In a world full of men in flannels playing acoustic guitar onstage, The Scarlet Opera are a breath of fresh air – a five piece band committed to aesthetic and performance, with onstage outfits that rival even the most fashion forward pop stars. Forming in 2016 and reinventing themselves in 2022, the band continues to commit to their theatrical sound and performance. Composed of Colin Kenrick (keyboard), Daniel Zuker (bass), Justin Siegel (drums), Chance Taylor (guitar) and frontman Luka Bazulka, The Scarlet Opera is an incredible force of both theatricality and authenticity.
With the release of their single “Catch Me If You Can,” The Scarlet Opera enters a bold and confident new era, showcasing frontman Luka Bazulka’s phenomenal vocals and an earworm chorus. As their first release of the year, the band sets the precedent for this era of The Scarlet Opera: they’re taking hold of the reins, and anyone who objects can see themselves out.
Ahead of their latest release “Someone’s Gotta Love ‘Em,” I was able to chat with the band about new music, their spectacular live show, and all that’s to come for The Scarlet Opera.
Brigid Young: Thank you all for taking the time to hop on here today! So, this is a busy time for you all: you recently released “Catch Me If You Can,” more new music is on the way, and you are currently on tour. How are you feeling about this new era, and the response to it so far?
Luka Bazulka: I think we’re kind of flying by the seat of our pants, really. It’s kind of fun! I will say, we changed the second song we were going to release a couple of times, based off the reaction we were getting from the audience and online. Just kind of seeing what people were connecting to the most. We found that “Someone’s Gotta Love ‘Em” seemed to be the frontrunner, which was funny because we had been told originally that it was a bit too theatrical. Which, we were aware of when we were writing it. We thought it was kind of fun and silly. As it turns out, that’s what our fans want anyway, so we’re going to give it to them!
Colin Kenrick: It’s also nice to see, since the song’s not out yet but we’ve been teasing everything on social media, it’s been nice that people have really responded. Even the songs that no one really knows, they’re singing back to us, a wonderful experience.
Daniel Zuker: It’s just been great to see what the response has been live. It has really dictated how we move forward. I think… your fans, in many ways, should dictate your next move. Our fans have been very vocal, and we’re very fortunate for that.
BY: I wanted to ask a bit about the creative process behind “Someone’s Gotta Love ‘Em,” – like you were saying, it’s a super cinematic song with the strings in the beginning, the group vocals, everything going on. How did that all come together in the studio?
LB: This one in particular was a delirious day of writing. We were so tired. We were like, fuck it, let’s get as silly as we possibly can. We were just talking a lot about, in hindsight, the years and years that we spent gallivanting around Los Angeles, and other various cities, and how ridiculous life can be. The different characters you meet along the way. We were like, let’s lean into that and start exploring and telling that story. It was just a lot of ‘yes, and’-ing. When we got to the lyric about the guy who does porn but didn’t get very far… when I said it, I was like, that’s too far. Everyone was like no, keep going! It was honestly just a fun day.
CK: We had to fight for that one, didn’t we? We had to fight to keep that line in there. We had to make sure that stayed. Yeah, Luka basically brought that kind of story and was working with our producer David Stewart. Musically, the song came together pretty simply and pretty quick. Like Luka said, the story… the LA nights out… It kind of presented itself as a very obvious, bombastic, theatrical, straight forward type tune. It happened in like, a day.
BY: I love how the lyrics sort of break the fourth wall, too. Like, literally addressing the audience in the song.
LB: It’s so fun for the show. We definitely did that on purpose, like, ‘oh, when we’re live, we can be like pointing at an audience member being like: that’s the porn star who didn’t make it! Over there is the guy who plays shitty guitar!’ It’s so fun live, as we imagined it to be. It’s great.
BY: An interactive experience, audience participation! This will be your second release of the year, following “Catch Me If You Can.” How did you decide on that one being the first one you put out?
