I’m so proud of it. We played it live in Urbana, Illinois, recently, and Cincinnati sax player Kaleb Swedlund snuck in the James Bond
theme under the second verse; it was perfect.

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Will you do solo gigs next year, Nicole?

“A few people have asked me that recently. To be honest, I have a real imposter
syndrome about my piano playing. Even though I studied and competed in classical
music and performed and recorded with combo organs and keyboards constantly (thank you, Korg, for the sponsorship on two continents this year!), I am hugely shy about playing piano alone for anyone.

So you probably won’t see me without at least a bassist anytime soon. But maybe someday. I have this recurring dream of being an old woman, playing on an old
piano in a little bar by the sea in Europe. It could happen maybe.”

What do you wish for yourself and the band in 2025?

“I just want all of us, including me, to be as content and peaceful as possible
while the world crashes around us. I wish everyone a year without drama and
trauma.

I hope everyone falls in love with someone and sees interesting places and
feels a little bit enriched playing these silly songs I’m always trying to write
and prioritizes creativity in their lives.

I hope the musicians who play alongside me know that I respect their
musicianship so very deeply. And I can’t wait to get back in the van.”

Thank you very much, Nicole, for taking time, despite your 24/7 schedule,
for this informative and highly entertaining chat. May the road rise with
you, your family, The Darts and Black Viiolet in 2025

Music maestro, please.
Stream/buy.

– BOOMERANG –

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– SNAKE OIL –

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– KILL ME NOW –

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The Darts: Instagram – Linktree
Black Viiolet: Instagram – Linktree