If you’ve been around Substream for a while, you know we have a thing for Halloween. Spooky stories, scary movies, haunting melodies, there’s not a lot of coaxing that needs to happen to share our favorite fright night editions with you. So when I came across Violette Rain’s “Follow the Crows,” one in a series of monthly releases Violette has been doing this year, I was instantly hooked. The track sounds exactly like what you’d expect to hear on a Halloween playlist, and for good reason. Violette says it’s meant to conjure images of an old cemetery, just after a funeral procession, the air chilly and still heavy with grief. As she tells it, she pictured the accompanying visuals as crows perched on weathered headstones, their watchful eyes following the mourners just as the sun goes down and dusk begins to set. A sense of unease, as though something is waiting in the fog, follows you around the graveyard…
And while “Follow the Crows” is inspired in part by Ophelia’s story in Hamlet, Violette herself sits at the center of this imaginative release. She’s been unveiling one track per month throughout 2025, each release mirroring the season in which it lands. “Follow the Crows” marks October’s entry, following September’s bittersweet “Pumpkin Pie” and paving the way for November’s “Autumn Wind.” Each song is one chapter in a year-long story, a loose narrative tied together by an invisible thread that listeners will have to listen closely to hear.
“My debut album, Charting the Stars in Her Eyes, unfolds as a 12-chapter fable of grief told through a fantasy lens.I have released a new song from the album each month this year, ‘Follow the Crows’ being Chapter 10. The journey mirrors the way grief moves through the changing seasons, with the story set to close in December at Chapter 12. The album unfolds like the night sky, with a new constellation shining into view each month.”
I interviewed Violette with a few rapid-fire Halloween questions to get in the spirit of the month. Check them out below and be sure to follow along to hear the rest of her story unfold.
What’s your go-to Halloween movie or soundtrack, and did it influence this release at all?
I love Practical Magic, this movie feels like home to me. While it didn’t inspire this release of mine in particular, I do feel that the whimsical world of this movie absolutely works it’s way into my songs and my work, visually and sonically.
If your song were a haunted house room, what would people see when they walked in?
It would feel like stepping into a haunted mausoleum, where one crypt door is open and its tomb empty. Much like Lucy’s mausoleum scene in Bram Stoker’s Dracula (another one of my favorite films), the unease comes not from what you see, but from what’s missing.
Do you believe in ghosts, witches, or the supernatural? If yes, tell me your best story!
I love the thought that there are unseen layers to the world, and sometimes I think I’ve brushed up against them. “Follow the Crows”, was actually [in part] inspired by a very vivid dream I had, where I wandered through a red graveyard, and the gargoyles sit on the mausoleums and statues of the graveyard came alive and told me the stories of those who lied there… A message from beyond the veil? Perhaps.
If you had to dress up as one of your own songs for Halloween, which would you pick and why?
I might pick Courtly Love. It’s not spooky at all, It’s more playful and romantic. Designing that video, the costumes were loosely inspired by Romeo and Juliet– turning the classic Capulet red into pink and softening the Montague blue. Plus, it even comes with a built-in couples costume-my boyfriend was in the music video, so we could go as our own characters, haha.
Favorite Halloween film?
Practical Magic. A couple honorable mentions include What We Do in the Shadows, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and not a movie, but Over the Garden Wall.
What’s your favorite Halloween memory growing up?
I grew up in a very small neighborhood, it only has three streets, so my parents would take me to go to my grandparents’ much larger neighborhood to trick or treat. My mother used to make me very elaborate costumes, so I have very fond memories of Halloween nights: of my grandmother handing me one of those plastic jack o’ lantern pails as dusk turns to night, one hand in hers or my mothers, going around the neighborhood with them, feeling so special in my costume. Those nights were pure magic.
If you could put together a dream Halloween party or show, what would the theme be, and who’s on the guest list (real or fictional)?
I dream of a medieval sort of Hallow’s Eve masquerade- dark, candlelit and vampy, with an excellent charcuterie spread haha. My guest list includes spirits in history and myth alike: Anne Boleyn, Morgan Le Fay, and Boudica all have guest seats at the dinner table.
What’s your favorite trick and your favorite treat?
My favorite trick is convincing my boyfriend to be in my music videos-works every time.
My favorite treat is anything wrapped in chocolate… preferably dark and mysterious…
Keep up with Violette Rain and follow each month’s release at:
(Photo credit: Paul Cosby)
