In 1975, a 14 year old Irish student at Mount Temple High School in Dublin named Larry Mullen Jr. posted a note on the school’s noticeboard. Mullen’s note asked Mount Temple students to contact him if they had musical talents because he wanted to start a band. Days later, Mullen’s kitchen at his home on Rosemount Avenue was occupied by seven students looking to audition. Three of those seven students and Mullen would later become one of the greatest bands ever to play music; U2.
This story may sound pointless right now, but years from now, these four senior students at Mountain Vista could follow in U2’s footsteps and become one of the greatest bands of all time.
Seniors Jack McCombs, Eric Cook, Hendrick Knoll and Peyton Elliott are all part of the recently formed grunge rock band, Violet’s Gun. Cook is the band’s drummer while McCombs plays lead guitar, Knoll plays rhythm guitar and Elliott plays bass. McCombs is the lead vocalist for the band and Cook and Elliott provide back-up vocals.
The band was formed after McCombs wrote and recorded an entire album:
“After I’d finished writing and recording, I realized that if I ever wanted to perform these songs live, I was gonna need people to help me out,” McCombs said. “I knew that Eric was a really good drummer because he’s always bragging about it, Peyton is, like, the only bassist in Highlands Ranch and Hendrick is an extremely hard worker who plays the guitar really well, so I recruited all of them.”
The members of Violet’s Gun have all been playing music and singing for about five years and they were inspired by bands like Nirvana, the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, the White Stripes, Foo Fighters, Pink Floyd and the Eagles to play music.
“Many different varieties of bands have inspired me to start drumming,” Cook said. “I started off listening to the Eagles and then moved to early 1970’s rock bands like Pink Floyd before getting into heavy metal bands like Avenged Sevenfold. They’ve all really helped me because they’ve taught me fast-paced drumming which has helped me learn faster.”
The name “Nirvana” was chosen by Kurt Cobain because he thought the name would make his band sound nice and beautiful instead of mean, Led Zeppelin’s name formed after a humorous conversation between musicians about their chances of “going down like a lead balloon” and Violet’s Gun got it’s name from a historical magazine about assassinations:
“I was reading a magazine about assassinations,” McCombs said. “In the back of the magazine, there was a list of assassination attempts; one of them was about a woman who shot Mussolini at a big rally in the 1930’s, but it only skimmed his nose. The assassin’s name was Violet Gibson and the magazine was talking about how Violet Gibson’s gun almost killed Mussolini; I thought about it for a little while and realized that ‘Violet’s Gun’ was a really cool name for a band.”
The band’s name is fascinating and unique, but their philosophy and opinions on the art of music are even more exclusive and intriguing:
“We’re not interested in pleasing the higher-ups like record labels; all we care about is that we’re enjoying playing in a band and people like our music. If your band appeals to the people, you’re going to go far,” Elliott said. “It’s not just that we play the instruments. Music is our passion and it’s what we want to do to in our future, so none of us treat it like it’s a game.”
Violet’s Gun has been hard at work to prepare for the release of their first single, “Trigger Finger”, which will be one of the songs featured on their new album. As previously stated, the album was written entirely by McCombs to express social conflicts he has faced in his life:
“Most of the songs on the album are about people who’ve treated me wrong,” McCombs said. “If those people listen hard enough to the lyrics, they’ll know that they’re about them.”
Visit their official website at www.violetsgun.com and be sure to follow them on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat on the links below for details on their upcoming live events, albums and music. After all, you never know if they might end up becoming the next Nirvana, Pink Floyd, Foo Fighters, Led Zeppelin or U2…
Twitter = https://twitter.com/VioletsGunBand
Facebook = https://www.facebook.com/VioletsGun/
Snapchat = @violetsgun
Instagram = @violetsgun_official
Purchase or stream Violet Gun’s first single, “Trigger Finger”, on iTunes or Spotify and visit the link below to view the “Trigger Finger” music video.
