Scarlet Drive Ghosted Interview

I Just Think That You're Cute

After three years across the West Australian gig circuit, a debut EP, national Australian tour and Spotify-curated single 'I Just Think That You're Cute', Scarlet Drive are announcing the release of their last single before a temporary hiatus, 'Ghosted'.

Following the success of their unapologetic and romantically candid new brand of music, 'Ghosted' takes a fun look at the people we unwittingly leave behind in our abandoned inboxes and marks a return to the band's genre-defying ska roots.

Consisting of Michael 'Milli' Millimaci on Vocals and Michael 'Barry' Madafferi on Lead Guitar, this release marks the departure of long-time bassist Maddey Eccleston as she pursues new musical projects, bringing with it two new members in bassist Sebastian Fazzari and Conor Warrilow rounding out their electric new sound on drums.

The band kicked off the year with a WAM Award nomination for Most Popular New Act, taking out #7 and #13 of the 89.7 FM WA Top 20 with singles 'Ceto' and 'Sad Robot', but as lead singer Michael Millimaci moves to New South Wales will be on hiatus for some time to accommodate the new changes.

Interview with Scarlet Drive

Question: How would you describe your music?

Scarlet Drive: Our music is a hot bubbling mixture of all our favourite genres from funk to ska coming together into one big indie alternative pot. As long as it's fast, fun and fresh it's Scarlet Drive to us.


Question: Can you tell us about your new track, Ghosted?

Scarlet Drive: Ghosted's a little bit of a cheeky one, we'd been jamming on one of our old-school ska progressions for a while and after a debrief about our love life, I decided to imbue some of the details into the track to try and get the guys to laugh. Looking back now quite a few of our newer tracks have started that way and I think that's where a lot of the fun energy comes in, when we get to share those moments with everyone listening.


Question: What motivates you most when writing music?

Scarlet Drive: This changes all the time! Sometimes it's a shitty breakup and other times it's an exhilarating day, I suppose most of the time we're motivated by each other and the excitement of crafting something new out of a small riff or melody line into a whole composition, so a lot of our songs are written in jam sessions that way.

Question: Do you prefer performing live or recording?

Scarlet Drive: Depends who you ask! Curly prefers recording and getting excited seeing our labour of love gradually come together, Milli prefers performing live and being able to spark an authentic connection with our amazing audiences.


Question: Which is your favourite song to perform live and why?

Scarlet Drive: I think Sad Robot's become a staple in our set because even when we're all hot and bothered with energy tanks running low, it somehow manages to give us and the audience that one little push to see out the show with a bang. It's also the first song we wrote so it has a special place in our hearts (and watching audience's faces slowly shift as they hear those three opening notes is a favourite pastime of ours).


Question: If you could have anyone, in the world, attend a show, who would it be?

Scarlet Drive: Had to think long and hard about this one, but I think I'm going to have to resurrect the dead and invite John Lennon just to hear what he'd say.


Question: Which music/artists are you currently listening to?

Scarlet Drive: Some of our favourites right now are Catfish and the Bottlemen and The Strokes, but also a lot of local hot picks that have been tearing it up like Spacey Jane and our boys in Mt Cleverest.


Question: What or who was your inspiration to go into the music industry?
Scarlet Drive: I don't know if there was necessarily one particular artist who inspired us to get into music so much, but for Milli it was probably his dad. He actually learnt piano from when he was three before switching over to guitar and came from a family of musicians, so for him it was more a rite of passage.


Question: If you could collaborate with another artist, who would it be?

Scarlet Drive: Lily Allen! It's Milli's (not so) secret celebrity crush but also imagine the ska fusion!


Question: What is the biggest challenge you have faced along the way to your musical success?

Scarlet Drive: I think one of the natural challenges is finding the right fit of people. We spend so much time together that it's really important to us that we're not just bandmates but friends.


Question: What's a typical day like?

Scarlet Drive: We all work and study on the side from different walks of life, so it's usually a mad rush from place to place until we make it to rehearsal or the studio to hang out together at the end of a long day.


Question: Can you share your socials?

Scarlet Drive: Facebook.com/scarletdrivemusic @scarlet_drive
@scarletdriveAU


Interview by Brooke Hunter