Earache Records [Release date: 16.08.24]

I was excited to get to review the latest offering from Scarlet Rebels, I have long been a fan of their music and even better I got the opportunity to discuss ‘Where The Colours Meet’ with their frontman, Wayne Doyle.

You may recall that Scarlet Rebels previous album ‘See Through Blue’ got into the UK Top 10, well ‘Where The Colours Meet’ takes these Welsh rockers to a whole new level and surely will spotlight them in the mainstream.

Let’s take a look at the album that I think puts them firmly on a stellar trajectory. From the Album opener “Secret Drug” the bar is set, this foot stomper pays homage to the band’s influences and the catchy chorus has sing-a-long qualities that will surely add more when played live.

Doyle comments: ”We’re incredibly excited to show the world what we’ve been up to. “Secret Drug” is the first chapter from our new story and we’re so happy that we can finally unleash it on the world. It marks a new era for the band. With ‘Where The Colours Meet’, we made an album of unity, a call for togetherness in a world gone mad. I genuinely feel it’s the best set of songs we’ve written.

The band’s performance is superb and Colin [Richardson] and Chris [Clancy] brought totally new ideas and focus to our music. We hope you enjoy this album as much as we enjoyed making it.”

With Scarlet Rebels’ live sets coming to life too, as “Let Me In” and “Practice Run”, are now heard on a proper studio recording for the first time, we chatted about the forthcoming tour, with intimate album launches in Swansea and Exeter happening ahead of a wider tour of venues across the UK in October, before diving deeper into ‘Where the Colours Meet’…

A track that instantly stood out to me was ‘Declining’, can you tell me about the inspiration behind it?

“This is the first song I wrote for this album, it’s a raw outpouring and a reflection on my feelings at that moment.

Having being offered a deal to continue with Earache Records, the pressure to follow on from a top 10 album and produce songs that were going to be good enough felt overwhelming at times and it sent me into a bit of a spiral.

There I was sat in Wales, it was dark and raining, it matched how I felt at the time. This song just flew out of me, the lyrics have quite dark content, when we got into the studio the track became upbeat, so the song is almost like the opposite in terms of contents, it’s quite a conflicted song, happy tune, dark lyrics.”

Personally, this is one my favourite songs on the album for the story telling narrative almost clashing with that upbeat musicality.

Can you tell me more about your songwriting process?

“I write about what I’ve experienced, what I felt or what I’ve seen and then try to create another narrative and maybe embellish it into a story and then into a frame for a song. I don’t want to write about things that I haven’t experienced”.

The lyrics are heartfelt and you can hear the emotion that is poured into Wayne’s songwriting, this is a masterclass in lyrical narratives, there’s not a song without meaning on this album. Let’s talk about ‘Out of Time’ which was co-written with Elles Bailey, how did that come about?

“I was asked if I was interested in collaborating with other song writers on the album, Earache’s, Tim Bailey-Kidd thought that mine and Elles Bailey’s styles matched and would compliment each other. Elles is brilliant. The collaboration with Elles Bailey was a fascinating, crazy time, we met up in a studio in Bristol where she was working on her album ‘Beneath the Neon Glow’ (out 9th August).

We started just trading single sentence lyrics, that we had captured as possible song ideas, and one of my lyrics struck a chord with Elles, who dug deeper into the meaning and ‘Out of Time’ was the result.

The lyrics are a two-way conversation, the song was written within an hour and a rough cut recorded. After we had recorded it properly, I didn’t hear it again until the early mixes of the album, I was just blown away by it, got total goosebumps. I’m so grateful to Elles to making the time and for the song to be on our album.”

This is a really beautiful song perfectly delivered, a duet that is surely a power ballad of this decade, the vocals and lyrics showcase the absolute quality of the songwriting and the perfection of Wayne and Elles voices.

Scarlet Rebels also collaborated with Ricky Warwick (Black Star Riders, The Almighty) for the writing of the album closer ‘My House, My Rules’ which is huge track – what a way to sign off this stellar album.

“You can hear Ricky’s influence all over the song, a rip-roaring, highoctane rocker. My take on it lyrically was the dues you have to pay as you make your way in the world and having to bow down to the rules of the house… It always wins! Again, having the chance to write with someone of Ricky’s calibre, talent and reputation, was such a boost in confidence for us. He was so generous with his time and his ideas with me, we’ll forever be grateful to Ricky for that.”

‘How Much is Enough’ and ‘Divide and Conquer’, resonates with your social economic impact as a band with food bank donations at live shows and now donating 100 early vinyl pressings of ‘Where the Colours Meet’ to charity shops, where does that stem from?

‘These Days’ from ‘See Through Blue’ was triggered by the government voting against providing school meals to those who desperately needed it during the pandemic, we decided to turn this into a positive rather than taking a negative stance, so we set up food bank collection points on our merch tables at venues.

This went really well and I had lots of people bringing food and lots of people delivering food to venues, which meant we needed extra transport to deal with it all. We contacted food banks locally to where we were playing and arranged for the foodbank to collect directly from the venue at the end of the gig.

This contribution continues with around 100 initial presses of ‘Where Colours Meet’ vinyl sleeves being donated in charity shops, using social media with their followers to treasure hunt for these rarities and supporting the charities.”

These tracks both offer powerful lyrics with huge riffs and a cracking drum solo on ‘Divide and Conquer’, every song on this album delivers! If you had to choose one song to introduce somebody new to Scarlet Rebel music what would it be?

“ ‘It was Beautiful’ as this song sums up the band, it’s nostalgic, it ramps up and it is encapsulates exactly what this band is about and how we want to present ourselves.”

This track starts off as a ballad and builds into showcasing all of the band, the harmonies and musicality is perfection and the song itself is another demonstration of great songwriting.

Having had the honour to review ‘Where Colours Meet’, I now can’t wait for the tour, to see these tracks played live.

These NWOCR bands have to work so much harder for the recognition they so richly deserve, no room for any ‘fillers’ on albums, every song has to be single quality to build out their following.

Scarlet Rebels have achieved that here and so much more, this is truly an album to be proud of. Scarlet Rebels are definitely on the ascendency and this album really showcases that, I’m confident this is another album to challenge the status quo of the mainstream charts and reaffirm that rock music is alive and kicking! Don’t take my word for it, get in on the action, grab a copy and see them live. *****

Review by Karen Clayton

Gig review (October 2024)

TOUR DATES

Outstore/Instore Tour

Fri 16 August – Bunkhouse – Swansea (SOLD OUT)
Sat 17 August – Bunkhouse – Swansea
Sun 18 August – Cavern – Exeter
Mon 19 August – Pie & Vinyl – Southsea
Mon 19 August – Vinilo – Southampton
Tues20 August – Banquet Records – Kingston
Wed 21 August – The Jacaranda – Liverpool
Thurs 22 August – Assai Records – Dundee
Thur 22 August – Assai Records – Edinburgh
Fri 23 Aug – Stonedead – Newark*

Headline Tour

Wed 2 Oct – Anarchy – Newcastle
Thu 3 Oct – The Live Rooms – Chester
Fri 4 Oct – KK’s Steel Mill – Wolverhampton
Sat 5 Oct – Cathouse – Glasgow
Sun 6 Oct – Deaf Institute – Manchester
Mon 7 Oct – Thekla – Bristol
Tue 8 Oct – Garage – London
Wed 9 Oct – Craufurd Arms – Milton Keynes
Thu 10 Oct – Rescue Rooms – Nottingham
Fri 11 Oct – The Key Club – Leeds

*Festival date

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