LB: Similar to the last EP when we had “The Place To Be,” it just kind of made sense for the overall messaging of the EP itself. “Catch Me If You Can” was sort of our motto, essentially, fuck the haters! We don’t know where our audience is yet, we keep collecting them and growing our community and family. We were just like… it doesn’t matter… I think Colin said something years ago, I was so afraid because I was meeting these industry people and I wasn’t really vibing with them. I was like, I’m afraid to cut contact with them because then we’ll fail here in Hollywood. He [Colin] was just like, “nobody will determine our success but ourselves.” And that’s what birthed “Catch Me If You Can.” That’s essentially what the message is. In our silly, childish way, being like: there’s nothing that you can do to stop this. It’s headed where it’s headed, with or without you.
BY: Is that the energy you’re bringing to this era going forward? That sort of ‘stick it to the man’ vibe?
LB: Yeah! Truly, my least favorite thing is that with art, everybody thinks they know what they’re talking about. There’s so many different directions, there’s never one way to do something. It’s just so much more fun, like “Someone’s Gotta Love ‘Em,” say yes, and! Lean into the chaos of what this life has to offer. It just made sense to start with that one.
BY: Totally makes sense, absolutely. Following the release of your debut project Comedy, what was it like returning to the studio to work on this new batch of songs? What did you learn from the process of creating your first project?
Justin Siegel: This one was a bit different. Comedy, we really got a three week span to do it all. Write, record, everything. This was done briefly right before we left for a national tour, we opened for Ava Max. The songs had been written, they were in demo form, we laid down some tracking, then we had the rest of our year. We were hopping around the country a bit, and then we got some time to get back and really think on them a bit. We touched them up, we had a better vision, I think, by the time we were ready to start releasing and planning the release of them. It was a long process, it was kind of like a nine month process for this EP versus a three week process for the other one. So, there were definitely lessons learned along the way with the songwriting process, the production process. It’s different. They’re sibling records, but one was in the womb for a long time compared to the other. Overcooked!
DZ: I think a benefit to that time, the difference in process for this one… For Comedy, we didn’t have as long of a live run with that material to help dictate. I think what the second EP really has going for it, as well, is having that live mentality in those records.
CK: We also had some time to play Comedy, I think, before it came out if I recall. This one, it was like, the first show of tour was our first time playing all of these records live to anybody. It was very interesting to see how they translate, and how they were responded to live.
JS: One thing that was really interesting, that I think we’ve already overcome, what Colin touched on, Comedy gave us the tools to adapt very quickly. By the third show of this tour, maybe second show, they felt up to par with the others. Where it definitely took months… we had a new rack system, new in ear monitors, the whole thing we were putting together with that first tour last year. We’ve adapted to really make up some of that time… we’ve been thrown into it kind of abruptly. It’s kind of a mix of those two things, what Danny said.
BY: Going off of what you mentioned, Justin, about touring with Ava Max last year – I would love to hear a bit about what that experience was like. She’s such a pop icon, what was the interaction and engagement like with her audiences?
DZ: It was really incredible. I think the difficult part and the incredible part about it is that you have to earn every bit of the audience’s attention, because they are there to see Ava. It was a proving ground for us. I think that as a band, we met that challenge head on. It was a really exciting prospect, rather than a terrifying one. Getting onstage and wanting to earn every fan in that room was something we all really banded around.
CK: She also has a really amazing fanbase. It felt like from the first song… We’ve opened for bands before where people didn’t know who we were, we’d come out to black and [there would be] one guy in the crowd like ‘woo!’ Ava’s fans were really terrific. I feel like by the end of the first song, they were just there with us. First show was probably a lot of jitters, [but] by the first half of the first set… just like, ‘oh, this is going to be an amazing experience for everybody.’
Chance Taylor: A lot of those folks also have been coming to our shows recently. It’s been rad. I feel like every city so far has been Ava [fans].
CK: 100%. From our first tour where we headlined versus this one… the first one we did, I feel like everyone was like, ‘oh, I saw you guys on TikTok, I heard a line,’ whatever it was. [On this tour] it’s like, ‘I saw your last show here with Ava.’ It’s a really nice feeling to be like, oh, we actually won people over. That’s been a very rewarding experience.
BY: Having it translate into actual fans that continue to show up is super cool, yeah. And it probably exposed your music to a new demographic, which is pretty awesome too.
CK: She did all the work by being a star! We just showed up like, ‘we’re going to play now.’
