Darling Violetta

Biography

Darling Violetta formed in Los Angeles in late 1996, founded by vocalist Cami Elen and guitarist Jymm Thomas. Elen had previously appeared on Hank Williams, Jr.'s album Pure Hank (1991), while Thomas was an experienced guitarist. The band began performing acoustic music in Los Angeles coffeehouses before expanding with bassist Atto Attie and drummer Steve McManus. The name Darling Violetta came from actor Bela Lugosi's salutation in letters to his mistress, Violetta Napierska. In 1997, the band answered a call in the Hollywood Reporter for unknown bands to submit music for the mockumentary film Burn Hollywood Burn. Their track "Anastasia Says" was among 25 songs selected from roughly 9,200 entries. The song appeared on Darling Violetta's first record, Bath-Water-Flowers, released March 10, 1998. Thematically inspired by the character Ophelia from Shakespeare's Hamlet, the album was generally well-received by critics in Los Angeles' music scene. Cellist Gerri Sutyak joined shortly after the album's release, solidifying the band's cello-rock sound. In late 1998, Bernard Baur of Music Connection compared the band's sound to The Cranberries, describing a repertoire of "moody [and] large musical landscapes" with a "flair for the dramatic." That same year, Darling Violetta shared a rehearsal space with Four Star Mary, a band involved in the music of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Through this connection, they performed on the show in August 1998, playing "Cure" from the upcoming Kill You EP and "Blue Sun" from Bath-Water-Flowers in the episode "Faith, Hope & Trick" (season 3, episode 3). In 1999, Darling Violetta wrote the theme song for the Buffy spin-off Angel in collaboration with Holly Knight; the theme, inspired by the superhero genre, took three weeks to compose. In February 2000, Darling Violetta released their second album, The Kill You EP, preceded by the single "Spoiled and Rotten." AllMusic described it as "melancholy, guitar-driven dream-pop," and the EP was influenced sonically by Nick Cave and PJ Harvey. Throughout 2000 and 2001, the band periodically featured in the CMJ Radio Top 200. A third release, Parlour, followed in February 2003. Critics for AllMusic and Los Angeles Magazine felt aspects of its production were influenced by The Beatles, with the latter also drawing sonic comparisons to Jane's Addiction. Outside their own recordings, Darling Violetta contributed two songs to video game soundtracks in the Vampire: The Masquerade universe: "I Want to Kill You" in Redemption (2000) and "A Smaller God" in Bloodlines (2004). An extended mix of the band's Angel theme appeared on the 2005 soundtrack album Angel: Live Fast, Die Never. In late 2009, Elen and Thomas reported recording songs for a fourth, untitled release, but this album did not come to fruition. In January 2018, Elen described Darling Violetta as "on an extended hiatus."