{"id":829872,"date":"2026-05-29T10:45:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T10:45:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/829872\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T10:45:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T10:45:16","slug":"violet-grohl-steps-out-of-her-famous-fathers-shadow-with-a-haunted-alt-rock-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/829872\/","title":{"rendered":"Violet Grohl steps out of her famous father\u2019s shadow with a haunted, alt-rock debut"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The title of Violet Grohl\u2019s debut album, \u201cBe Sweet to Me,\u201d started as an inside joke.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Be Sweet to Me\u2019 is a phrase that my best friend and I say to each other when we\u2019re play-fighting,\u201d says the rising singer. \u201cIt\u2019s what we do to put an end to it. Like, \u2018Oh, be sweet to me!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The phrase might also carry a double meaning, one Grohl is still parsing. At some point in the naming process, someone in her circle asked Grohl if she was making a plea. Remembering that moment, Grohl pauses to consider.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess it can be seen as a pretext for the album. Just \u2026 be sweet,\u201d she says. \u201cBut at the same time, it\u2019s literally just what my best friend and I say to each other when we\u2019re calling each other idiots.\u201d<\/p>\n

Intentional or not, no one could blame the 20-year-old for inserting an earnest request for audiences to proceed with kindness as she readies her debut album, which finally landed Friday. <\/p>\n

The reasons are pretty self-explanatory: Grohl is the eldest child of modern rock icon Dave Grohl, the highly decorated founder and centerpiece of Foo Fighters and onetime drummer of Nirvana, and his wife, former model and TV producer Jordyn Blum. In an age of \u201cnepo\u201d accusations and internet dogpiles, it would be completely understandable for Grohl to feel anxious about her album\u2019s reception.<\/p>\n

But if she is, it doesn\u2019t show. On a warm day in mid-May, Grohl appears relaxed and self-assured \u2014 but not arrogant \u2014 as she idles on a sofa in a cozy Studio City ADU owned by her publicist. Encased in a long, black sleeveless dress, she\u2019s giving a mixture of off-duty rock star and summer goth. Her arms host an array of intricate tattoos; I spot a raven, a skull and a vintage lace fan. Next to her is a bulging Balenciaga mini bag, and a pair of oversized sunglasses on her head are perched atop a mop of jet black curls. The high contrast of her pale, makeup-less skin and swept back hair makes her round, gray-blue eyes appear even more pronounced.<\/p>\n

\"Young <\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone wants you to be an idealized version of \u2026 not even yourself, but of what they want you to be,\u201d she says. \u201cSorry, that\u2019s just not gonna happen with me.\u201d <\/p>\n

(Bella Newman)<\/p>\n

Any time spent with her reveals that Grohl is the sort of person who is ultra-sensitive to the energy of places, people and even the long-deceased. In her free time, Grohl is an avid lover of anything paranormal. \u201cThe same time I got into horror movies, I started watching \u2018Ghost Adventures\u2019 on Travel Channel,\u201d she says. \u201cIt totally sent me down this rabbit hole of the supernatural.\u201d<\/p>\n

When I ask if she\u2019d ever made contact with any ghosts, Grohl nods emphatically before describing a trip to a hunting estate near the Scottish Highlands. \u201cIt is the most haunted place I\u2019ve ever been in my whole life,\u201d she says. \u201cI walked into the house, and it was like a blast of cold air, chills everywhere. It\u2019s this instinctual feeling of, I\u2019m not alone here \u2026 I heard footsteps and disembodied voices, I saw shadows, I had crazy f\u2013ing dreams. It\u2019s so eye-opening, but it\u2019s not evil or negative.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chilling films and Lynchian surrealism pervade the tracklist of \u201cBe Sweet to Me,\u201d which relies on symbolic lyricism to illustrate coming-of-age stories. From a sonic perspective, listeners will be thrilled to know that her debut does not just make for an entertaining listen \u2014 it\u2019s a dedicated towpath to the very squealing heart of alternative rock, built by an artist who understands her music history on a granular level. Across a tight 11 tracks, \u201cBe Sweet to Me\u201d careens across late-\u201980s and \u201890s experimental genres, from ripping alt-rock on \u201cBug in the Cake\u201d to hazy dream pop on \u201cMobile Star\u201d to aggro Clinton-era alt metal on \u201cOften Others,\u201d and even a bit of chugging hardcore on \u201cCool Buzz.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

As many references as she brought to the recording process, led by producer Justin Raisen (a known collaborator of Charli XCX and Kim Gordon, who made the introduction), Grohl is not attempting to cosplay the grunge era. Instead of simply mirroring influences, she deftly puts her own spin on each arrangement with inventive, grabby arrangements, razor-sharp production and her versatile vocals, which can bellow like Courtney Love, murmur like PJ Harvey or turn ethereal like Elizabeth Fraser.<\/p>\n

