written by Marko Jakob
Pix666: Hey Ekaterina, hello Victor. Thanks for your time. How are you doing these days, are you alive and well? How are the other guys of Scarleth?
Ekaterina: Hi, all of us are good, alive and well. At least I saw all band members at our last rehearsal.
It is obviously a challenging time for the world and every musician. We don’t perform a lot, but we have time to improve something and fix the “blind spots” we didn’t see earlier. We work on our playing technique regularly to keep it in good shape. We rehearse regularly and do our best to be ready for approaching stages, because we have quite big news in our Scarleth family: we have the new drummer! His name is Alexander. He is very talented and he is a hard worker. This is a new chapter for our band.
Victor: Yes, Ekaterina is right – we have new blood in the band, so all the things are going pretty well now. All the bandmembers are very enthusiastic and we are moving forward in all aspects.
Pix666: Please introduce your band to the readers in a few short sentences -what kind of music does Scarleth make?
Ekaterina: We have melodic metal, power, doom metal, folk and even some psychedelic metal.. Maybe, our music is not for everyone. But I think a lot of people will find what they like if they will check out more than 1-2 of our songs. We are not tied to a genre and do what we love. We are as we are, and if we are trampled on, then tomorrow I will start growling, and the day after tomorrow I will write a pop rock melody and lyrics about how cool I am at the moment. So… We are about shades of mood, not about genre. This is my own opinion.
Victor: I think the main feature of this band is diversity. You can call it “diversity metal”, if you wish. Sometimes bands do albums which is predictable. You can guess how next song will sound like. Not the case in our band. Listen to “One Short Life”, for example. Then, “Final Curtain”. You will hardly say both came from one band.
Pix666: Victor, you have been on the road with Scarleth for more than 15 few years. What have been the best experiences and milestones with the band so far?
Victor: That was a long road, correct J Each of band’s chapters had their highlights. For the latest line-up before current it was our Vortex final show we did in Kyiv. Really a milestone for us! Of course, the new album is always a step forward. My personal favorite experience is going on the road with the band and playing open air fests. That’s so cool!
Pix666: Ekaterina, you joined the band about 5 years ago, how did you meet the guys and what were you doing musically before?
Ekaterina: Before the band I was 18 years old. I came to the big city and I just wanted to find some talented people with whom I can create something special. I found their ad about searching for a vocalist, I listened to their music and said to myself that I wanna try it. Before Scarleth I had nothing to do with metal music as a vocalist. But I had a pretty big experience till the day I joined the band. I’ve been singing professionally for 10 years till that moment. After a couple of years “Vortex” was born: a unique and special thing for all of us.
Pix666: At the end of 2019, your last album ‘Vortex’ was released – a really wonderful album – what was the situation like afterwards? Were you still able to tour with the new songs or did Covid eat up all the plans?
Victor: Thanks! Glad you like our album J Unfortunately, yes – most of the plans for touring were cancelled. Even now it is really hard to organize a full featured live gig or tour because there are still chance of cancellation. But we are moving forward as much as we can.
Pix666: From the ‘Vortex’ album you have also released video clips. There have already been an astonishing number of views on YouTube. I’m a fan of statistics of all kinds. What about you? Do you look at the numbers of streams, the views on YouTube, or do you know, for example, in which countries the people who listen to your music live?
Ekaterina: I personally check almost every day how many views were added. I read ALL the comments. Of course, we see who is watching us. We are gathering the statistics to better understand our audience and their interests. We take it seriously.
Victor: Statistics are important, of course. I look through it few times a week. I think amount of comments is even more important than amount of views because it shows real interest in the music. Comments are also possibility to communicate with the fans.
Pix666: The video ‘Feel The Heat’ is pretty hot – where did you shoot the clip, were there any funny moments during the shoot … and one more question, was the fire department around?
Ekaterina:Thank you!
Victor: Yeah, it was fun to shoot that video. The location is near Kyiv, it is some kind of sand quarry. Some villagers from nearby were really surprised by what was happening and came to watch the process.
