Q&A: Scarlet Rae Says Hello to Her Future in ‘No Heavy Goodbyes’
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY STARLY LOU RIGGS ☆
SCARLET RAE ALWAYS DREAMED OF LIVING IN NEW YORK CITY — In fact, it seems as if many of Rae’s dreams are starting to take shape. Born in the ambitious city of Los Angeles, Rae started playing guitar at age 9. Talented and driven, her first musical project actualized when she was a teen in the band Rose Dorn, composed of a 15 year old Rae alongside two of her sister’s older friends. Now, Rae is taking off with No Heavy Goodbyes out on Bayonet.
Rae’s lilting voice and hazy gaze accent her unique style, transforming grief into a twinkling mirror we can all peer into. Her solo project kicked off at the height of universal anguish:the COVID-19 pandemic. As many people were leaving NYC, Rae found a home there in the momentary quiet, easing into a new life and locking in to her new sound in solace. With heavy hitting nostalgia guitar inspired by the likes of Placebo, and Rae’s uniquely pixie-esque vocals, No Heavy Goodbyes deals with a new set of tragedies, touching on the loss and solitude.
LUNA had a chance to chat with Rae about loss, learning, and luck. Keep reading below.
LUNA: I really loved this EP. I know you’ve been playing music for a long time. Can you give me a run down on how you got into music?
SCARLET RAE: Yeah, I made a band [in LA] when I was 15. It was called Rose Dorn. I would just play local shows, and from the few years leading up after that, I decided to go solo. It was right when COVID started. I moved here [to New York] during COVID and just carried as much of my music stuff as I could. I quickly started playing shows once I got here and would form bands that were down to play. Now I have a really set band, which is awesome.
LUNA: What’s that formation right now?
SCARLET RAE: Right now it’s Sam [Knight] on drums. He has the same last name as me, and he just messaged me being like, “We have the same name and initials! I really like your music, about to move to New York, I’d love to drum for you.” So he’s drumming and he’s awesome. Now I have Aman [Hanspal] on bass, who is super sweet too, and Donovan [Milner], who I knew through Sam. He plays guitar with me. Everyone is really down and really sweet.
LUNA: What prompted your move to New York in the middle of the pandemic?
SCARLET RAE: My best friend was living here. She loves it. [And] It was just time to leave. It was COVID, so no one was doing anything, and it felt like all at once, all of my friends went their own way. I’ve always wanted to live in New York. I just knew I could financially do it. All the signs were pointing to try it.
LUNA: Your music is often referred to as “bedroom pop”. Was this EP self produced in your bedroom?
SCARLET RAE: At first it was. I had all the demos fleshed out, all recorded at home. Then, this guy Jordan happened to reach out that week being like, “I like your music, if you have stuff you’re trying to record soon…” It was crazy timing. We mixed it together. When I went there to record, I basically sent him all the stems that I had and he started doing rough mixes. I got there, and we did better vocal takes. It was both, we used some of the recordings. It worked, even just me plugging straight into the computer. So it’s pretty mixed.
LUNA: These tracks are all really centered about grief. How has that felt for you to have such vulnerable singles coming out into the world?
SCARLET RAE: I’m an open book. I think it’s cool to share in the form of music and art. It’s so corny, but it’s true! It was nice to focus on this piece of music this whole year. I knew I was going to make an EP with Bayonet, but I had a bunch of other song ideas that I was going to use and I ended up scrapping a bunch of songs I had written for a while because I was writing new ones. It worked out pretty well.
LUNA: Do you think those other tracks will find a home somewhere else in the future?
SCARLET RAE: I don’t know. Now it’s been a long time since I wrote [them]. There’s so many songs I want to bring back to the surface with the new knowledge I have. I feel like everyday I’m learning new production stuff. If I went back to a 2023 song, I would switch it up.
LUNA: I really loved the music video for “The Reason I Could Sleep Forever.” Something that really pops for me is how colorful it is and how present you are in the city, even though the song is about something heavy. How did this video come together?
SCARLET RAE: It came together in a really cool way. I was playing Hancock for this photo show that they had, and they just asked for me to play an acoustic set. I had this whole different crowd watching me for the first time. This one guy took videos of me playing. [He] found me on instagram and sent them to me. The videos were so cool and nostalgic. When I realized I wanted to do a video, it just made sense. I knew he would keep it simple, so I hit him up and we did that in one day.
LUNA: It sounds like a lot of people reach out to you for things.
