Band Interview: Skarlett Roxx

Games, Brrraaains & A Head-Banging Life are pleased to bring you an interview with hard rock/metal band, Skarlett Roxx.

1. How did you get started as a band?

Members of the band have been playing together for a few years trying to put the permanent pieces together. Jaxx, a former drummer and Kaiden were practicing together weekly and had started working on some originals when they invited Deuce to join the band after they invited Deuce to jam with them a couple of times. At which point, the song writing moved forward tremendously. However, once the band seemed complete, the original drummer decided he didn’t want to be as serious and dedicated as Jaxx, Kaiden, and Deuce. The band had just secured a barn in the middle of nowhere, built a stage, ignored the bats buzzing around their heads and dedicated ourselves to creating new music. Soon after, Ash joined the band to complete the lineup that has been the Skarlett Roxx lineup since the summer of 2020. Ash allowed Jaxx, Kaiden, and Deuce to blindfold him and take him to the barn for a tryout where the band’s equipment was kept.

The members had actually run in the same circles, new of each other, or had encounters with one another over the years, but didn’t become a band until 2020. The current lineup with Deuce and Ash joining Kaiden and Jaxx is really the only time there were four committed members of the band. Live performances and song writing took off with

2. How would you describe your sound?

We are a hard rock/metal band. Some say we have a punk sound too. If we have to pick one then we tend to say Sleaze Rock.

3. What bands/artists would you say have influenced your style of music?

All of the band members are influenced by different bands from the early to late 80’s. However, Jaxx and Deuce are also heavily influenced by the 70’s bands like KISS and Alice Cooper. Kaiden loves bands like Santa Cruz, but also likes newer modern heavy bands. Ash is very similar to Kaiden in that respect. While he’s a huge Dokken fan from the 80’s, he loves newer modern heavy bands as well as a lot of pop punk. When you see our live shows we think you hear all of those influences.

4. Has the rise of YouTube & music streaming helped or hindered you as a band?

Unfortunately, people would rather get singles online today and listen to a lesser quality recording. The days of buying a record at the store and listening to it as an entire album and piece of work was the best, but nowadays it’s just not how it is done by most consumers. People want to buy singles and listen to playlists on their phones so musicians have to adapt.

Social media though allowed us to have followers on Instagram and Facebook before we even released a song or put anything on YouTube. There are people out there craving the type of music we play so it was nice to have followers around the world built up who tap into our live feeds and follow us on YouTube.

Streaming has allowed us to get singles out there to build a following and develop name recognition. We have over 10,000 streams now on Spotify alone. It sucks that artists don’t get paid crap for their music, but the ease of releasing songs for independent artists is a positive.

5. What do you enjoy doing when you’re not making music?

All of the band certainly enjoys going to concerts, movies, and video games. Kaiden is very much into drawing, painting, and crafting. Deuce is plays competive baseball. Jaxx is also into sports and the ganja. Despite being the band’s drummer, Ashton is a guitar collector. Ashton is very much into muscle cars. He’s proud of his GTO. He works in a body shop when he isn’t playing shows.

6. What are your future plans musically? Tours?

The band intends to release their debut album and wants to play in bigger cities outside of the area in order to grow their fan base. The band is dedicated to the music. While we may be young to some, we see that as an opportunity to keep getting bigger and better. We have fans outside of Iowa who want to see us. We’re committed to making it happen.

Links

Website | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube