Violet Night have never been afraid to blur the line between the cinematic and the sentimental. With Rosso Corsa, their latest full-length, the Canadian duo trade in neon melancholy and wide-screen emotion, turning existential dread into something strangely euphoric. The record’s title—Italian for “Racing Red”—captures that same duality: life moving fast, beauty tangled with absurdity, and a wink at our own mortality. From the opener “Ferrari Red” to the sweeping closer, Rosso Corsa is Violet Night at their boldest and most self-aware, a testament to chasing meaning while knowing no one makes it out alive.

So, your new album, Rosso Corsa, is a powerful, cinematic album. The title translates to Racing Red. What does this title represent to the band and the emotional journey?

I think I was living in Toronto when I came up with it, and I just felt like the opening track, “Ferrari Red,” really represented the whole era of the band. For me, it was just something that made sense and wasn’t too on the nose. The opening track’s chorus is, “Paint my coffin Ferrari red, at the funeral I want to be turning heads.” I just found that really intriguing, like the yin and the yang of it. Having a Ferrari red coffin is absolutely ridiculous because it’s like, “Why would you?” Nobody cares, but people are so precious, I guess, I don’t know. So that’s kind of what it means. The whole thing is just about, not to be super dark and set a dark tone, but no matter who you are or what you do… I think that’s the thing: no matter who you are, you end up in the same box or on somebody’s mantelpiece in a jar as a fine powder. So, “get over yourself” is kind of the main message. Don’t be too precious with it, you know, “nobody gets out alive” kind of thing. 

You’ve mentioned that this record was born from a pool of nearly 100 songs. How did you narrow down the final track list?

I would say it was just instincts. A lot of it is instinct. A lot of it is… for certain songs that were written, there’s some sort of, I don’t know what you would call it, like a musical barometer in my brain that just knows. If I get really, really excited about a song and I’m like, “I have to go to the studio to record this,” then it has to be on an album. “Ferrari Red” was like that, or “Charlie Brown” was like that. Most of the songs on the record, you know, “Bad For You”… there’s just this excitement around it, this kind of thing that you feel. Yeah, so I still have a lot of those other songs just chilling right now. I don’t know if they’ll ever see the light of day. I think I could put ten of them on a record and people would absolutely love it, but I don’t know that I would.

So what was that kind of flow in your brain when you were putting them all together? What were you aiming for?

I guess I like variety, and I like to not beat the same thing over the head too hard. We live in a singles-based culture, so to have a full album that people can have as a “no skips” record—to me, I think that’s the benchmark of a great artist.

The album blends introspective lyricism with sweeping atmospheric soundscapes. Which track do you feel best encapsulates this duality of being both raw and cinematic?

“Bad For You” or “I Don’t Want to Leave the Party Early,” because those I would say are the most…  the string arrangements and how it steadily builds. The guy who did strings on that song has done strings for like Pink, Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Olivia Rodrigo, Chvrches—a lot of really great artists, even like Matchbox Twenty—just cool, cool artists. He kind of brought our vision to life with it. You can take a route with records like that where you do strings and you just program them with a keyboard, but I think there’s that extra two percent of human nature where you hear a real violin or a real cello. 

Your last full-length album, Antiheroes, explored themes of self-discovery. How does this album kind of continue or diverge from that narrative?

I think in every way this record is better than Antiheroes, and I love Antiheroes. In my opinion, from Colors of You to Antiheroes to the Daydream Drama EP to now, there’s just been steady growth and progression, and I’m really proud of it and really excited. We’re just talking on the drive over, and with every release we have, we’re just trying to make and take bigger swings. So right now I’m thinking about what’s next and what do I do next to kind of push the envelope creatively? And I have a really good idea.

Nice. How do you know when a song feels complete? Is there a specific moment or an idea that will fully transform?

Our process has always been that I’ll write stuff in my bedroom with an acoustic guitar and then present it to everybody. If I can sell the group of music snobs in our inner circle on a song with a vocal and guitar, then we know it’s special because you have to have the ability to see beyond that skeleton, basically. But if it’s not a great skeleton, you can’t. If you don’t have a great foundation, you can’t build a good house; it’ll fall apart. So I think that would be a way. But yeah, there’s just like a certain feeling, I guess, a certain knowing. I don’t even know if there’s a word for it, yeah.

The band’s sound has been described as a dynamic collective. How does the collaborative process, particularly with your drummer, Tay Ewert, shape the final songs and your sound as a whole?

That’s an interesting question. I think sometimes I get so inside my own head, and I’ll keep songs close to the chest until I feel like I’m ready to show him. Or sometimes it’ll just be an idea and I’ll show him. He’s good for getting me out of my own way sometimes because I’m pretty obsessive with it in the writing process. If I’m writing a record, I will probably think about it 12 to 14 hours of the day and always be jotting notes, making changes, and getting ideas. I love that process… But it’s like a faucet; sometimes it’s on full bore, and sometimes it’s just leaking in little ideas now and again, and you collect them. But with him, it’s been a great partnership, I would say, a lot of yin and yang. We’re very, very different people, but I think that’s the strength in that for sure.”

What do you hope that your listeners take away from this album?
Whatever it is that they need to. I think the album says everything that it wants to and needs to say. But I think that the message for me is going to be different than it is for every listener individually. But I hope that they find, if not the whole thing is something they need, then even just bits and pieces that can be a part of their life soundtrack in a way. That’s also really cool for me.

 What’s a dream venue that you think you’d like to play someday?

I know that Red Rocks and Madison Square Garden are up there. Playing SNL would be huge. I mean, I’ve seen a lot of bands on it… I love the band The National, and I saw them play on there, and I was like, ‘Rad!’ They still have some great artists on there from time to time… I saw Maggie Rogers on there recently, and it was cool because she’s an artist first and foremost. She doesn’t have a team of people, a fleet of the world’s best writers concocting her records… when it’s just like one guy did all of this, there’s a little bit more credence paid to that artistry because it’s like, ‘That guy’s on another level,’ you know.”

If you could give a piece of advice to yourself ten years ago, regarding going into music and your whole career and life path, what would you say?

Be kinder to yourself, for sure. I’m pretty hard on myself, and I think that as I’ve been in it longer, I realize that you kind of got to take note and just make sure you’re not being too hard on yourself. Things will just be as they will be, you know?… Everybody’s like, ‘You have to go through the motions. You have to learn to crawl before you learn to walk,’ kind of thing. I was always super dedicated and motivated to just try to make something… I want to get in the Ferrari, right? You just want to drive, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, that would probably be it. Or, I don’t even know that I would give myself advice because I love where I’m at right now, and I think that if I did and that changed my trajectory, I wouldn’t be where I am right now, right?”