From The Darts To Black Viiolet: The Cultural Force Of Nicole Laurenne
With her many bands, Nicole Laurenne has spent the past decade building a body of work defined by nerve, range, and the refusal to be boxed in.
A decade ago, I grumbled on my now defunct Roadkill Radio show, that if I have to hear one more garage band with a Farfisa organ I would vomit. The year was 2016; an arduous time of dull, carbon copy, organ-dominant garage punk, which sucked for me, given the show was dedicated to that very genre. Then, along came The Darts.
By the end of 2017 I had backed down from my original sentiment, proclaiming The Darts Me. Ow album (Dirty Water Records) as album of the year, and the Farfisa, when used properly, to be “One fucker of a good instrument.” This is not a Darts article.
Most, I assume, will know Nicole Laurenne as The Darts lead vocalist, and the woman who quite seems to enjoy abusing her Farfisa organ with her foot. Dang she can play that thing.
Formed in 2016, The Darts (Nicole Laurenne — The Love Me Nots/Motobunny/Zero Zero; Christina Nunez — The Love Me Nots/Casual Encounters/Madcap; Michelle Balderrama — Brainspoon; Rikky Styxx — The Two Tens/The Dollyrots) are a black clad cool garage punk theater mob who deal in sneer and velocity, and make several other garage bands sound like they were assembled by a committee. Their latest album Halloween Love Songs, released on March 3, 2026 after an extensive European tour, features a changed line-up from the original foursome, but still carries the dirt of the early days, as well as the spectre of that damn Farfisa.
This is not a Darts article.
On February 13, 2026, Black Viiolet released her second album Dark Blue to fawning revues, mostly because it’s a bloody good album. Luxuriously coated in a smoky lounge velvet, the dark jazz trip hop neo soul project is a moody listen built around atmosphere, restraint and late-night emotional collateral. This is a Farfisa no-go zone, where lipstick on the mirror is traded for lipstick classily applied where it belongs, on the piano player. This is not a Black Viiolet article.
Nicole Laurenne occupies a rare space in underground music, wielding an authority across two juxtaposing genres, one of which she created. One of the clearest themes across her work is reinvention without betrayal. The Darts and Black Viiolet are polar opposites, but they do not feel disconnected. Both projects are driven by control of mood, a strong visual identity, and a writer who understands the value of tension. In The Darts, that tension arrives through theatrical garage-punk charge. In Black Viiolet, it arrives through longing, distance, restraint, and ache. The emotional weather changes, but the hand on the wheel is recognisable.
Tempting cliches roll about the tongue when attempting to describe Laurenne’s impact — garage queen, neo-soul goddess, punk trailblazer… all the social media superlatives that have become diluted to the point of futility. But, having constructed a body of work that refuses confinement, turning style into a working language, while remaining rooted in her creative core values, Nicole Laurenne is a present force destined to be present in the future.
The live attack in her music punches hard, an intensity that understands the space between the notes as the cradle of impact. This is an artist who knows how to stage a performance, treading the showmanship tightrope with aplomb. Her keyboard work is central to this and, despite her obvious talent, is one mother-humper of a prop. For The Darts, with one high heel on its edge, Laurenne bullies her instrument to submission, commanding attentive obedience from the blade of a boot. With Black Viiolet, the keys are again a focal point, seduced into submission rather than brutalized, treated with stylized lighting and syrupy breath — smooth, sultry, sweat-free. Respectively, these opposing elements give her sound a physical identity.
“I think if you asked almost anyone, we are all multi-faceted, whole people with lots of different skills and interests.”
Gaining wisdom is often a treacherous path, one paved with adversity that cuts deeper than it teaches, and teaches deeper than it wounds. It takes its payment in innocence, and strips away illusion leaving truth standing in the cold. It’s here, where Laurenne now treads, tall in the understanding that it’s her life’s path that has shaped her discipline both on and offstage. Beyond the stage, she’s a mum to twin daughters, a breast cancer survivor, and a retired judge who also taught ethics courses for judges. This third fact is often treated as a novelty that causes much amusement in a punk scene littered with defendants, but in a recent Dying Scene interview, Laurenne linked her years in law to what she has seen in the lives of others, and to the overlap between social damage and the worlds artists inhabit. Her goal-oriented mindset, her familiarity with rigid systems and people under strain, has steeled her approach to long-haul touring and late-hour recording, label and media pressures, adversity and conflict. It’s in the lyrics — the way she sings of human frailties, of love and emotional wear, even if sung in a black-clad campy manner, displays an inspiring authenticity and a unique wisdom displaying serious emotional depth.
