McTaggart originally met Panek on a musicians' networking website. At the time, McTaggart lived in
Grand Cayman and Panek lived in
San Diego, although as McTaggart later recalled, she initially lied on the site and stated she too was from
San Diego because that was where she wanted but could not afford to move to. Panek in turn enlisted Garcia, whom he had known since they attended
Churchville-Chili Senior High School together. According to the group, the name was inspired by the poem
When The Violets Roar At The Sun by
Charles Bukowski, and was chosen to mean "transcendence into a new, violet awareness". McTaggart and Perry had known one another as children and attended the same church. The band caused some controversy early in its career by sending out anonymous packages containing a
cassette tape with "just press play" handwritten on each one. The packages were sent to members of the
street team of
Fueled by Ramen, a label distributed by
Elektra Records. The cassettes contained a recording of the song
Girls Your Age, which was released online in mid 2015. A
Shazam code was also included. The eponymous EP containing
Girls Your Age garnered more than 20 million streams for its top three songs. The band toured with
LANY in 2016. The song
New Bohemia from the
Transviolet EP was chosen for use on a
Google Play commercial, and the band was named the "band of the week" by
The Guardian in January 2016. That April,
New Bohemia entered Billboard's
Alternative Songs chart where it peaked at #35. In 2017, the EP
Kaleidoscopes was released. Transviolet was signed by
Epic Records in early 2015. They split ways with the label in late 2017. They were then picked up by
Sony BMG, followed by the release of the EP
Valley in 2018. A track from
Valley,
Undo, featured as the closing music of an episode of the
Netflix series
Unbelievable. The group performed on
The Late Late Show with James Corden on July 12, 2016. Transviolet also performed on the Today Show and
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. They have played at a number of festivals, including
Reading,
Governors Ball,
South by Southwest, and
Firefly. In July 2018, the band headlined a hometown concert at
The Echo (venue), Los Angeles. In September 2019, they self-released the single
Sunshine, followed by
Money Money in October and
Born To Rule in November. Later in November, in advance of a date at the legendary
Troubadour (West Hollywood, California), the band guested on
Aliens by
The Griswolds. ==Members==