An intimate yet explosive collection of songs, Rosso Corsa reflects real-life experiences and powerful emotions
Atmospheric indie rock band VIOLET NIGHT is revving into its next chapter with the release of ROSSO CORSA, their most ambitious and emotionally-charged body of work to date. Out today, the album follows a string of breakout releases, building on over 4+ million Spotify streams, a series of Top 40 charting singles and a growing fan base across North America.
Marking ten years as a band, VIOLET NIGHT has spent the past decade building something entirely on their own terms. “Quickly becoming the new torchbearers of Toronto’s alternative music scene” (Canadian Beats), they’ve carved out a sound that’s unmistakably their own. Fronted by multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Connor Pohl and joined full-time by drummer Tay Ewart, the band has spent the past two years crafting a record that feels bigger, bolder and more honest than ever.
“This is without a doubt the best record we’ve ever made,” said Pohl. “I’ve grown not just as a songwriter but as a storyteller and an artist who’s more connected than ever to what VIOLET NIGHT truly is. We live in a world that feels more divided than ever, and our hope is that this record cuts through that noise. Music still has the power to connect people — to create a space where everyone feels seen and part of something bigger than themselves.”
Leading the charge for this next chapter is “COMPLICATED,” — a reflective, acoustic-driven love song layered with horns by Grammy-winner CJ Camerieri (Bon Iver, The National). Born from the classic truth that you can’t truly love someone until you love yourself, the track captures a deeply personal moment and transforms it into something anthemic and universally resonant.
From start to finish, ROSSA CORSA is a no-skips record that explores the themes of identity, ambition, love, mortality and legacy. Produced by Father Bobby Townsend and Randor Lin in Edmonton, the album is rooted in lived experience. It’s bold and layered with every lyric pulled from moments the band has personally experienced. Written over two years and shaped from a pool of almost 100 songs, the final nine-track album reflects who the band is at its core.
Ten years into their career, VIOLET NIGHT continues to grow without compromise, pushing their vision forward and making music that demands to be heard.
First off, what have you been up to since we last chatted?
It has been a while. The new album is out and we could not be proud of it. Behind the scenes we have been planning tours, one of them has been announced and our first US tour announcement is coming soon. We are always looking to what’s next, and trust us when we say there is a lot on our horizon to be excited about.
Why the title ROSSO CORSA—what does that “racing red” signal about the sound and stakes of this record?
I think it’s really subjective to the listener and what they interpret it as. There are so many layers to this album. There are a lot of juxtapositions in the opening track alone. And in the cover art, it’s all hidden in plain sight. “FERRARI RED” was the catalyst that started this album. When writing that song I thought to myself, quite literally, this song is too good and it has to come out. I definitely understand that singles are a big part of the culture right now. Artists will just consistently put out single after single but for us, singles have to build to something bigger. All of the biggest artists that inspire us put out full-length albums that are worth their weight. I think it’s a testament to the artistry. I can’t name a single band or artist that I am a fan of who has just released a couple good singles; it’s always the artists who have a catalogue of good albums that keep the fans dialled in. This album signals the band truly coming into its own. Something we’ve heard a lot from fans is that it feels like the band has finally found its sound. Which is something we would agree with for sure. In the studio we don’t go in and channel other artists as inspiration, we are really just trying to make music that we think sounds awesome and that gets us excited and that we are confident standing behind.
You wrote nearly 100 songs—what were the three non-negotiable criteria for the final nine?
Believe it or not, there’s no non-negotiable criteria set. It’s more just an instinct and a certain knowing. There’s just an undeniable something, a feeling. All of these songs have it.
“COMPLICATED” threads self-love into a love song. What unlocked that lyric, and whendid you know the chorus landed?
The lyric was unlocked when a wonderful girl gave me the key to her heart but I willfully chose not to open the door. That song was written within 10 minutes. It was just one of those lightning-in-a-bottle moments.
How did the horn arrangement with CJ Camerieri come together, and what emotion didhorns give you that guitars couldn’t?
I’ve always had a real adoration for big brass sections, trumpets, horns, violin strings, you name it, it just adds an extra percentage to the music when what you’re hearing is organic and real.
Though I don’t think it’s something humans can tell when they are listening to the average listener but I think it’s something that their subconscious can feel. And I think every percentage of that we can use in our advantage to elevate our music and really take it to the next level we need to. CJ has played on some of my all-time favourite albums. Working with him was a delight and a long time coming.
If you could add one unexpected collaborator for the next chapter (producer or artist),who and what track would you cut together?
That’s hard to say, I think that what we’ve been doing is having people that we genuinely love produce our albums and that’s been cool. It’s working for us really well and it feels like home. There are definitely some cool collaborators that come to mind but it would really depend on the scope of the song that we were doing. A vocal that contrasts mine by an artist we admire could be fun. I think there are certain mix engineers we would like to work with in the future but we don’t want to spoil the surprise, plus Father Bobby and Randor, our prods have been absolutely killing it on our mixes.
The live show: how do you translate the record’s layers (especially horns/ atmosphere)without losing punch?
Luckily, in this day and age, we do run the stems live so when you see us live it doesn’t just sound like guitar, drums and vocal with some samples but it sounds like the record in its entirety. We’re definitely trying to add more and more layers to the live show and are currently planning our best live show yet for this upcoming tour across Canada and the US (announcing soon!)