I’m not who you think I am
Yeah I’m much worse than that
I’m not who I said I’d be
Can’t sustain that kind of dream
I’ll be in a dark house
Sitting in the silence
Ignoring all the pluses
Enjoying all the minus
— BLACK VIIOLET Dark Blue
The key to understanding Laurenne’s place in the music landscape is her decision to launch Black Viiolet as a serious creative lane rather than a throwaway side project. Having spoken about her love of piano, jazz, vintage vocal and trip hop, it’s easy to see that Black Viiolet is a release valve for a part of her creativity that’s been patiently waiting its turn, rather than an off-kilter statement recorded in downtime.
Underground music scenes have a habit of espousing freedom and individuality while punishing artists for daring to change. The subconscious desire we have for our idols to remain a version of themselves that we find convenient is an unhealthy trait, and one that often pressures the artist to remain stagnant. Laurenne has avoided that trap, and in doing so, has increased her cultural significance, one that must be taken seriously. The slide between genres, between sound and appearance and stage persona is seamless, and has bridged the gap between pomp and restraint, wildness and civility, in the most unexpected way imaginable. Proof of concept. Sounds like utter wank doesn’t it? Maybe it is, but you gotta respect her trajectory.
There’s something deeply satisfying about an artist who refuses to become one-dimensional. Generally speaking, women in the music industry are expected to be the face, the body, the object, the front, the hook, the mysterious obvious, the mascot, the shallow sex kitten who sells records, all while being told to stay the same, despite criticism of being reductive. Nicole Laurenne ignores those antiquated notions. She writes, leads, shapes and sustains, a builder who follows her own flow, utilizing the multiple tools at her disposal, expanding the image of what a woman can do in music without resorting to self-parody.
This is why I keep coming back to her music. Not because The Darts are fun and Black Viiolet is serious, but because both projects are serious about mood. The Darts tear up the dragstrip, inducing thumping hearts to an animalistic frenzy. Black Viiolet delivers the silk, evoking the beast in us all to revel in our beauty. Both moods are controlled by a conduit of tension and release, the overarching moods that transform music into pure, honest emotion.
This is now a Darts article.
Halloween Love Songs lands at a point where The Darts could have easily coasted on established identity, but didn’t. The touring around the album is relentless, the band’s craft sharpened to the point where it’s this difficult sixth album that may be their magnum opus. With recent line-up changes, including the return of drummer Rikki Styxx, the foursome seems tighter than ever. Newest members, bassist Lindsay Scarey (38 Coffin) and guitarist Rebecca Davidson (The Love Me Nots/Motobunny/Zero Zero) have added another layer to the project, with Scarey bringing an almighty stage presence accompanied by her signature fuzz-drenched horror-punk riffage, while Davidson brings a prowess and familiarity with Laurenne that proves both a perfect accompaniment, and the ideal foil.
Laurenne has said the album grew out of a joking conversation in Paris about the world needing more Halloween anthems than Monster Mash, the type of daft spark every rock n’ roll idea should come from. The album reaches beyond novelty though, into tracks about the bad love, the long yearn, the hard crush, the deep haunt, the blind darkness. Humanity seeps through the cracks in that classic Laurenne way: take a playful idea, let that Jungian shadow take over.
Meanwhile, Black Viiolet’s Dark Blue (recorded in France at Studio Black Box) features the romance of a restored 1930s Berlin piano, a double bass, a brass section, a drummer légitime, and a swathe of guest appearances that widen the palette without muddying the vision.
The project features Nicole Laurenne (vocals, keys, beats, electronic instrumentation) Gregg Ziemba (drums) Evan Strauss (electric double bass) Basile Conand (trombone) Paul Cadier (sax) Jean-Gatien Pasquier (trumpet) with a lineup brag of vocal cameos including Jason DeVore (Authority Zero) Tom Hagerman (Devotchka) Blag Dahlia (The Dwarves) to name a few.
Nicole Laurenne is an artist in a state of perpetual flux, a trait carried by only the true artist. Her cultural importance sits both within the music, and without, shining an example of nerve, work ethic, and persistence, while refusing the path of least resistance, and becoming a fixed idea of herself. She understands flow, depth, and conviction as the path to artist transformation, not reinvention. Growth is rarely neat, barely comfortable, and expands the borders of the soul. And for Nicole, that development is not a paerformance of change, but the lived condition of a restless and searching artist.
That’s rarer than it should be.
*The Darts Halloween Love Songs (Adrenalin Fix Music) available via Bandcamp. Physical copies available directly through Adrenalin Fix Music. 2026/27 tour dates available on Bandsintown.
*Black Viiolet’s Dark Blue (Adrenalin Fix Music) available via Bandcamp. Physical copies available through Adrenalin Fix Music. 2026 tour dates available on Bandsintown.
If you are aware of keyboard abuse, organ intimidation, unlawful key stomping, sustained Farfisa manhandling, or any other acts of keyboard misconduct, do not remain silent. If you see something, say something.
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