By day, Hoboken resident Victoria Crago works as a marketing associate for a financial software Internet company on Wall Street – which means she trains clients on her company’s products. By nights and weekends, however, Crago is the lead singer and songwriter of the four-piece Hoboken-based band Violet Truth. This Friday, Oct. 21, Violet Truth is having a release party for their new CD Candy Coated at Shannon Lounge (106 First St. Hoboken) from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m.
Born in Buffalo, Crago attended Niagara University, where she studied music and musical theater. “I always knew I wanted to sing, so I thought, ‘I’ll do stage shows and sing other people’s cheesy songs,'” she said over the phone last week from her Manhattan office.
After college, Crago moved to Weehawken where she lived for a year before “graduating to Hoboken” three years ago. During her Weehawken year, she tried her hand at musical theater and landed the role of Sheila in an off-Broadway production of Hair. While doing Hair, Crago met a musician in the orchestra pit and with him formed her band Violet Truth. Today, at age 29, Crago has abandoned musical theater and focuses all of her creative energy on her band.
Since she formed Violet Truth in 1996, the band has gone through a variety of mutations. “It’s like a major breakup when someone leaves the band,” said Crago, who has been married for over two years. “I’ve been up until 3 in the morning crying to another guy with my husband right next to men.” (Crago quickly dismissed the idea of inviting her husband, who plays guitar, to join the band – “That’s just a little too Sonny and Cher for me.”)
Today the members of Violet Truth include Hoboken’s veteran rocker John Sontag on guitar, Brandon Kurzawa on drums, Australian transplant Trent McGinn on bass and, of course, Victoria Crago on vocals.
As lead singer and sole songwriter, Victoria Crago is the woman responsible for Violet Truth’s sound, which has been described as “moody,” “infectious,” “atmospheric” and “dynamic.”
Last week Crago said she has written between 30 and 40 songs. “I usually write about whatever bothers me at the time,” she said. “Occasionally I will write a story type of song. But I generally write in first person about my own experience. And I write a lot of love songs. Even though they are not mushy ‘I love you’ love songs, they’re all about love in some aspect.”
Crago said some of her favorite bands who have influenced her sound are The Sundaes, The Pretenders and Fleetwood Mac, but when she was a child her musical tastes were less fashionable. “There is nothing hip about growing up in [Buffalo],” she said. “It’s embarrassing to even say.” After some prodding, Crago confessed some of her childhood favorites. “I loved the Jesus Christ Superstar album – the one with the brown cover. And I listened to a lot of ABBA, and Neil Diamond, and Barbara Streisand, the album where she wore knee socks on the cover. I think it was the music from that movie The Main Event with Ryan O’Neal. I was gonzo over that one.”
Crago said that anything she listened to then is probably a source of embarrassment for her today. Nonetheless, music was the perfect escape.
“I grabbed the hairbrush and I was a rock star,” she said.