Page 37 - Rocknation Issue 28_Neat

ROCKNATION ISSUE 28 PAGE 37
Skarlett Roxx
VOODOO MOONSHINE

Hello Skarlett Roxx. You released a single called “Call Me Crazy” please tell us about that.
“Call Me Crazy” was a song that kind of just wrote itself. It just popped up at a band practice. Deuce wrote the guitar riff, the
chorus, and had the solo in place in about 15 minutes. We recorded a demo that day in practice. It was pretty much done. We
messed around with verses a bit until we had it just right. Even though we hadn’t completely settled on the verses, we rolled it
out at our shows with Enuff Z’Nuff to test it out on audiences and it had a great response. Jaxx helped Deuce tweak the verses
after those two shows and it was done. We realized that it was the party song that was missing from our set list of originals. The
guitar riff makes you both want to dance and head bang. We play it second to last in our set list since it’s such a fun song to
close out the night.
Who produced & edited your “Call Me Crazy” video, it has live footage included.
Chino Marin produced and edited our video. We had talked to a couple of people about doing a video to help roll our Skarlett’s Web album. We had done a couple
of singles with stream videos, but stream videos and lyric videos are kind of lame to tell you the truth. They serve a purpose, but we really wanted to do an old
school music video. It was suggested to us by someone at a local radio station to contact Chino. We were scheduled to open for Hinder at the Rust Belt in East
Moline, IL at the time. We knew it was a great venue since we had played there a couple of months prior with LA Guns and Faster Pussycat. When we contacted
Chino, we let him know that we had the Rust Belt and thought it was a good opportunity to do live footage of one of our shows and show people what a Skarlett Roxx
show is all about. Chino and his assistant, Joe Gibbs, knocked it all out from the live performance. There are literally just a few seconds that came from the sound
check, but that was it. We were nervous about only playing “Call me Crazy” just once that night and being able to capture the video. Chino was a real pro, and it
came out great. Honestly, there’s a lot of cool footage that got left on the cutting room floor. We’re contemplating doing a video for “Jezebel” or “Sick Romance”.
I see your are getting airplay on many shows including Back To The Arena, The Shark Radio & 97 Underground & more. What has been the response
from fans online worldwide?
It’s been exciting to get notifications about all these great rock sites playing our music. It’s been interesting to see what songs are being chosen too. “Call Me Crazy”
has been in heavy rotation at some great sites like 97 Underground and The Shark Radio which is cool. It was awesome to see our single in top 10 lists along with
Metallica, Sword, Faster Pussycat, and bands we grew up listening to our entire lives. It was a real boost to our confidence. At the same time, we have had other
sites that are letting us know they’re playing “Sick Romance”, “Taste Your Tongue”, “To the Barrel” and “Rock N’ Roll Nightmare”. It seems like people in Europe
really like “Taste Your Tongue”. The fans have been great. We have shipped albums, CD’s, and merch all over the world. Shipments have gone out to Japan,
Norway, Belgium, Canada, Finland, Germany, Ireland, England, and all over the United States. We constantly get told when people hear us and see us that we are
a breath of fresh air in today’s music scene. We just need to get in front of more new eyes and ears. The growth of our social media followers, online orders, and
streams have been exciting.
The band has a really big show coming up with Loudness & The Midnight Devils. How excited are you getting ready for that?
We are excited about the Loudness show. We just got added to a show with Stryper too. Both Loudness and Stryper have kick ass new albums out. A lot of bands
from that era are putting out great music again. They don’t have to worry about making some commercial single for MTV or mainstream radio these days, so they’ve
all gone back to just making face melting music. What will be fun is hanging out with our friends, The Midnight Devils, again. Sam and the band have been
extremely supportive of us. We’ve done three shows with them in the past and it was a lot of fun. We are really happy for them and the success they have had the
last year. We were excited when they got added to support for Loudness’ tour. It’s the type of thing we want to do next.
How did Covid affect your shows the last 2 years?
Covid was an interesting time for us. We were looking for a new drummer and a place to practice while a global pandemic hit. We were given half of a somewhat
dilapidated barn that we could use at a farm for practice. We built a good size stage in the barn so we could move around on stage, but still needed a drummer.
