Ghost: Can you tell us about your journey into music? How did you get started and what inspired you to become an indie artist?
Scarica: Music has always been a part of my life. I got started at a young age. My father taught me piano since I was 2, and Madonna was the original inspiration as to why I wanted to do music in general. After listening to artists like The Birthday Massacre, The Cranberries, The Mars Volta, and Alanis Morissette they made me decide I wanted to be in a rock genre as opposed to pop.
Dan: A lot of my uncles play guitar and other instruments. I started out playing piano and learning some Final Fantasy songs and other video game type things on a little Casio keyboard. My cousin always played my sister's classical guitar, but I never really cared to learn. He passed away in 2004 when I was 13 and then months later, I decided to learn the songs I already knew on keyboard onto that same guitar. Started a band in high school, then got into recording and it just went from there.
Ghost: What is the story behind your artist's name? Does it hold a special meaning for you?
Dan: We went through a couple of names and ideas. Audio Visual (AV) and Beta were ones that we tried to get to stick. After band practice one day we were talking about high school things and Erica said something along the lines of "Apparently I was Scarica Erica in high school because I was scary" I jokingly said it should be our band name. Everyone agreed but her and so it was decided by majority rule hahaha. I personally love it. It also means download in Italian so that's neat
Ghost: Nice! How would you describe your music style? What genres or artists have influenced your sound?
Scarica: TBM, Alanis Morissette, The Cranberries, Miyavi, Metric and more.
Dan: Good lord there's a ton. It's gone through a few changes but that's due to changing band members and just what I'm listening to during that time. I'll go a year listening to a bunch of grunge and stuff like AIC, Nirvana, Local H. Then hop onto the entire Birthday Massacre catalogue. As of lately it's been more mellow so a lot of Amy Winehouse and Alanis Morissette inspiration/influence, so we'll probably be releasing more songs around those genres minus the few songs we already have cooking that we wrote years ago.
Ghost: Awesome! I can't wait to hear your future new stuff! Can you share the creative process behind your latest album/single? How do you usually go about writing and producing your songs?
Scarica: Sometimes it can be as little as hearing two notes in the background from a fork hitting a plate and I hear the pitch then it turns into an entire melody. Sometimes it will be influenced by other songs. Just depends. As far as lyrics go, it’s usually something I hear in my head while I’m hearing the sounds of music. So that being said, I hear A flat to G and I hear an elongated note or something of that nature. Usually, the lyrics don’t come before the melody, however, when they do it comes from a need to write down my feelings.
Dan: So, the latest single Of What I Am was written years and years ago. I wanted to write a song that had a lot of chords and variation because most of our songs we released aren't very complex in terms of chord progression or melody. The production style and decisions on panning/volume of the instruments was having listened to You Know I'm No Good by Amy Winehouse and Right Through You by Alanis Morissette.
Ghost: What challenges have you faced as an indie artist? How have you overcome them?
Scarica: My inability to sell myself. I’m really bad at bragging about our music because it feels unnatural to brag about my own accomplishments. I wasn’t raised that way so it’s kind of a weird hurdle to get through to tell people about our music just because it feels so unnatural to mention it at all.
Dan: Keeping dedicated band members. I get that life happens, but we've met so many people that have a "passion" for music only for them to either ghost us or quit at some point soon into joining. We decided to keep the band just the two of us. We wrote our first song Mirage (up on Soundcloud) with just us and some virtual drums. After that we started getting more band members so we can play live, but they were in and out of rotation, so it caused a lot of hiccups. We find that we get a lot more done with less people.
Ghost: Can you tell us who inspired your passion for music growing up? Scarica: My parents. They were both passionate about music in different ways. My mother loves to dance, and my father loves to play. I used to get stage fright, and I hate to sing in front of other people, but Dan had posted on Facebook that they are looking for a female vocalist. I knew I could do it, so it pushed me to sing by myself rather than a part of a group or choir. It was the first time that I did a solo and I could never replicate the feeling that I got when I saw his recognition of my talent.
Dan: Would most definitely be my cousin Russell who passed in 2004. Big inspiration for me to pick up the guitar which in my opinion is a gateway drug to other instruments lol.
Ghost: What message do you want to convey through your music? Is there a particular theme or emotion you aim to evoke in your listeners?
Scarica: It depends on the song. Each song has a different motive and a different message. Usually, it’s supposed to be empowering but not always. Sometimes the point of the song is to capture the vulnerability. It really just depends on the song that’s at hand.
Dan: I like catchy, simple rhythms and melodies. I really enjoy a less is more approach and love having the vocals shine/not be buried in the mix.
Ghost: Nice. Your songs definitely come across as empowering for sure! I'm a fan of simple rhythms and melodies as well. What are your future plans? Are there any upcoming projects or collaborations that your fans should look forward to?
Dan: Lots of future plans just need the time to work on them! The first four songs we released last year were mastered by "AI" solely due to us not having enough money to hire a professional. We're re-releasing them remastered because the problem with the AI mastering services we used are that they're mainly just presets and don't take into account what's already been boosted or cut. So it'll identify "This is a rock song so you need a 4dB boost at 2k and a 3dB boost at 50-100 which if it's already been boosted it just makes certain frequencies sound too harsh and downright goofy. We got a new interface which is a HUGE improvement to our workflow already and began mastering the music ourselves. So everything moving forward will be all in-house! So with that being said, Farewell, Unoriginal, TIC, and Scrapbook will be re-released slightly remixed and completely remastered on June 28th! We plan on releasing another EP with about 4-5 songs sometime this year. Could be July, could be December but the promise is THIS year.
Ghost: I wanted to take a moment to express my sincere gratitude for the recent interview. It was an absolute pleasure connecting with you and learning more about your music, creative process, and unique journey as an indie band.
Your passion, authenticity, and dedication truly shine through in your music.
Comments