#Live & Chat with Tessa Violet at the El Club in Detroit
"MY GOD!" TOUR DATES:
August 18: Chicago, IL @ House of Blues
August 19: Pittsburgh, PA @ Mr. Smalls Theatre
August 21: Milwaukee, WI @ The Rave/Eagles Club
August 22: Minneapolis, MN @ Varsity Theater
August 24: Saint Louis, MO @ Old Rock House
August 25: Omaha, NE @ Slowdown
August 27: Englewood, CO @ Gothic Theatre
August 28: Salt Lake City, UT @ Soundwell
August 30: Vancouver, BC @ Hollywood Theatre
August 31: Seattle, WA @ Showbox
September 1: Portland, OR @ The Star
September 3: Roseville, CA @ Goldfield Trading Post
September 4: San Francisco, CA @ The Independent
September 6: Los Angeles, CA @ The Fonda Theatre
September 7: San Diego, CA @ Music Box
CAVETOWN TOUR DATES:
September 19: Paris, France @ L'Olympia
September 20: Utrecht, Netherlands @ TivoliVredenburg
September 21: Cologne, Germany @ Palladium
September 22: Utrecht, Netherlands @ TivoliVredenburg
September 24: London, England @ Alexandra Palace
Today (August 16th), pop darling Tessa Violet teams up with Frances Forever on “Play With Fire (feat. Frances Forever),” a fresh take of the flirty, fan-favorite track from her sophomore LP MY GOD! Built around an infectious hook and the coy lyric “Here I go again, taking back what I said / that I’m never gonna play with fire,” the track is a charming ode to falling headfirst into a messy love affair. Both quippy and sultry “Play With Fire (feat. Frances Forever)” shows Tessa at her best: effortless, absorbing, and clever. Frances Forever delivers the track’s closing verse, lending their ethereal alto vocals as they sing “Gasoline, nicotine / touching everything bad for me,” perfectly adding to the track’s feeling of a euphoric chase towards a destructive end.
Tessa on “Play With Fire (feat. Frances Forever)”:
"I love Frances Forever’s vibe!! I really wanted a bridge for the song and I was so happy when they sent it to me and I loved it. I get it stuck in my head all the time and it’s fun to have another artist's perspective on the concept of playing with fire."
Frances on “Play With Fire (feat. Frances Forever)”:
“I'm such a big fan of Tessa and was an immediate fan of the song when I heard it. When she asked me to feature, it was a no-brainer. Suchhhh a fun tune!”
We caught up with Tessa and Frances in Detroit last night at the legendary El Club; Fans waited patiently in the drizzling rain as others spent their time in the rain gathering on the astroturf lawn listening to an acoustic session from Tessa. If you were lucky to get a VIP ticket, you were treated with a private mini set with Tess and a photo op.
We had the chance to chat with Tessa before the VIP fans got their star power treatment. Walking into the green room, we were introduced to Tessa, still eating one of Detroit’s favorite chocolate bonbons from Bon Bon Bon (Current favorite of Tessa: Lil Hottie ). Making our way out to the backyard, we chatted about how we found the chocolate shop. Tessa’s mother discovered it through an Instagram ad and was hooked with the first bite.
When we found our seats at the picnic-style table, the conversation started with the basics of who you are. She replies with a more internal monologue conversation between two figures (“Both her” as she explains) best described as Mother and Child.
With the tour just under (at the time of the interview) the halfway mark, Tessa couldn’t believe it was going this fast. With her album “My God!” out now, we asked what it’s like playing the album live with it now released to the public. “I love getting to play the new material. I feel like the new record is all about being a bad bitch and a sad bitch, and I love those two sides of me.”
The one thing we enjoyed about the new album was blending songs to create this smorgasbord of medley. She asked if we were musical fans before getting into the album concept. “I love in West Side Story, the song before the fight where you get this medley of all those different songs and the building tensions.” To match up with this musical theater musical production, we had to ask about the outfits for the tour production. “I knew I wanted to be more avant guard in my show, I love the daring choices in fashion, but I’m not a seamstress or a designer in any sense. So I put on Tiktok asking if any designer wanted to work with me”. Her fans soon after the post helped get the attention of Athena Lawton, who has since been helping her design and craft her outfits for the My God music video and is now on tour.
