Scars on 45 Interview: SXSW 2010

Scars on 45 are an acoustic indie-pop band from Leeds, England who just signed a multi-album deal with Atlantic records. The band used the music-financing site slicethepie.com to fund demo recordings. One of those demos, 'Heart On Fire,' was featured in an episode of the television program 'CSI,' leading to over 20,000 hits on the band's MySpace page. This exposure piqued the interest of major labels. Spinner spoke with vocalist and guitarist Danny (no last names, please) in Los Angeles where he was remixing the band's debut album, which is due later this year. Scars on 45 will be playing SXSW on March 17.

How would you describe you band's sound?

Ah, that's a tough question, kind of like asking me to describe my own child. We have an alternative/acoustic indie-pop kind of thing. I guess one could call it Fleetwood Mac meets Brit-Pop meets Ryan Adams.

Are there any other artists that influenced the band?

We've got six people in the band, who all come from different musical places and histories, so there are loads of bands we listen to. Me personally, I started getting into music in 1996, so I was surrounded by Brit-pop bands like Oasis and Blur. They were everywhere in the UK then. Melody is really what influences me, so I've always been a huge Beatles fan. Actually I can listen to anything as long as it's got a great melody. I'm too old to worry about what is considered cool or hip. If it's a good song with a great melody I don't care if it's by Van Morrison or Lady Gaga, as long as it's enjoyable. Bollocks to it if people think it's not cool. I even like some Don Henley and Bruce Hornsby ... I'm not embarrassed to say. Some of the other bands we love are Radiohead, Elliott Smith, The Kinks, Gram Parsons, and Midlake.

How did the band form?

I've known our bassist Stu from our days in school. We had both been in a series of failed bands and just started to play together around 2007. We just started to gradually add more members. It wasn't like we put up flyers or were all mates from school who grew up together. It happened very organically. We'd added our keyboard player who had a friend who was a drummer. Then the drummer knew a singer, who knew a guitarist, and slowly but surely, we had a complete band. We were all veterans of failed bands that somehow found one another and now are attempting to be a successful one.

How did you come up the name "Scars on 45"?

Well most people, especially in the England think it's a pun on Stars on 45 who were quite popular in the UK. They used to make medleys of current hits and make them danceable, almost like disco. The real story, however, is that I was reading an interview with Emmy Lou Harris. She's one of my favorite singers and I'm mad for her. Anyway, she was telling a story about her father's prized collection of 45 records. Her father was a real hard working guy, a truck driver I think I remember. Well, while he was away at work Emmy Lou would spend all day listening to his records. The first thing her father would do when he came home was to play his records. If he ever found was one scratched he would yell at her, "You've got scars on my 45s!" I thought it just really sounded cool and decided it would make a good band name.

What's your biggest vice?

Food. Simple as that. We are all crazy for good food. Where we live there's a large Asian population so there's loads of good curry. But other than that British food is pretty awful. So whenever we travel we indulge in all the delicious things we can get our hands on. I'd say that food, music, and friends are our biggest vices.

How did the band get involved with slicethepie.com?

Well, to be honest, I'm not really sure how it works, but it enabled us to start recording without having a label. The money from the public investors gave us the financial freedom to concentrate on studio work and also got our music heard by people who otherwise may have never found us. I don't know if it's the future of the music industry or anything but, if it helps bands get heard and recorded, I think it's a really cool thing.

You had a song featured on the television show 'CSI.' How did that come about and what has the response been?

We were actually on The Closer as well. Our manager, Steve, who signed us after hearing the slicethepie.com recordings, sent some tracks to TV producers he knew. The CSI thing was crazy, it has just unleashed madness. Before that, we had spent a year together and things were not going well, not going as we had planned at all. Then Steve got a demo of our song " Heart On Fire" on CSI and things just exploded. We had something like 20,000 hits on our My Space page the very next day. That drew the attention of Chop Shop, which lead to our deal with Atlantic. Now here I am in L.A. remixing that same song as the lead single of our major label debut. I've really got a lot to be grateful for.

Why don't the band members use their last names?

It just seems more friendly. Where we come from, in the north of England, that's just how it is when you meet someone. If you're in a pub, you just say, "Hi, I'm Danny." There's no need for last names really, they're just too formal. People might think we're up our arses but it's just our way to be polite.


James Meyers is a contributor from Seed.com. Learn how you can contribute here.