\u201cJustin has a crew of musicians that he works with, and they\u2019re all close friends of his,\u201d Grohl explains of the album\u2019s backing band, which Raisen assembled to mimic the Wrecking Crew, a loose collective of session players who appeared on some of the most beloved albums of the 1960s and \u201870s. \u201cThey\u2019re the coolest, most talented, genuine music lovers, and seriously talented musicians \u2026 I\u2019d never been in that kind of recording environment before. Everyone would throw out ideas or I would share a reference, and whatever it was about the song, [we\u2019d ask] how we can build and make it a completely new, different thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Growing up in Tarzana\/Woodland Hills, Grohl says she\u2019s been singing ever since she could speak. In a baby book, her mother wrote how Grohl, at 8 or 9 months, was \u201cbabbling and singing.\u201d She took piano lessons with a teacher who taught her any Beatles song she wanted to learn. She later picked up the ukulele, and then a guitar. Now, it\u2019s any piece of gear, from bass to drums to a lap dulcimer. \u201cI just love messing around with different instruments and seeing all the different sounds I can make,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Grohl also had an ideal music-taste mentor in her father, who told his eldest all about Bj\u00f6rk and acquiesced to playing Amy Winehouse\u2019s \u201cRehab\u201d on repeat. \u201cI think I was 4 or 5, and I remember sitting in front of his computer, and he was talking about how she was from Iceland,\u201d Grohl says of those days. \u201cAnd I was like, \u2018Oh, she\u2019s the princess of Iceland. That was my idea of Bj\u00f6rk from a young age. Bj\u00f6rk\u2019s \u2018Hunter\u2019 music video was a turning point for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

By adolescence, while on the road with the Foo Fighters, Grohl would make herself useful by assisting the band\u2019s tour manager. She remembers: \u201cI had a walkie-talkie, I would hand per diems out to people, I would run the envelopes around, and bring my dad a towel after the show, stuff like that.\u201d The live-music atmosphere may have also sparked Grohl\u2019s curiosity in songwriting, which she says began as a way of journaling. \u201cI have cassette demos that I made with a tiny one-track recorder,\u201d she remembers. \u201cThen I started learning how to use Logic right before I turned 13, and that opened up this whole new world.\u201d<\/p>\n

One night in May 2018, on a break from the East Coast leg of the Foos\u2019 Concrete and Gold tour, the elder Grohl headlined a benefit concert for the UCSF Benioff Children\u2019s Hospital, where he encouraged his daughter, then only 12, to join him onstage to sing Adele\u2019s \u201cWhen We Were Young.\u201d A few weeks later, back on tour, Grohl jumped onstage to help sing backup on a few tracks. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t my first time singing on a stage, but it was my first time singing on a stage with that many people in [the audience],\u201d she says of the second experience. \u201cI was really scared, but once it was happening, and once it was over, I was like, \u2018Oh, this is what I want to do. This is my purpose.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Woman <\/p>\n

Chilling films and Lynchian surrealism pervade the tracklist of \u201cBe Sweet to Me,\u201d which relies on symbolic lyricism to illustrate coming-of-age stories. <\/p>\n

(Bella Newman)<\/p>\n

From there, Grohl became something of a live fixture \u2014 a beloved Foos adjunct performer. But clearly one with her own trajectory. In pre-pandemic 2020, Grohl joined the surviving members of Nirvana at the Art of Elysium Gala, where she sang \u201cHeart-Shaped Box.\u201d The next year, father and daughter recorded a duet of \u201cNausea\u201d by L.A. classic punk favorites X. In 2022, Grohl opened the second tribute to late Foos drummer, Taylor Hawkins, with an aching rendition of Leonard Cohen\u2019s \u201cHallelujah.\u201d<\/p>\n

It should definitely be said that Grohl is hardly pulling a Jacob Dylan as it relates to her parentage \u2014 a detail that actually makes her appear that much more self-actualized and approachable, simply because she isn\u2019t trying to circumvent reality or engage in a furious round of name-dropping. She freely discusses the long evening car rides around Los Angeles she\u2019d take with her dad and two younger sisters during the pandemic, the car becoming a music-recommendation feedback loop, with older and younger generations trading off DJ duties. \u201cMy sister and I introduced him to Jockstrap,\u201d Grohl chuckles when I ask what bands she introduced her dad to during those rides. \u201cI\u2019d play him old jazz standards, hip-hop. It was a constant thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

During those evening rides, Grohl also drank up the city\u2019s otherworldly, vaguely haunted visage. \u201cThere\u2019s something special about L.A. that I can\u2019t fully describe,\u201d she says. \u201cThere\u2019s inspiration everywhere, so many beautiful people and historic buildings. I love art about L.A. \u2014 when people reference L.A. in their music, movies, or books. I grew up here, and I\u2019ve lived here my whole life. I just feel that deep connection to it all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like any great artist, Grohl is a product of her surroundings, and that can\u2019t help but include a very specific, unlikely upbringing. In her own matter-of-fact way, Grohl shrugs as she acknowledges the inescapable pressure of her last name. \u201cEveryone wants you to be an idealized version of \u2026 not even yourself, but of what they want you to be,\u201d she says. \u201cSorry, that\u2019s just not gonna happen with me. You\u2019re not gonna convince me to change. I\u2019m doing this because I love music, and that\u2019s all I\u2019ve ever known. Everyone\u2019s gonna want me to be something, and I\u2019m not the person that will give in to that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The title of Violet Grohl\u2019s debut album, \u201cBe Sweet to Me,\u201d started as an inside joke. \u201c\u2018Be Sweet…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":829873,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[29],"tags":[12260,340613,340612,197838,31245,136154,171,207185,24310,340611,340616,975,340614,26951,3546,6620,67,132,68,340615],"class_list":["post-829872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-album","tag-alt-rock-debut","tag-backing-band","tag-bjork","tag-dad","tag-debut-album","tag-entertainment","tag-famous-father","tag-foo-fighters","tag-grohl","tag-l-a-classic-punk","tag-music","tag-music-history","tag-nirvana","tag-people","tag-time","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-violet-grohl"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116657463674935643","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=829872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829872\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/829873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=829872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=829872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=829872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}