Ekaterina: About that day we had so much interesting facts.The main fact for me is that the idea to give me flamethrowers was 100% improvised. A guy from the fire show gave me short instructions and I was really close to burn someone from our team. Those “guns” were heavy and they blew the fire for 4 meters.
One more fact is that we invited dancers to take part in the filming. They could not dance on the sand at all. A girl fell all the time, again and again and eventually all her ass were in sand and it looked just.. Not good, you see. As a result of what you saw – no dancers on the video (besides, it wasn’t a cheap option to hire them).
And in the middle of the nightlong filming our fire show team said that they ran out of fire-starting liquid. We went to the gas station to buy some more at 2 a.m. or something.
And no fire department nearby. Hardcore only!
Pix666: You released your album via Rockshots Records from Italy. How important is it for you to be signed to a label in Central Europe and what are the advantages of working with a label in general for a band?
Victor: This is quite good independent label, they try to do what was promised. Advantage is that you don’t have to do all the publishing and promoting work yourself. And of course label tries to get the music to fans as much as possible.
Pix666: Next week you will play a concert in Kiev. Please describe the feeling you have when you can finally go back on stage? Do you have any other plans for live performances in 2021?
Ekaterina: We love live gigs. Every creative person needs support and energy to develop. So we are very very glad. There is an open air coming and we can’t be more happy. Several months ago it was unreal to plan something with this whole situation. Moreover, two big performance areas for metal bands in Kyiv closed at the same time. It was a big shock for everyone. We had a lot of great performances there.
Victor: Of course, we are happy to be back on the road again. There are already few more shows planned for second part of 2021. I hope these will not be cancelled. And I agree, live performances give us energy to move our band further and develop it.
Pix666: Did you use the Covid time to write new songs – when will there be new singles, or even a new album from Scarleth – I think the fans are already waiting?
Ekaterina: Not really. We were a bit tired after a great work after “Vortex”. I think that silence time at that moment was important for us. It helped to understand the value of the band and our common goal. Now, when we have a new member and fresh heads we are ready to create again. It’ll start very soon. And it’ll be from the heart. Not for business, not for money. Firstly, for us and for our people.
Victor: Yeah, we needed some rest after Vortex. It was great album and it required a lot of effort to do it right. Now we feel much more relaxed and ready to create something new.
Pix666: How do you generally create your songs? Where do you get the ideas for your songs, which topics do you mainly deal with?
Ekaterina: All of us are open to bring something to the rehearsal and show the piece of the song. We can jam together, we can sit for long days and nights with new projects or future songs. Main principles of the creation are: to catch the mood, to develop the idea, to mix it with feelings and give a new life to the song. All of us are creative and we can fight sometimes about which idea is better. We are full of ideas. Especially when it comes to texts. For me text and music should be compared at that level that you can listen to music without text and say what the song is about.
Victor: Usually song starts from a little idea which is later developed at the rehearsal or at home. We try to give a chance to all the ideas because some new cool ideas may be generated when piece of music is played and checked by all the bandmembers.
Pix666: As a musician, you certainly spend most of your time creating music – but what else do you do in your free time when you want to get your mind off things – are there any interesting hobbies that you pursue?
Ekaterina: We do a lot for the band when we have free time. We work on our style, clothes, PR and marketing. I read books, go on courses and learn new things about industry all the time. Recently I started to get involved in photography. I like it and I hope that it will help our band too someday.
Victor: I have some hobbies besides music. Movies is one of them – I really like everything what is connected to this, from watching new movies in theaters to reading articles about my favorite actors, directors etc. Of course I love computer games and sometimes spend some time playing. It gives needed relaxation. Travelling, diving, collecting – all is present in my life in some degree.
Pix666: Do you have any other news, that you would like to share with the fans?
Ekaterina: I hope till the end of this year we finally make one more music video on a song featuring a popular guitarist from Within Temptation – Ruud Jolie. I’m 100% sure we will write some new songs. We are ready to move on. #FuckCovid
Victor: Agreed. We plan to start composing new stuff soon, and of course there are plans for more new videos of already released CD.
Pix666: Thank you very much for the interesting answers – Good luck and stay healthy!!!
Victor: Thank you! 🙂
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