What are your names and roles in the band?
Olya Viglione – Vocals, piano, songwriter and lyricist
Brian Viglione – Drums, vocals, guitar, producer
Mark Kohut – Guitar
Ed Goldson – Bass, vocals
Tell us the story behind the name ‘ Scarlet Sails’.
Brian: The title was taken from the 1923 adventure novel by Alexander Grin, which essentially about believing in yourself when no one else understands you and going for your dreams and having the courage to take risks in life.
What is your genre of music and who would you describe as your main influences?
Brian: We’re unabashedly a rock band influenced by Bowie, Queen, Alice Cooper, Radiohead, P-Funk, Otis Redding, and all those hard to reach places in the back of your brain.
How did you both get your start in music and how did come together to create Scarlet Sails?
Brian: Olya got her start as a kid in classical music school as a rebel who broke out to work on her own songs, and I got started playing drums in a small New Hampshire town jamming with my friends, and we both had a strong passion to make music our lives. We met at The Bowery Electric in NYC in 2013, fell in love, and started playing music soon after we started living together. We released our first EP in January ’16 and began recording our full-length in December ’16, so A LOT happened in just one year. But we’re both very driven people who like to get things done and now we’ve got our soul-brothers, Mark on guitar who is like our Mick Ronson, and Ed Goldson on bass who is just there with us every step of the way, so it’s full-on now.
Tell us more about your track ‘ Boy You’re Wrong’. What was the writing process like?
Olya: “What happened, tell me what happened to us” started playing in my head and wouldn’t leave for weeks. I finally gave in and sat down to write it. You know, some of my songs come to me as premonitions, and this one is a big example of that. I wanted to escape what was coming but it was inevitable. While writing it I went through a break up and reconciliation and fought some of the inner demons along the way. It’s daring and it’s powerful. It speaks about the duality of being a grown up and expectations that come with that and having your childlike aspirations and desire to connect on a deeper level even if you have mental blocks that you built along the way of becoming who you are today.
How has the response been so far?
Brian: Very encouraging! We’ve had a fantastic reception to the music and the live shows and we are excited to see where it all goes! Everyone seems to have a different favorite song, so that’s been cool to see how diverse the reactions to the songs are and what types of moods people are responding to.
You used Kickstarter to fund your new album Future From The Past, what was the response like? Why did you decided to crowd-source?
Brian: We decided to crowdsource because of the combined effect of building our community and expanding our reach with people who were enthusiastic to see the band grow. It’s been a good source of focus as it helps us hone in even more on the projects at hand and keeps the momentum building because you have some concrete to work towards. The Kickstarter raised 197% of our goal, so that was an overwhelming show of support from our fans and really set the tone for these last few months.
What can you tell us about the album and how it came to be?
Brian: It’s the culmination of Olya’s songs she’d written up to that point but with the added collaboration of the band to flesh it out, plus the advantages of the studio we worked at which added a lot of tools for the occasion. We began working on the songs in early 2016, then locked in Atlantic Sound Studios in Brooklyn in the fall, and both Diko Shoturma and Nic Hard were essential in helping us achieve the range of sounds we pulled out. It really helped having a team who understood where we wanted to take the music and could experiment along with us.
You just finished up a short tour around the album release, will you be touring again later this year?
Olya: Yes, we are planing on hitting West Coast and Mid West this summer.
Where do you see yourself now in 5 Years?
Olya: On top of the world. Always wanted to climb that mountain.
When you’re not doing music, what do you do?
Olya: Planing out the visualizations for it.
Where would your dream venue to play in your hometown?
Olya: Radio City Music Hall in New York, I love that space.
If you could collaborate with one UK Artists or Band who would it be?
Olya: Radiohead.
If you could collaborate with one US Artists or Band who would it be?
Olya: Jack White.
Can you recall a particular song that upon hearing made you want to have a career in music?
Olya: Fallen by Alicia Keys.
What’s the best career advice you have ever been given?
Olya: Do you and don’t worry about the others and what they think. It’s not a competition, everyone in this world has their own unique talent and we owe it to ourselves to be the best version of ourselves we can be.
What advice would you give to aspiring musicians not about the industry and just as an artist?
Olya: Visualise what you want to create, spend time honing your craft, let it breathe and become its own thing. Enjoy it. You have one life to live so make sure you treat yourself and others right by giving it all you’ve got.
What quote or saying do you always stick by?
Olya: Do what’s right in your heart. Dream far and wide and don’t take shit.
When you are at a gig, what are 5 things you cannot forget?
Olya: To be in the moment, to kick ass, set time, power cable for my keyboard (learnt the hard way), and to write a set list (although it’s not a big deal, we can roll without on occasions, haha).
Do you have social media accounts so your fans can follow you?
Olya: Scarlet Sails are on Facebook
Instagram ,
And we Tweet . And don’t forget to follow us on Spotify!
