BECAUSE THERE’S NO GOOD LENT SONGS
A CONVERSATION WITH NICOLE LAURENNE OF THE DARTS
The Darts formed in 2016, and consist of Nicole Laurenne (lead and backing vocals, pianos and organs), Rebecca Davidson (guitars), Lindsay Scarey (bass, screams, Mellotron, sound effects) and Rikki Styxx (drums, tambourine, every form of percussion, screams, dog bowls). They have just released their fifth studio album, Halloween Love Songs and are embarking on a very extensive tour of Europe and the U.S. I had the opportunity to sit down and have a conversation with front Dart, Nicole Laurenne, and it was a fun and enlightening conversation .
Before we start to discuss the new album, Laurenne discussed her career before forming and fronting The Darts. “I was a frustrated lawyer who wanted to be a guitarist, and at 27, in this tiny Arizona town, I became a judge. It is crazy, I stayed there my entire career until I had enough points to retire. Fine, now I am out. Now it is music and I can stop juggling everything. So, four years ago I hit the road.”
And although retired from the justice system and making music full time, her past career does sometimes come into the foreground. “You hear so many horrible stories, and you see so much suffering and pain in people’s lives that nobody else gets to see. And then you go into the punk club, and you see the same people. It hits home, because you see people you know in the music world, and you see their lives fall apart with addiction and that sort of stuff. And I think the music is my therapy and escape but some of those stories and feelings work their way into the music for sure.”
HALLOWEEN LOVE SONGS ALBUM REVIEW
The Darts music is serious fun. Laurenne takes her music and band very seriously, but that doesn’t mean there is no fun. The new album, Halloween Love Songs, is as she puts it, “full of kitschy, spooky fun stuff”. However, that was not always the original goal of The Darts. “I didn’t set out to do that with this band. But I think when you play a Farfisa organ, and you like minor keys, all of sudden you are playing spooky circus music all the time,” laughed Laurenne. “That’s just where it went and it is what the crowd likes too. Add a fuzz guitar and you got The Munsters.”
The timing of the album is interesting. The album, Halloween Love Songs is being released in late winter, closer to Lent than Halloween. “There’s no good Lent songs,” joked Laurenne. “There are two reasons. Every day is Halloween for this band. We wear black, we go on stage and play spooky monster music in every single show, all year in all parts of the world. We don’t care what month it is, we are still going to play these songs. There is always a good time to play a song about a vampire, if you ask me. The other thing is that I like to put out an album a year. That has been my musical goal, and other than COVID, I always made it work. I think because of my other career, I am trying to make up for lost time. So, there is a routine…we release an album in the spring. We tour it in the summer and fall, we stop in the fall somewhere, record the next album, and then it comes out in the spring and we tour that. So, March is always when we end up releasing records.”
Halloween Love Songs is not a concept album, but there is a theme. The origins of the album are found during an interview Laurenne did over 18 months ago in Paris. “I did an interview in Europe, after our Paris show, and the journalist and I were joking around that there needs to be more Halloween anthems. We need more than “Monster Mash.” She said, ‘you’re the perfect band to do it.’ And I thought ‘we are the perfect band to do it!’ laughed Laurenne. “So, when we got in the van that day, I decided I would just start writing, and “Every Night Is Halloween” was the first song I wrote for the album. I started thinking about the kitschiest Halloween clichés I could. Trick or treating, knocks, ghosts, and what double entendres could I come up with, because this band always has a sultry sexy vibe to it. From the beginning, I wanted the visuals for this band to be Ann-Margret, from the 1960s, getting off work from the factory. Coming home, tearing off her 1950s shift dress and running on stage with a black slit and bullet bra, bare feet and playing fuzz guitar. So, I took the Halloween clichés…we say ‘ghosting’ all the time but now it is in a different context. It really wrote itself. It was so much fun to write.”
It is a pace of releasing music that is not common in 2026, especially since physical copies on vinyl are released, not just streaming. “I write all the time and have too many songs to begin with. That was something Jello Biafra would tell me, ‘stop writing, give it a minute and breathe.’ But now, I have two bands, Black Violet is happening [they just released a brilliant new album, Dark Blue].”
Now that the album is complete, it is time for the tour. And touring is somewhat of a family affair for Laurenne. “If I had my way, I would be on tour every single day of my life. I love touring. My mom is going to turn 87, selling merch, and she even knitted black beanies to sell at merch. She stockpiles all of my records in her dining room and sends them off to the distributors. This woman has more energy than anyone in my band. But for a tour, it is 100 per cent preparation. But the band are total pros.”
And with the album ready to hit stores and the tour pending, Laurenne has hopes that the album will find a willing audience. “Well, there are two sides to the album and they are very different. Side A is all monsters and kitsch, trick or treats. You can play it on your high school loudspeaker or at a corporate Halloween party. It is fun and I want you to walk away from side A, just partying and jumping around in your gothy outfit. Side B, it is a darker, devil/pagan thing going on there. There is a darkness to that holiday. So, side B dives into all kinds of darkness, every song is about dark things. When you come away from side B, I want it to be 3 am, sitting by a bonfire outside, making out with somebody on the empty Halloween candy wrappers and cursing the day the earth was born,” Laurenne said with a huge laugh.
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Photo Credits: Tina Gross
