Violet Grohl has spent her whole life around music—on tour buses, sitting at breakfast tables, in the back of cars—and yet Be Sweet To Me, her debut album, feels like something conjured entirely from within. Recorded at music producer Justin Raisen’s Los Angeles home studio, it is the work of someone who has been patiently sharpening her instincts for years, waiting for the right moment to let them loose.

That moment required a complete change of direction mid-recording. “The vibe I had originally intended no longer felt authentic to how I was feeling,” she says over the phone from Los Angeles. “I wanted to lean into the sludge and the shoegaze elements. I was in the perfect environment to experiment in that way and let myself go in that direction.” The result is a record that moves between fuzzy alt-rock and hazy shoegaze with the ease of someone who has spent a lifetime obsessively consuming music. She is currently in the middle of a Kate Bush rediscovery, for example. “I don’t think I understood it as deeply as I do now,” she says. “The way she builds these sonic landscapes and paints pictures with her music — it’s so inspiring.” New finds matter just as much: a TikTok algorithm recently served her a music video from an underground Australian punk group, xiao xiao, and she has been evangelical about them ever since.

Like her music, Grohl’s personal style also maintains a quiet self-possession. Her aesthetic gravitates toward the nostalgic: vintage pieces from the 1920s through ‘40s, a prized Victorian dress or two, and an unwavering commitment to the blazer regardless of the Los Angeles heat. “I have my summer blazers, I have my winter blazers,” she says. Style icons run from Exene Cervenka — whose poster hangs in her office — to Lydia Lunch and Sinead O’Connor: women who dressed entirely for themselves. Grohl is finding the same freedom in her own wardrobe, choosing clothes not to signal cool but to feel more unmistakably herself. It is the same quality that defines her music and the person she is becoming.

With a Reading Festival slot ahead and the recent completion of her first headlining show, Grohl feels she is just getting started. “I’m looking forward to learning, to growing, meeting new people and having those experiences.” On the evidence of Be Sweet To Me, those experiences are worth watching.

This story appears in the pages of V161: now available for purchase!

Photography Dennis Leupold

Fashion Christopher Campbell

Makeup Pablo Macias (Opus Beauty)

Hair Davontae’ Washington (Opus Beauty)

Editor & Casting Kev Ponce

Production Preslee Adams

Cinematographer Lukas Chmiel

Photo Assistants Ben Chant, Winston Kingstro

Makeup Assistant Katherine Moncada

Hair Assistant Taylor Thorton

Location AGP West