It’s absolutely no surprise Violet Hirst wound up a musician.
The singing, song-writing guitarist and keyboard player’s parents are well-known Queenstown musos Margaret O’Hanlon and Nigel Hirst and she’s been around performance all her life.
‘‘My first memory of being on stage is in my mum’s arms as a three or four-year-old and she’s singing — right into my ear.
‘‘I was born on opening night of her [O’Hanlon’s] show Kitchens in 1999.
‘‘That says a lot; a bit of an inconvenience.’’
It’ll be Hirst, 24, taking centre stage at the Sherwood tomorrow as part of a national tour to release her debut album, Donegal.
The former Wakatipu High student was 16 when she left Queenstown for Wellington to study film production and philosophy at Victoria University.
Now living in Auckland, she describes the Queenstown show with her five-piece band as a ‘‘a really important full-circle moment’’.
‘‘I’m quite excited.
‘‘We planned a tour for five cities but most of the reason was to come and play at home, something I’ve always wanted to do since leaving.
‘‘The town has never seen me as myself.
‘‘They’ve seen me play cover gigs and they’ve seen me by myself or with my parents but they haven’t seen me quite like this.
‘‘It’s kind of exciting and scary, because I do feel like quite a different person to who I was when I left home.”
Hirst describes the album as a ‘‘love-letter’’ to her time spent between Wellington and the South Island.
She recorded it during a stint living in a house in Donegal St, Cromwell, in 2022, hence the name.
The album navigates a time when she was processing some ‘‘quite big and hard things’’ in life, such as moving away from home and growing up.
‘‘Many of the songs are a push and pull, a resistance to being comfortable but also really trying to find spaces of comfort from outside at
the same time.
‘‘It feels like a big home-coming show, the songs tell the story of a journey that only I’ve been on.
“It’ll be a real treat but also very scary to share that to my old community I guess.
The album’s first single, Descending Song debuted at number one on the Student Radio Network charts in May.
The second single, Alternate Ways to Pray, was released with a self-produced music video, directed by Hirst and creative companion Mark Whittet at a make-shift retirement home.
Fellow Queenstowner Reuben Scott (Daffodils, Molly Payton, Salt Water Criminals), who’s playing guitar on tour, was with Hirst in Cromwell and co-wrote a couple of songs, as was the album’s producer De Stevens.
Hirst’s looking forward to introducing her other new friends in the band to the Queenstown crowd: Kane Strang on bass, Mitchell Innes drums (both of Office Dog) and Madeleine Mirunok (back-up vocals and keyboards).
And she may need to pack a box of tissues with her instruments.
‘‘There’ll be some tears shed from me or … mum will get emotional because the songs themselves are quite emotional.’’
Violet Hirst and band Donegal album release tour, Sherwood, tomorrow, 7pm (R18). Tickets $25 via undertheradar.co.nz