When Ashton contacted us about joining the band, we were keeping our amps out at the barn so we told him that we wanted him to meet up, then we would blind-fold
him, and drive him to the barn for a tryout. We didn’t want our equipment stolen if things didn’t work out with him. Ashton agreed which we thought was very Rock N’
Roll and a good sign. We spent a summer meeting at this barn, practicing mostly covers at that time, learning to sing, and then eventually writing more new music.
Summer in Iowa can be very hot and humid so we would meet up at night. At night the bats that were living in the barn, would wake up and be flying in and out of the
barn while we practiced. Not to mention a horse and donkey that would stick their head in when we would start practicing. It made for some very interesting practices
to say the least. We were basically hunkered down for Covid other than meeting up for practice. When live music started to open up a bit, we were ready to go, and
people were itching to get out and see live music, so we were able to get in front of some audiences quickly. We had a bunch of covers ready to go, but already
preferred to play our original music that we had written during Covid. Every show we started working in more originals and less covers. Through our manager’s
persistence we started getting added to bigger shows or doing local shows with other young bands where we could focus on our original music and not have to do
hours of covers. Covid sucked for everyone, but since we had basically an outdoor place to practice, we took advantage of our opportunity and made the most of it.
Your high voltage, high energy band has appeared with many national bands, please name some of them.
As far as national bands go; we have played with Hinder a couple of times. We did a show with LA Guns and Faster Pussycat. We did a couple of nights with Enuff
Z’Nuff and The Midnight Devils. We did a show with Texas Hippie Coalition. As mentioned earlier we are scheduled to do a show with Stryper in May right after
the Loudness show. That was supposed to happen last September so we are excited to be included in the rescheduling of that show even though it is in a different
city and with a different promoter. The real highlight was opening for LA Guns. Phil and Tracii have put out three, soon to be four, great albums since they got back
together, and they did not disappoint. They and Faster Pussycat were great and we absolutely belonged up there with them. Phil Lewis said some nice things about
us during their show. It was a great night. Someone sent us a photo of Tracii Guns holding the door for us as we arrived. It was very surreal, but we showed up and
kicked ass despite our guitarist, Danny Slade, being sick as a dog. We belonged up there with the national acts. The shows with Enuff Z’Nuff and The Midnight
Devils were a lot of fun too. It was a great lineup with Skarlett Roxx, The Midnight Devils, and Enuff Z’Nuff. The audiences loved it. Chip was very supportive of us.
We would love to do something with them again. The Midnight Devils thought enough of us that they had us added to a show in Nebraska. We watched from a far,
their Glam Slam tour the country, then Europe, and Australia and definitely thought we belonged on a tour like that if given the opportunity. We were invited to play
the pre-party for the M3 festival. At this point we feel like we’re ready to do tour support for a national act.
How has the response been for your debut album “Skarlett’s Web” released last year?
The response to Skarlett’s Web has been great. We’re very proud of the album. It was really two years in the making.
Between the pandemic and some personnel switches there were some challenges along the way that we overcame. Our
song writing kept getting better and better. There was a bit of a down period for shows last winter. Deuce just wrote more
songs during that period. Deuce and Jaxx were determined to release a full album and not just a bunch of singles like a
lot of artists do these days. Danny was traveling back and forth between Minnesota and Iowa to play shows and get the
album finished up. The response from fans has made it all worthwhile to the band. People seem to really love the second
side of the album especially. The album deserves a tour to support it. We have had a lot of people especially out east that
want us to get out there.
Thank you for taking time for this interview, any last words to the fans?
The best is yet to come. We look forward to traveling and getting in front of new audiences. Each time that we’ve played
with the national acts, the response has been overwhelmingly positive. We appreciate all the fans who come over to
our merchandise booth and take photos with us. It’s very rewarding. It’s a real challenge for independent bands to get
noticed and moved from being a regional band that every promoter wants on the bill to a band that does full tour support
and has a record deal. We appreciate every like and follow on our social media, every subscribe on YouTube, and every
stream of our music. A special Thank You to those who have gone to our webpage and bought our vinyl and cd’s.