Update - 2024

ooh darling, I need you tonight

Now for a deeper update:

News on getting involved in our new music videos is below. 👇

Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Holidays to those who celebrate.
In the states we are celebrating our Thanksgiving Holiday and we want to wish each of you peace, love, and light during this season.

We are quite aware that we are living in a time of our lives that, for some, is troubling and yet sometimes hopeful. We want to acknowledge those feelings.

Faith leader and theologian, Richard Rohr, put it this way:

"These past days have been hard for many of us. Many people are experiencing shock, disillusionment, and loss of orientation. Many people are...hurting. We ask, “What is faith now? What is love now?” 

It seems there is so much at stake throughout the world:
wars, dictators, unrest, racism, misogyny, corruption, uncertainty. In the US, Canada, the UK, Europe, and throughout the world, we see that the richest and powerful are intentional about deeply dividing us along religious and political lines.

And for many of us within our Violets family worldwide, and within our personal families, we have faced even deeper griefs. Loss, sadness, suffering, sickness and even the betrayals of those we loved most and have looked up to within our communities, towns, churches and extended families.

For me, it's important that we acknowledge the moment we live in with clear eyes and open hearts.

Yet, I've not lost hope.
The deep grief within me, it seems, is changing with time.

I've been reminded in these recent years and once again this week, of a passage I read often as a teenager, and I find it rings truer in these seemingly uncertain times.

(Haldir says this to Merry, in the Lord of the Rings written by J.R.R. Tolkien.)

"The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.” 

Haldir continues, "Some there are among us who sing that the shadow will draw back, and peace shall come again."
Perhaps we need to listen for these songs to find hope that can carry us onwards.

I am Deeply Grateful:
I wanted to take a minute to thank so many of you who've reached out this past year and in recent weeks and months offering your support, kind words, encouragement, prayers, and well wishes. It means a great deal to me personally and to our band to have so many in our little community who care deeply about us, beyond even our music. Thank you. 🙏

We are also deeply grateful for the dozens of orders that have come through on our website as people get ready for the holidays. All of those orders really help to support our vision of creating great art and music, and it feels like wind in our sails. It feels like we can make it through this darkness.

I'm also deeply grateful that the music my friends and I have made has left an impact on so many, and so many who love our music have left a deep impact on us.

We are Creating Content for the New Songs/Albums. Join us

Dear friends as we get closer to releasing our many new songs, we would love your help on a few things.

As you may know we have been working hard on so much new content (songs, videos, art, etc) to support a few new releases. The amount of work is a bit overwhelming, but we are continuing to press forward day by day. As part of creating that content, we would love your help if you'd like to be a part of it.

Video- Join us:
As you may recall, for the song we released on one of our recent EPs, "California", we made a video together with you and dozens of you sent in footage of you/your dear ones with various lyrics on signs or sheets of poster board and paper that we had assigned randomly, and what came out was simply wonderful. Thank you again for that!
If you haven't seen it, you can find it on our social media pages.

Now- we have a new opportunity to participate and help us as we create content to support the new songs and album releases.

We have two songs that we are creating videos for and we would love to have some video footage of movement/dancing from you, your friends and family.
Can you dance with someone you love? In a waltz style dance with twirling or swaying together, with a significant other, a friend, a son or daughter, a father or mother (if you've lost someone). If you have a group of friends or a family to all dance together that would also be wonderful.

There will be two choices:
Song 1.
Dancing with a loved one(s), significant other, friend(s), family member(s) in a waltz/ballroom/close style of dancing. Being close together, moving in circles, twirling, swinging, etc.

Song 2.
Dancing in a freestyle or choreographed way with your family/friends/kids/team/skateboard club/church/community etc... IF you want to make up a routine/choreography of moves that you do together, please do it!

If you have a band and you want to play together or do some dance moves together to these rhythms, let us know!