At this point of the interview, an Ice cream truck interrupted our conversation and mood as we switched to a more light heart questions of what Ice cream to get. "It’s going to be the classic ice cream sandwich.” Usually, we were about to pull out our conversation cards for the last bit of our interview, but unfortunately, Tessa was quite familiar with our game decks. “I also have this game, I pull this out with a lot of my friends, so I already know the answers.” Leaving us uncertain, we figured this would be best to wrap up and hear the fan’s questions for Tessa, as the fans were allowed to ask a few questions during the VIP meet and greet.
Now as for the show, it was everything and nothing that we expected to see. Francis Forever was amazing to see live; their attention to the audience was very touching and unique. Space Girl was their last song, but the crowd wasn’t ready for their departure; we weren’t. As for Tessa, all of the stunts performed were not body double, from twirling around with winged light-up capelets to special effects such as fog machines and fog-like bubbles to power ballads on guitar were all down by Tessa. The highlight for us was when a fan from Lansing got to go on stage and sing a verse from Bad Bitch. It was a fun night, but the fans made it even more magical. They pass around star stickers and bracelets to hug goodbyes as they exit the club.
Francis Forever
More about Tessa Violet
In July Tessa shared the MY GOD! LP, a follow up to 2019's smash success Bad Ideas. Tessa playfully integrates saccharine-sweet pop with a sharp and sultry edge, like sinking one’s teeth into sour candy. Tessa’s witty lyricism is a tongue-in-cheek tribute to female sexuality, burgeoning confidence, and the search for love that lasts. Arrayed with an assortment of pulsing, club-friendly hits, tracks such as the viral “YES MOM” have already captured the hearts of listeners. Far from being unidimensional, the addition of stripped-down, poignant tracks such as “Good Things Go Bad” and “When The Curtain Falls” serves as a testament to Tessa’s expressiveness and versatility as an artist.
The album’s lead single and opener “BAD BITCH” is an infectious pop track, the throbbing, high-octane bass meeting its match in the form of a twinkling, melodic xylophone line. The track serves as a triumphant celebration of Tessa’s evolution as well as a compelling warning to all who listen: “now i’m on that brave shit / look at me I made it”, “take that, I’m still the one to beat yeah.”
Earlier this summer Tessa released the effervescent pop track “MY GOD!” in anticipation of her album of the same name. Flirty and bubbly, the song serves as a hymn to the thrill of a new, idyllic lover, cheekily incorporating aspects of religious worship in her lyrics: “I just want to be devoured / Hot and sticky in the shower / ‘Hallelujah’ say it louder.”
Accompanying “MY GOD!” was the release of the fan-favorite hit “YES MOM”, which has already accrued almost 28 million streams on Spotify, and punk-rock-inspired “You Are Not My Friend.” The two singles serve as an alluring lead to all listeners, enticing them to see what else the album offers - while “YES MOM” is infused with cutting percussion and strings, “You Are Not My Friend” is a sonic divergence from her signature pop sound, instead calling out to any fans of the Y2K revival.
Synth embellishments complement Tessa's exploration of her worst habits on “Breakdown”, while a singalong hook reminiscent of a campfire song accompanies a declaration of unconditional love on “Kitchen Song” (which also features in its unplugged rendition as the closing track to the album). The track list becomes more introspective with guitar-centric “Again Again” and “Good Things Go Bad”, where Tessa mournfully laments lost love, while “when the curtain falls” recalls the pressures of the spotlight against a haunting, muted piano accompaniment. “song without a title” and “I Don’t Know Who I Am Without You” round out the track list, serving as heartbreak anthems perfectly suited for screaming along in the club or alone in the car, once again proving Tessa’s variability.
MY GOD! is a masterful culmination of Tessa’s years as an artist in the public eye, combining her ear for viral, algorithm-friendly pop hits with a soulful, vulnerable expression of finding self-love and pursuing one’s fantasies against the pressures of the spotlight and the pains of past loss.
Well known for her social-media savvy (she began building a fanbase on YouTube back in the late aughts) Tessa Violet has racked up a slew of viral hits since the release of her debut album Bad Ideas in 2019. With 37 million likes on TikTok, 1.8 million subscribers on YouTube, and multiple trending audios (the most notable being viral phenomenon “YES MOM”) it is clear that Tessa Violet has her finger directly on the pulse of what artistry commands attention in the digital age. She has collaborated with fellow tastemakers in the pop genre like Cavetown, Lovelytheband, MisterWives, Chloe Moriondo, and Will Joseph Cook.
In May, Tessa wrapped a 24-date tour supporting half•alive, and she is featured on the band's live recording of "Never Been Better," shared earlier this month. Tessa is currently on the road for her headlining MY GOD! tour in North America with support from Frances Forever, followed by a European tour