AWmusic

Once again at the Milton Hardball Café on Wednesday February 3rd I had another interview right after the last one with USS but this time around the interview came from none other than Alex of illScarlett. Another favorite band of mine that I got to interview and soon enough this night had transformed into one of the best times I’ve ever had at any show. For those of you who don’t know, Alex is the lead singer of now widely popular Canadian band illScarlett, and after the band had finished their sound check for that night, he sat down with me to answer some of my questions.

A- From your big break playing outside, in the parking lot of Warp Tour so many years ago to now, what would you name as some of your biggest accomplishments?

Alex- Well we were signed to a record deal, but that’s always questionable if it’s truly an accomplishment or not. I’d have to say some of our biggest accomplishments though would have to be that we’ve toured Japan, the UK, Western Europe, and the States. We’ve also been nominated for Juno and Much Music awards. I’d just have to say that probably the biggest accomplishment we have is that to this day we’re still having fun and still loving every second of it.

A- With so many different genres encompassing the band, what influenced so much diversification?

Alex- We all like different types of music, we listen to everything from metal, classic, jazz, to of course reggae. We just listen to all sorts of music which I’d have to say is one of the biggest contributing factors to that.

A- With all the songs under your belt now, what would you label as the most defining for illScarlett?

Alex- I’d have to say One-A, it’s just the roots of everything and looks back at our roots in Streetsville. If you look at all our songs you’ll find quite literally that they’re all about us, but overall if you had to pick just one, I’d have to say One-A.

A- What was it like working with Kardinal Offishall on “Milkshakes and Razorblades”? How did that union come about?

Alex- We didn’t work directly with him, but we had always wanted to work with him previously. We had reached out to his managers for quite a while and never really got anything back from them. It wasn’t until the last day of recording where we wrote some of the bridges that we got a call at the last minute saying Kardinal was interested in working with us. So we sent the whole track over and shortly afterwards, Kardinal had produced, mixed and added all his parts to the track and 5 hours later it was done.

A- How would you say the band’s music has changed over the last couple years if at all?

Alex- We kind of do a mix match of everything, but it’s really hard to tell how your bands music has changed when you’re actually part of the band. In the end you just figure everything out and it ends up being what it is.

A- What’s up next for the band this year and in the far off future?

Alex- We’re currently working on the “Milkshakes & Razorblades” video, while at the same time just doing some more touring in around the States and Canada. There’s also a couple other things we’re up to at the moment, but I won’t get into any of that at the moment.

A- What do the fans mean to you as a band?

Alex- They’re everything to us, and any band that says otherwise are stupid. They’re the gas in our van and we just couldn’t do it without them. There just wouldn’t be any point to anything we’re doing if it weren’t for the fans.

A- What’s been the lowest point the band has suffered thus far? How’d you end up recovering?

Alex- Nothing big really, like none of us have ended up in rehab or anything like that, well not yet anyways. There’s always just those bad shows where everything just seems to go wrong and then right after that you have to drive 5 hours to the next show, it just drains the life right out of you sometimes. Playing over in Winnipeg, our van was broken into just a little while ago with five thousand dollars worth of stuff stolen. Plus it was a thousand dollars to replace the window, so that set us back but you know you just have to keep going, you just can’t stop because of something like that.

A- As of today, what would you were the best and worst show you guys have played so far?

Alex- The worst show, which I don’t want to mention, but if I really have to I would say was the show we played in Regina. It just wasn’t promoted properly, nobody really ended up showing, and it was supposed to be one of the biggest nights for the Roughriders. It was just really awkward, because they were the team that could have been that year. We were also broken into the very next day in Winnipeg. Some of the best shows would just have to be all those basement shows we played, or playing with bands like Weezer or Blink 182. We may not have played the best, but they were still downright amazing shows.

A- If you could have any super power whatsoever, what would it be?

Alex- Flying would be pretty cool, but then again it would only be good if you had other powers to go along with it. You’d probably need invincibility to go along with it because if you’re flying above the clouds you’d probably end up freezing to death. I mean I guess you could always wear a coat, but invincibility would be an awesome addition. You’d also want to fly fast, because what would be the point if you could only fly slow. So flying fast, invincibility, actually I’d probably want all of them. A mixture of everything would be pretty cool, but if just one I’d definitely take flying.

A- What is it like to wake up some mornings and be like “I’m in illScarlett, I’m a Canadian music icon”?

Alex- Can’t say I’ve ever started my mornings off like that, I mean I wake up just like anybody else. There are good days and bad days, if you wake up sick one morning, there’s still a show to go play and you play it. We’re just honored and privileged to play shows and be where we are now. We like what we do and it’s just amazing that after so many years we’re still having fun doing what we love most.

A- Lastly if you weren’t in illScarlett, what do you think you’d be doing?

Alex- I’d probably be a racecar driver, and if not that, I think I would have probably joined the army or something along those lines.

With another successful interview done, Alex ended up ordering me some food and beer from the bar and invited me to chill with the band throughout dinner. Getting the time to chill with one of my favorite bands was simply amazing, a lot of drinking, laughing and just having fun. Getting to hear the set list beforehand, I knew the show was not going to disappoint. With songs like “One-A”, “Extra Extra”, “Life of a Soldier”, and “Mary Jane” saved for last, it was a show I was not going to soon forget. These guys are truly the best, they rock hard, they’re loyal to their fans, and they simply have fun with it. I congratulate these guys on everything they’ve accomplished so far and to everything they will do in the future and I’d like to thank illScarlett for helping to make this night one of the best nights I think I’ll ever have.

One-A by illScarlett
Milkshakes & Razorblades by illScarlett
Mary Jane by illScarlett