Q&A: The Scarlet Opera Shows What it Means to be Daring
A REFRESHING DOSE OF THEATRICAL POP ROCK — The Scarlet Opera gives the music landscape what it’s been missing in recent decades. Bold glamor, theatrical emotion and immersive artistry. Blending the aesthetics and attitude of old Hollywood melodrama with varying elements of jazz, pop, punk and rock musicality, The Scarlet Opera is creating something truly unique.
Consisting of the fabulous and flamboyant lead, Luka Bazullka, and bandmates Colin Kendrick on piano, Daniel Zuker on bass, Justin Siegal on drums, and Chance Taylor on guitar, The Scarlet Opera blends the eclectic sounds each member brings to the table in such a beautiful way. You may recognize them from their 2023 EP Comedy, featuring the single “Alive”. The Scarlet Opera explores themes of love, identity, and transformation in their music, giving audiences permission to lean into that side of themselves; to know that to be bold should be celebrated.
The Scarlet Opera are currently on tour in the United States, and are gearing up to release another single, “Someone’s Gotta Love Em” on June 7. Read on to get little more intimate with the band that is bending boundaries.
Photography Credit: Dylan Vanessa
LUNA: Congratulations on your latest single release “Catch Me If You Can.” Can you tell me a bit about what this song means to you?
LUKA: Thank you! This song is a lot about cutting ties with past versions of yourself. I think it's also about cutting ties with people who don't really believe in you. It was our very whimsical way of saying we're headed somewhere we don't know yet, but somewhere with or without you.
COLIN: I can speak to the musicality of it that that was a message that Luka brought in pretty clearly to us. I think in the music, we just wanted to deliver something that spoke to that message and gave that driving determination.
LUNA: What does a typical songwriting session look like for The Scarlet Opera?
LUKA: It's different every time. Lately, we've been doing a lot of pairing off into different writing groups — like sometimes it'll be me, Justin, Colin or Danny, Chance and I. It’s honestly whoever's feeling it that day. We start with the topline, usually, and if Danny brings in a baseline or Chance starts playing the piano it sort of follow that energy and let that inform what the story is going to be. Just following the vibes really.
COLIN: A lot of times Luka will give us a story that he wants to write about. Like in one of our last sessions, it was just one line and it was a location. It was like, ‘I don't necessarily have a story. I don't necessarily have a vibe, but I have this thought that I really want to bring to life.’ He repeated that phrase over and over again, and from there it built into something.
LUNA: There is this air of grandeur and theatricality that swirls around the entire essence of the band — why is that and what draws you so much to these traits?
LUKA: Well, I think naturally, the music started bringing that out in our live show, and in our rehearsals, so it was like leaning into that impulse anyway. I personally love old Hollywood and transatlantic films, where it's like, Sunset Boulevard and very Norma Desmond energy. I feel like that naturally comes out on stage. I think that this reminds me of some people who I loved very dearly in my life. When I think of love and spreading that very fun, positive energy, I think of those people, and that's really what comes out on stage.
COLIN: Luka brings out that theatricality I think. When we started the band, none of us really had that. We were all quiet jazz band kids. So, there's inherently that in the music, and then we start playing live. And it naturally grew from there.
LUNA: Additionally, what artists or bands from the past or present have inspired the glamorous rock n’ roll theatrical element in the music and in Luka’s performance?
JUSTIN: We've drawn inspiration from bands like Journey, you know, some of the classic rock bands. I think Meatloaf was thrown around when we were writing Comedy or our current EP, and it had this rock opera vibe to it. That was definitely an inspiration. We all bring a lot of different tastes to it. Colin mentioned jazz, people who come from rock backgrounds, funk backgrounds. It really draws from across the board. It'd be hard to pick only a couple because I think we can each bring three or four.
LUKA: I grew up doing theater. The reason I fell in love with theater in the first place was because my grandparents were so animated and always encouraged putting on plays, and I fell in love with old Hollywood and old theater. When we started doing music, the music was about my personal life, but it had this very ‘old’ feeling to it. The character was created on stage over time. People that inspired me don't necessarily fall in line with what you're seeing on stage. I love Adele. I love her classic voice. I also love Declan McKenna, who is a current rock star in his own right, but I wouldn't necessarily say that I look to them for what to do. They've given a certain energy that I maybe want to walk with in my own way.
LUNA: It’s really amazing that we live in a time where queer musicians and artists are free to express themselves fully and garner enthusiastic audiences and accolades. Luka, how does it feel knowing that you’re someone that young lgbtq+ folk can look up to? Also, what has the experience been like being in a band with a handful of straight men?
