As the band members sat in a bedroom, cramped and barely fitting, they rehearsed. The strums of guitar started sounding less like random notes and more like a real song as the group found their sound. From just a few friends with an idea, Scarlet Queen was born.
The dream is now a reality for Scarlet Queen with this week’s release of their debut single “Look at Me Now.”
“Eli and I met in sixth grade,” senior Nate Riner said. “We met when we both moved to Willis at the same time. The band idea didn’t start until freshman year because when I started getting into rock. I talked to Eli about it, and I was like, hey, would you wanna play guitar or bass? And he told me he was gonna learn bass.”
A band typically has members who all have different skill sets.
“I was offered to play in my friend Nate and Eli’s band last year,” senior Ian Sheridan said. “I took some time to improve my playing, and late last year I joined.”
Sometimes all you have to do is ask. It can lead to amazing things.
“The new guy, Wesley, was a percussionist in band, and we knew of him,” Riner said. “The other day we were joking and he was like, hey, you should come drum for us or something. And then he texted us and was like, hey, put me in the bio. He instantly hopped on it, and then he started sharing the song everywhere, promoting it everywhere.”
Scarlet Queen is planning to revive a sound that has been forgotten.
“I play rhythm guitar,” Sheridan said. “I also occasionally involve myself in the songwriting process. The band is closest to classic American rock, with metal influences and a lot of passion. Our lyrics and instrumentation are a unique sound lost to time, and our new single ‘Look At You Now’ is just the start of it.”
Learning an instrument can be a difficult task but with motivation, anything is possible when you put your mind to it.
“My dad got me into drums,” sophomore Wesley Burns said. “Since then, I’ve fallen in love with music.”
Since the songs release on Tuesday, it has already surpassed 1,000 streams.
“We have gotten really, really good feedback,” Maddox said. “A lot of it is about how Nate is really good with lyrics, and how they actually have meaning because I mean, a lot of music doesn’t.”
Songwriting is a talent not many have, especially being able to write a whole song in one night.
“The song is a true story about a guy who went here (Willis High School),” Riner said. “He was really bad to his girlfriend, as you can see from the lyrics. We found out about it and then Eli sent me a couple of his ideas because we were gonna write something, and then I went bam. I wrote the whole song in one night, and it was actually probably one of the easiest.”
With the struggle to find a guitarist, it negatively impacted the band’s mentality.
“It took forever for us to finally get a guitarist,” senior Eli Maddox said. “We’ve had like eight guitarists in the last three years, and this guy’s finally sticking. We got to record and we hit it off like instantly, it was great. We got the demo done the first time we ever met him.”
Feedback on the song has been amazing, but the members are already planning to remaster it in a studio.
“A lot of people have been saying that it sounds professional,” Riner said. “We are already ready to remaster the song with a studio, but we did all of it in a bedroom. It was a cramped bedroom with like five people all crammed in. Everyone was on the floor and trying to rehearse was difficult.”
The band is planning to release a single for the next few months, and two of those songs are already written.
“I already have all the lyrics written for the next two songs,” Nate said. “We’re getting together to write the baseline and everything for Friday, and we’re gonna do a demo on it, and then everyone’s gonna go their separate ways, practice it. And then we’re gonna re-record on Sunday, hopefully we have our drummer and we’ll be able to just finish it up there.”
Finding a guitarist was a struggle but now that the band has found one, they can focus on their future aspirations.
“Our dream has always been to make it big,” Riner said. “I think that’s why people came and went because they didn’t have the same dream as us. We have to wait until we release the whole album, but our guitarist has a lot of good rep with a lot of places in Houston, and so we’re gonna try to hit all of them, it’ll be fun. I can’t wait to do concerts and maybe eventually sign autographs in the future.”