BY: Your band has transformed over the years, in so many different ways. Progressing, evolving, all the things. What motivates you to continue to commit to this band? What is special about The Scarlet Opera to you?
DZ: I think the method that has been put out there by Luka rings really true with how this band works internally, which is intent for everyone. Me personally, it’s a place of acceptance. It’s a place of musical abandonment. Where you throw everything at the wall, you get to experiment, you get to do it with your best friends. I can’t think of a reason not to continue to do something like that.
LB: It’s been a slow, but a very steady, uphill climb. It’s funny to look at the past eight/nine years since we started the band, and to be like, we didn’t catapult anywhere, but damn have we earned every second on the stages we’ve set foot on. The audiences are getting bigger. Through the pandemic, we fine tuned our songwriting abilities, and met new writers and producers, and built our community in that way. The rooms have only ever gotten bigger. There’s been no reason to step away from this, even when it’s gotten really difficult, you remember that we are getting better as musicians. Our community is getting larger. For me, that makes it worth our while.
CK: The thing that I think we all really resonate with, or I’ll say it for myself, is having these other four guys in this with me. It’s not just the tour, it’s the four days a week we’re together rehearsing, or making content, or recording, or writing. You have to get five people to show up every single day, every single week. For eight years, these other four guys have been there every single day. Some days, someone has a bad day, or had a bad week in their personal life. They get to have a bad day, and the other four people are like, ‘it’s all good man, we’re going to get shit done.’ I can rely on these four other people. It just tells me there’s something here worth doing, that I’m not crazy. If I was by myself, I might be like, am I insane? The fact that we’re all here and keep showing up, I think is a testament to what we can do.
BY: That mutual commitment and respect is such a great foundation, especially when you’ve been doing this for eight years. You’ve been creating together for a while, how has your creative process evolved over time?
LB: It’s shifted, and then in some ways, we come back to certain things. Always trying new things, different writing. Sometimes we’ll section off into groups of three to write. It started off in Colin’s bedroom, I might’ve brought in a melody or some words that I’ve written, and they would sort of build around that. Then sometimes Danny would bring the bass line, and we would just maybe smoke a little and riff off of that, see what happens. I think what’s nice is we’re all so malleable. We’re willing to try pretty much anything, and hold each other accountable when something’s not working. In a kind way, of course. It’s always a sacrifice to try something new, a vulnerable action. I think lately what we’ve been wanting and acting on, in terms of the writing process, is maybe getting back to a little bit of those bedroom days. Getting back into a rehearsal space. Instead of writing inside of a studio, we’d like to write in our rehearsal space again, and see what comes of that. Especially with all of this new writing prowess we’ve gained through meeting some really top writers: what can we do now without them in the room, just us again? That’s where I think we’re headed next.
CK: Yeah, I think Luka makes a really good point on your question about the evolution of the creative process. In a weird way, sometimes the evolution is getting back to your roots. Because when you start as a band, you’re a couple young kids out of college and there’s no expectations. Let’s just create unabashedly. And then, you get put into… more eyes on you. Major label. All of these things, there’s more expectations. Certain processes you have to go through in order to get things done in a timely fashion. Which has been great for us, because like Luka said, it has sharpened our ability to work on the fly, make quick decisions. At the same time, as you grow as a band together, there is that inherent part of you that always wants to get back to what brought you there in the first place. So I think the evolution is really like: you start here, you learn this, the goal is to get into the best of both worlds in that creation. What we’ve learned and where we came from, and making those two things the best they can possibly be.
BY: Totally, honoring your roots while still learning and growing. Going back to the to the topic of your live show, I wanted to talk about the theatricality of the band: the outfits, the visuals, everything that goes into this dynamic live stage performance. Could you tell me about how these elements supplement your music and how you create this world at your live show?
LB: It started out… I remember way back in the day, I was like, we’ve gotta steer clear of this because I feel like it’s not cool or not interesting. But the reality of it is that it’s so us. Painfully us. When we decided to lean in, it not only felt better, the audiences started responding more to what we were doing. I think a lot of it comes from just this larger than life idea we had when we set out taking on stages, we all wanted to create music that built a world that was kind of delusional in a way. It gave us space to create these characters that were a bit delusional, but also drawn from real places and real parts of us. Danny’s straddling a speaker and [has] his tongue out, but the thing is, he was already doing that on a smaller scale, in the diviest bars on Sunset Boulevard. Just do more, more! That was the thing, go even bigger. Now, it’s ridiculous! It’s out of control, I love it.
