Violet Mindfield
Tell Me/moonlight Love
An American five-piece garage-psych band rooted in a passion for '60s music and fashion, The Violet Mindfield hail from the Inland Empire of Southern California. The group consists of John Duran (lead vocals, guitar), Harry Parr (drums, backing vocals), Sean McBreen (bass), Clifton Weaver (organ, percussion, multi-instrumentalist) and Victor Salazar (guitar, backing vocals). John Duran: 'Tell Me' came from an acute period of self-reflection and the meeting of a very special person in my life. I wrote it several years ago and for a while it was a staple in our live set, sometimes extending to over 20 minutes. For the single, the idea was to retain the vibe of the original version but to do something a bit different as far as instrumentation than what we normally do. At the same time, I wanted to maintain a relatively cohesive overall sound with the other work we've been putting out lately. To do this, we shortened the song to around two-and-a-half minutes or so and recorded everything to four-track cassette tape for an authentic sound. For the instrumentation, instead of using electric guitars primarily, we swapped them for acoustics, with the fuzz from the '60s Maestro fz-1a (through a Silvertone 1448) appearing only here and there. We added the Danelectro baby sitar and a low Hammond drone through a Leslie rotating speaker for that elusive extra touch. 'Moonlight Love' lyrically is a result of my interest in occult literature and practices, particularly sex magick in this instance. For the recording, the notion was to follow the lines of 'Tell Me' to a degree, as this song was intended to be the flip side for this single from the get-go.