The bottom line:
Would you and your family or friends take 15 minutes (or 30 minutes or more if you're so inspired) of your time, set up a camera - landscape view with the video settings at 4k resolution, and simply dance to the rhythms that we will send out to you?

Do one take, do a few takes with different angles, the more options, the better.

Then you can simply upload the version or versions of you or you with your family and friends dancing to the drum beat; share it with us via google drive, and we will find the best footage that matches what we currently have from our own families and friends.

You will need at least two devices:
-1 device to play back the music,
- And 1 (or more) device(s) to capture the dancing from different angles.

You can send in as many takes/angles as you'd like and we can figure out what works best in the context of the larger community of videos.

A few other suggestions for styling:
We have a few other suggestions including that we would love you to wear black or all black.
Or if you can- Black with Gold - guys could wear a tie with black/gold, girls could wear black/gold dresses or skirts, or splash a black outfit with gold shoes.

Girls in dresses or skirts, guys in jeans or suits, black tees or button up shirts.

AND- if you're so inclined, to put gold and/or sea green eye shadow across your eyelids or as a line/outline across your eyes/face/nose.

Locations and weather:
We know that some areas of the world have been hit by hard rains and flooding, and our hearts go out to those towns and cities, we hope that you and your loved ones are safe.  

If a gentle rainstorm or Snow storm comes to your area of the world, and you can get out in the rain/snow in a safe way (away from flood areas), dancing in (and getting soaked by the rain/snow) to the drum beat and/or simply walking with umbrellas in the rain/snow, that would be amazing.

If you don’t want to be in the cold rain/snow - stay indoors where it’s warm and dance. 💃

If you are in a warmer climate and/or simply don't like rain storms or snow storms, perhaps get down to the sea or a river or a lake, and wade out a little bit, and dance in the water or on the shoreline to your hearts delight. 

If you're in a warmer climate and/or there is no rainy or cloudy weather in your area - then we recommend filming during the sunrise or sunset hours - 

Or - stay indoors where it’s warm and dance. 💃

Locations: if you simply have a space in your home or yard or a street or special building in your town, and want to dance there (without rain/snow/water), that would be most welcome as well.

When all is done, simply load the footage of the various videos up to google drive and share it with us at info@thevioletburning.com

Song Choices:
If you are interested in supporting us this way, please send me a note with your Song(s) choice(s) to info@thevioletburning.com 

Please specify if you'd like to participate in:
Song 1 -Waltz or
Song 2 - Freestyle or BOTH
and we will send some instructions and a drum rhythm from one/both of our new songs for you to dance to.

my only light, is your true light

Holiday Merch, Gift Ideas,
Pedals, Music Gear
and a Personal Update

Yes there is a sale on some items going on at www.thevioletburning.com for FALL/Winter SWEATSHIRTS and Tee Shirts in our shop!

We remain committed to making the best art/music we can. We are planning special things for these new releases, and we will create the best art/music we can with whatever resources we have as we complete these new releases.

As some of you may know we have had some minor medical issues in our family and to support those costs of medical care and debts, I am selling some dearly loved music gear, mics, pedals, and pickups. We are doing good, actually doing quite a bit better, but as some of you know, healthcare in America can get very expensive quickly.

If you are interested in any of the following items, simply email me at orders@thevioletburning.com with the item(s) you're interested in listed in the Subject and what you think is a fair price for that item, and we can figure out shipping (US/Canada/Europe) and go from there.

I do have some collectible items as well, for those I will suggest a ballpark price based on current gear prices found on Reverb.com or Ebay.

I would love it if the gear that I've used on these new albums and on violets tours, goes to good homes within the violets community as they are all super cool devices. It means more to me to have them go to our violets family than to strangers on the internet.

Also, in the case of some of the pedals, I do have two or more in our inventory. This way I can use them for touring in different locations and to also keep others in the studio. So in some cases I'm keeping one or two of the specific pedals and selling an extra.

Any items that don't sell to our friends/fans I will list on my Reverb shop.

The current items I'm selling are LISTED HERE