CK: Now the fans are doing it with us!
LB: The actual moments we’ve created onstage that we’ll repeat, they’re kind of like bullet points. We see them as bullet points, but how we hit them every night is different, it should be different, that’s the magic of it. I have to stand there, but how I stand there can be different every time. Those [moments] come from everybody now. We have this really great moment in the beginning of our show where Chance, Danny and I sort of become a tank. I’m the driver of the tank, looking through the audience, and the boys are using their guitar heads to scan the audience, and we go back and forth. That was from Chance, who, genuinely, I was very surprised that he was so down to do that! Usually he’s like, ‘I gotta focus on making sure the sound out of my pedal board is correct.’ This round of tour, he just kind of took off, and is doing my job better than I can! I’m kind of useless to these boys at this point! [laughs]
CT: That was inspired by another band that I’ve seen many shows [of], and they do that kind of thing.
LB: It’s so good. Everyone’s leaning more into the theatrics. It just feels right.
CK: Luka definitely led the charge when we started doing this. We started as four music school kind of nerds, like ‘yeah, we love playing music!’ When Luka initially brought his voice, and then the larger than life grandeur of it, we saw a vision that we hadn’t even initially considered as a band. We were like, oh, this is a show. How do we create more than just a live experience? Actually give people something to walk away being like, ‘that was a freaking experience.’ I’m hoping that we can continue to do that. Even with the budget we’re working with right now we’re doing it! Let’s see what happens when those budgets open up.
LB: That’s the best part about theatre, guerilla style theatre. It doesn’t require a budget to create magic. Understanding that and going into dive bar shows… Even last year, we did a bar series that we wanted to do. You still can create moments. It’s just about leaning into the chaos. Understanding that as a band, and just imagining what we could do in a stadium is insane, knowing what we’ve done with nothing.
BY: Yeah, you’re already creating these grand performances in these spaces, it’ll be crazy when that experience is stadium sized! This is a question that all five of you can chime in on, what is your current favorite song to play live?
JS: Mine is “Catch Me If You Can.”
CT: “Ride Of The Rohirrim.” That’s a little instrumental interlude that we do to “Riot,” so I’ll tie that into just “Riot” as my answer.
DZ: Mine has shifted. I will shamelessly plug that “Big City Thing” has always been a favorite, because there’s a bass solo in there! But, the song that’s really become an absolute banger and really fun to play has been “What Good Is Love.” Been really, really enjoying that. I’m doing some things on that that are inspired by some metal bands… in a pretty… I don’t know what we would call it, EDM, classic rock, pop rock song but to use different techniques. I don’t know if anyone catches it or not, but just [from] a musical point, is a really fun little thing. It scratches some part of my brain.
CK: I think my favorite has become an audience favorite, which is “Slutty” because it has such a call and response. Luka kind of engages with the audience beforehand. It’s a fun interactive moment with the audience, that I think is always a great thing at shows. It’s kind of different from what we normally do. It seems to have been one of those stand out songs at shows. That’s been my favorite to play.
LB: Yeah, I would probably have to go with… I don’t know! It’s hard. I’m going to say “Catch Me If You Can” as well, because in the verses I feel like Tina Turner, and in the choruses I feel like Journey. It goes from such a sexy, smoky feeling to such an epic ending sound. I was just watching some of the videos back from our LA show, and it just sounded so full. I knew that it would feel epic, but damn, running onto stage with that song… I’m just like, I can take over the world! That’s what it feels like, and god, does it translate. It’s so fun.
BY: To wrap up, is there anything you can share about upcoming projects or things you’re working on?
LB: Expect more music this year than we put out last year. Our goal is to continue to put out really great music that we love, but at a quicker pace. We have so much, we’re still writing so much. As soon as we get back from this leg of tour, we already have sessions booked. Expect a lot more music, no more waiting! We’ve got lots to share.
Listen to The Scarlet Opera here!
