Scarlet Carson

There’s no mystery as to how bad the economy is these days. In fact, over nine percent of the population is currently out of work. New Jersey is certainly a difficult state to live in, but according to Scarlet Carson front man Santino a.k.a. Hollywood, their biggest challenge has been the Jersey music scene.

                  After playing at shows such as the Warped Tour, Cruefest and Bamboozle, the fame has not gone to their heads at all. As front man, Santino Hollywood, lead guitarist, Stone and rhythm guitarist/backup vocalist Tommy Licore describe, it isn’t about the money or the fame, it’s about the love of the music. They believe in themselves, which they know, is the number one key to making it.

DB: Let’s start off talking about The Break Contest. Last year, you guys came in second. This year, you won the finals but they added another round with the final six bands to see who plays the main stage at Bamboozle. What are your feelings on that?

SH: It feels great man. It’d be easier if the winner of the The Break Contest Finals went to the main stage right away like last year. But hey, nothing worthwhile comes easy, right?

DB: Absolutely. Now that there’s an added round, do you feel added pressure?

SH: It’s just the name of the game. Everything we do in this industry is a new challenge. We’re going to go in there and do what we do best. We’re confident that we have what it takes to win this whole damn contest.

DB: Honestly, are you guys going to win?

SH: You bet your ass. Regardless of the outcome though, it’s just a contest. If we win great, if not, whatever. We’ve still got a bunch of things happening, amazing fans and it’ll be nothing but another notch in the bedpost.

DB: Your new album, “Burn It All” is available. How would you describe the album and what was the process like?

TL: Totally awesome album.

SH: It’s a little heavier than the first, so we took a little bit of a different approach. We decided to amp it up a little bit and the next album is expected to be a combination of the first two. [Making this album] was less complicated than the last one. The mastering process didn’t go the way we wanted it to. We’re upset we didn’t get to work with [who we wanted to] but with time constraints with the CD release party we couldn’t do it.

DB: The album sounds great, still. Who did most of the song writing for the album?

SH: The main two would be Stone and myself.  It’s a group effort.  The whole band does write and contribute. As of late though, Mr. Tommy over here is becoming a more integral part with some of the writing, especially with the guitar.

TL: So watch out for the next album because it’s totally going to show.

DB: What would you say is your favorite song off of the new album?

SH: Well the single we’re pushing right now is “West Coast Dreamer.” We feel it’s the strongest song on the album. “The Drinking Song” we feel is pretty strong too. “Sex, Drugs & Rock ‘n’ Roll” is one of my favorites. The end of that song is real fun to sing. “Cherry’s On Top” is fun to sing too. I don’t know man, that’s a real tough question. I  don’t have one favorite. I love different sections of different songs.

DB: Well let’s talk about the name Scarlet Carson. Did you guys get it from the film “V For Vendetta?”

SH: Sure did. We were kind of going for the slightly ominous thing, nothing to blunt and obvious. No one really knows what “Scarlet Carson” is. People think it’s a girl’s named which worked our  favor when we were calling ourselves “stripper rock’ back in the day. But it’s personally one of my favorite movies. I just thought it was a cool detail that was exclusive to just the movie, not even the comic. I just think it’s pretty random.

DB: That it is. How did Scarlet Carson come to be?

Stone: I answered an Ad. I never did that before. I always thought they were kind of lame but I was out of bands for a few years so I decided to do it.

SH: I actually tried putting this together in Florida but I just couldn’t get it together. I came up here….and just from recommendation by other people it came together. I definitely think this is the best line-up we’ve ever had.

DB: I think it’s great that you guys are fans of your own music. You play what you like and not just what the people want to hear.

TL: If you’re not making music you enjoy, you’re just cheating it and cheating you’re fans.

SH: I think a lot of people play what they like, but I also think they just play what they’re capable of. They don’t try to push it to stuff they normally wouldn’t do. The new album was more technical (than the first) but we pushed ourselves and plan on doing it for the next one too.

DB: You guys have done a lot in the short time you’ve been together. What have you found to be your biggest challenge?

SH: Being in the Jersey scene. It is really rough here man. We’ve played in front of a lot of people and have done a lot of great things. Don’t get me wrong, I’m very grateful. It’s like every big show, where we have to move tickets, it’s as if we’ve never done it before. It’s a whole new ball of stress every time.

DB: Do you guys see this as you’re future?

TL: Scarlet Carson is the future. Music in general, but  this is doing so.

Stone: I think most of us have adjusted our lives to make it happen and do a lot of things we don’t want to do, but we’ll do it to play music.