SCARLET RAE: I do feel lucky sometimes. Granted, I also reach out to people and I kind of just ask. Something I’ve been saying recently is, “You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.” You just gotta ask people. My bass player Aman, I met him through my grief group and I saw him wearing an Aphex Twin shirt one day. I really needed a bassist and I’m like, “What are the chances he plays music? What are the chances he’s down?” I hit him up and he was super down and he’s super good. It just kind of works out sometimes, in funny ways.
LUNA: You have this energy you’re putting out there! I think these days, with the way social media works, it aids in that too. It’s a double-edged sword sometimes: we’re addicted to these phones, but at the same time you’re able to reach out to so many people and form these communities.
SCARLET RAE: It’s a real doubled-edged sword. I think you can compromise with it. Sometimes I get hooked, but I think it’s great to know and be aware that it’s the way to work and to meet people in so many different ways, [to] get opportunities. If I think about it that way it works better in my brain.
LUNA: I feel like when I hear your music, I can hear a lot of what I grew up listening to. I’m curious what inspires you most directly. I hear a lot of late 90s early 00s shoegaze-y sounds. What inspires you?
SCARLET RAE: Right now, I’d say a lot of Grandaddy and Placebo. The past few years, I’ve been really inspired by Placebo and Death Cab For Cutie. It really just rotates.
LUNA: How do you go about writing lyrics? Do you write it out beforehand, do you write alongside the music?
SCARLET RAE: I write [lyrics] as I’m writing [the song], for the most part. I journal here and there. If I am journaling in general and I write something that sounds cool, I underline it so I can go back to it when I’m writing a song. I have random underlined phrases. That’s been a cool new thing I’m doing, just finding one random notes app thing to pivot off of. I usually write chord progressions first on acoustic guitar. I’ll try to figure out the whole song with acoustic and lyrics first, and electric guitar after because it’s more fun, more riffs come. I do bass last. There’s so many different ways that people write songs.
LUNA: I saw that Logic was gifted to you?
SCARLET RAE: It was awesome. I had Garage Band for the longest time, and then [there was] my new friend Robert, who I met being live on TikTok… This one’s a bizarre story! I was really lonely and I was making a song. I was like, “What if I just let this sit here,” while I was writing a song. What harm could it do? And then he tapped into the live like, “Sounds like my ‘90s band.” And I’m like, “Who are you? What band?”
He [said], “Slowcore band called Idaho.” I literally have an Idaho tattoo! I love Idaho! I was like, “What the hell, why the fuck are you on TikTok watching live?” And I ended up jamming with Idaho in LA. He was in New York one time for work. He came over to my apartment at like 12PM and was like, “You don’t have Logic? It’s $200, I’ll buy it for you.” So I got Logic right then and there.
LUNA: How do you feel you’ve changed as a musician? Is it different for you as a solo artist, versus working alongside a band?
SCARLET RAE: I feel like I’m pretty used to it now, but at times I need some sort of validation. It’s been so long since writing with a band that it feels like this is the way to do it. Honestly, COVID just ingrained that whole method and I learned how to record better. Now it’s just something I do.
LUNA: Do you think that has a big effect on how you write music, being able to produce it yourself?
SCARLET RAE: Yeah, I think so. I think when I try to do a session with somebody, if I’m put to write or produce with somebody, I struggle so hard. I’m shy. I think it’s a practice and I’ve definitely gotten better at it. I guess it depends who it is. I always feel like there’s so many other musical ideas that I can’t express, or the other person’s not on board with. So now, I just do it at home. I can take my own breaks and go back to it, and then I have a really satisfied feeling when I finish.
Being a girl definitely plays a huge role. Like, I don’t need anyone not taking me seriously right now, I’m not in the mood to be doubted on my ideas. So, you just do it yourself and show them when it’s done and then they’re all like, “Oh, you made this yourself?” It changes the game honestly.
LUNA: This EP is called No Heavy Goodbyes and I think that’s a very interesting title considering it feels like it’s about very heavy goodbyes. How did you land on this as the title?
SCARLET RAE: It was a song name I wrote, a song that I have in the vaults. That phrase just means a lot to me. I’ve heard it for years through my friends and it just feels nostalgic. It’s advice to myself. It’s kind of a “stay strong” vibe. I wrote the song before Lucy died and it made so much sense to use it. It sounds like a good theme that goes with the EP: grief and acceptance, being along and stuff.
LUNA: Do you have any upcoming plans for touring?
SCARLET RAE: I’m working on it. Hopefully I do! I’m with a booking agent which has been cool. I’m super excited and really down to tour soon.
