Photo courtesy of Ian Bell

When alt-pop artist Violette released her first EP, When I Lose My Head, in 2020, that experience helped her lay the groundwork for her latest EP, In her beauty lies my death and my life.

As the global pandemic brought countries to a complete standstill, Violette found herself watching period films to escape the current reality. What she found during these marathons was the depth of their themes, and from that drew inspiration for her next EP. She wanted to create an experience that these films created for her - an escape from reality with deep and personal content.

During the creation of When I Lose My Head, Violette had the opportunity to step away from her previous role as a front woman of a band to forge her own path as a solo artist. It was a challenge to learn how to operate without her bandmates, but she found a peace that she didn’t have before.

She also learned about unneeded pressure and how to have fun while creating music, which is what she embodied during the creation of In her beauty lies my death and my life.

“I have never had as much fun writing or recording music as I did when making this EP,” she said. “There was one night where I was working on vocals and it was just a little bit of an off night, so I wasn’t getting much done. I was drinking wine and my rings were tapping on the wine glass before a take, so instead of tracking vocals we just experimented with those little sounds and [placed] them in the song. Those little moments are what make this EP so special to me - it feels like my DNA is in the songs.”

The title itself comes from her favorite French quote - “En sa beauté gît ma mort et ma vie”. It kept popping up as she recorded the five tracks, and she felt like a recurring theme had emerged. She even used the French translation as one of the song titles.

The song she is most proud of is “Fall Apart”. She released it as the second single and describes the track as being there for someone despite all the hurt they might have caused.

“It took a few tries to get it right, but it’s an example of everything I’ve been wanting to do musically for a while,” she said.