LUCIDMEDIA

Cool Things coming for ill Scarlett

Written by Lisa M. Knapp Friday, 31 July 2009 14:11

ill Scarlett is a four member band from Mississauga ON who are working on the release of a new album titled One Up for this coming November. They have made a name for themselves after years of hard work in Canada and their also known throughout the US and Europe. In 2004, band broke into the music industry when they played outside the 2004 Vans Warped Tour for fans waiting to get in using a generator to power their equipment. The organizer of the tour, Kevin Lyman, took notice and invited them to play at the band after party where they were offered spots on the tour for the next two years to follow.

This was just the beginning for this pop rock reggae band. They went from Vans Warped Tour to Los Angeles, CA where they were under the production of Matt Wilder who helped produce their first album and for their next they just finished up in the studio with Robert Carranza, a three time Grammy winning producer and engineer. With excitement in the air, ill Scarlet is appearing at the Cutting Edge Music Festival for a pre-release show. This Lucid Writer got the inside stuff with singer Alex Norman.

Lucid Forge: So give me a little bit of a rundown about ill Scarlett.

Alex Norman: I guess we have been around since 2001 and we signed to Sony in 2006 I guess. and our first record came out in July 2007 and won Golden Canada. We toured Canada the States and Europe and we also did a tour in Japan, which was a lot of fun.

LF: Wow you have been all over eh!

AN: Yeah and we just recorded our second record in LA with a guy names Robert Carranza

LF: Give me some more detail about that.

AN: It was a really cool, a real fun record to make. We did it in about six weeks [and] we decided to be more honest with this record so I guess there is a sense of maturity that comes through.

LF: So you guys had something called an ill Phone hooked up when putting the album together… did you get a lot of phone calls?

AN: I think we answered pretty much all the calls, but we got mostly texts. It was fun! We got more texts than calls.

LF: What kind of things did they ask?

AN: Some asked just how it’s going and some more specific things like are we touring the west coast or things like that. Our guitar player was answering more than anyone else. It was fun though. A girl did a project on us for school and had a few questions for us. It was cool to talk to the fans, because without the fans you don’t have a band.

LF: For sure, so give me the inside about what is going on right now.

AN: The record comes out November 28th, of this year so we are setting up the singles and figuring out what we are doing for the touring and just staying home. There are a couple festivals we are doing but, the record is not out yet so we are just wrapping up the record and figuring things out for when it does get released.

LF: Are you looking forward to the Cutting Edge music festival?

AN: Oh yeah, I always look forward to the Cutting Edge. I think it’s the best festival in Southern Ontario though I have not really been to a lot of festivals but it’s just awesome. They pick great bands and the camping is fun, there is a lot going on more than just the music.

LF: So what festival, has been the highlight of your musical career?

AN: Warped Tour was super special for us in 2004, we played outside the line-up in Barrie and Kevin Lyman, the guy who runs Warped Tour heard us playing and he invited us backstage to play for all the bands at night when they do a party. And after that we did Warped Tour for the following year and the year after that and we met our manager. It was a great experience.

LF: Who would you say is your musical inspiration?

AN: Well I can’t speak for the rest of the band as we all have different tastes in music. I’m sure Will [Marr, guitarist] would say bands like Strung Out or NoFX, we probably would all say Rancid and Green Day. My biggest highlight was Warped Tour in ’98 when the Deftones were playing, I’m a huge Deftones fan and that was one of the greatest shows I’ve ever seen.

LF: How did you come up with the band name Ill Scarlet?

AN: It’s Will Scarlet from the Robin Hood story. We are not big Robin Hood fans or anything but in our area of Mississauga there is a neighbourhood called Sherwood Forest so all the streets are named Robin Hood and Friar Tuck and Maid Marian and then there is a Will Scarlet Drive. We had made our first recording and we didn’t have a name or anything yet and we were driving up to drop it off and we remembered that we can’t really get a gig without having an name and we drove by the street Will Scarlet and thought well how about ill Scarlet, and we though yeah that’s fine for now, we’ll just keep that and change it later. I guess we got lazy and didn’t change it and I like it now so…

LF: Are you looking forward to seeing any of the bands at the Cutting Edge Festival?

AN: Yeah, the Protest the Hero kids. We are friends with those guys and we have done one tour with them and they are always fun to watch. The Roots, we have played with them before that will be cool. Moneen is defiantly my number one band that I want to see, they are incredible live.

The Cutting Edge Music Festival is in Kitchener Ontario at Bingemans Park this long weekend, with ill Scarlett is playing on Sunday. For full ticket information and line-ups check out the website at www.cuttingedgemusicfestival.com.