LUKA: God, well, I feel like ‘I don't have my life together, look away.’ But it's wonderful. Because growing up, especially with acting and being a part of that world, I remember I was told by an old agent, ‘You need to be more masculine so that you can book more roles.’ And it wasn't so much that I had necessarily a blank canvas to just truly be myself, right. I mean, you're taking on other people's stories, so it didn't make sense that that would be a note, but now that I stepped into music fully, and have been embraced by these boys — not only embraced, but actually told me to run with the chaos. Even recently, there's been some self doubt that creeps in every once in a while. I don't know if that will ever go away. I've been very fortunate that the boys constantly are rooting for me, and asking me to go even further. There are so many really wonderful artists like Chappell Roan. I've known her music for years, but she's having such a moment right now. It's so inspiring, because she is so theatrical and DIY. I'm constantly inspired by other queer artists, and other artists who might identify as straight, but have queer tendencies, you know, like Declan Mckenna — I think that's why I love him so much. He, for years now, has been putting makeup on and running around on stage. I think it's easy to hear voices in the industry who are still timid and shy about what the future really is. I think you have to be bold. I'm very fortunate to have fanboys who encourage me and continue to do so. It's very easy to give the little elevator pitch of like, ‘“Catch Me If You Can,” it’s about cutting ties and stepping into that, but the reality is, it's about cutting ties with people who don't fuck with our vision, because they want to play a safe game, but we're not playing it safe. We're playing it bold.
COLIN: I remember when we started this way back in the day, Luka was like ‘you guys are my first straight friends.’ It was something that we never even talked about in the beginning, just the dynamic of it all. And what I've seen, at least in our group dynamic as we've grown over the years is how, when we started, Luka was stepping into a group of us, straight men, and also more classically trained musician types, and he went from basically like, ‘oh my god, this band and this music is so magical’ to growing into a leader, which I imagined for his experience was probably an intimidating process. It’s grown into this much more brotherly relationship. I think there's this oddball family dynamic that inevitably grew and seeing how those cultures intertwine. I think it's what makes us special.
LUNA: You have been making music as a group for awhile. How is this project of The Scarlet Opera different from music you’ve made in the past? How have you grown together as a band?
DANIEL: In the beginning, it was such a hodgepodge of different styles. Justin is more punk oriented. I'm more funk oriented. So bringing all these different kinds of music together to make some kind of a product. It always started from just making the best song we could. But we've gotten more streamlined, and, I think, on a musical front, less selfish in our own personal abilities to create something more streamlined, and just a better foundation for Luka’s story, Luka’s melodies, Luka’s lyrics, which, as a musician, has been a really amazing experience. Because the more become a cog, in a good way, the better the product ends up being. It's no longer bass-focused, in my mind, it's definitely more product-based if that makes sense.
JUSTIN: There is a heavy influence from David Stewart, our first real producer that we went to the studio with during the pandemic. We went into it as one thing and came out the other. I think we just had three weeks where we were in a bunker of a studio and we hammered away at something that felt new and exciting. It naturally formed. From there, the songs wrote themselves. The band name came about because the whole vibe was just a product of that time. That just informed a lot going forward.
LUNA: You're about to go on tour! That’s so exciting! What do you guys love about touring and what are you looking forward to in this upcoming one?
LUKA: That's all I’ve been thinking about! I just went on a run, I’m sweating, but I was just thinking on my run, about how I have so much to do in the next 48 hours before we head out. But I was asking myself, ‘What am I so excited about for tour?’ Well, we get to play shows and meet people, I love that. That's all we get to focus on. And you know, when we're home, it's like, how do we pay rent? How do we put food on the table? How many social obligations do we have to fulfill? And here, what I’ve noticed, was that we're very built to be on the road. It's so nice to play the show and then have a routine of just getting back on the bus, go for a run and get back on the stage. I’m very excited about that routine.
COLIN: I think it's the tangible side of music that in some ways, like the current day of social media, is hard to come by in a weird way because everything is just on your screen. It's TikTok, it's Instagram, it's YouTube. That is so predominantly the focus of every artist just because there's no way around it. When we go on tour, it feels like all that work that we put in those those things has a tangible value that isn't an number on a screen, that isn't data on the back end which can feel so stale and unartistic. I remember the first round of Comedy, where we had just started on TikTok and '“Alive” was doing well. We got to meet so many people that were like, ‘Oh, I found you through this platform and your music really connected with us.’ All of a sudden I felt the inherent value and all of that work, and that it was meaningful and it wasn't like we're just paying the algorithm Gods today to see what works. This actually resonates with people. I think that is the thing that I'm always most excited about.
CHANCE: I look forward to going back to those cities that did have turnouts like that from what Colin was saying, and revisiting those crowds, and also the new cities that were headlining will be so cool.
LUKA: It’s such a good time. I'm not even tooting our own horn. I go to a lot of concerts and we kill it.
COLIN: The live shows are where we come to do our thing. As I said, it's not about being perfect. It's about connecting with people. All our unique skill sets have really come into play in the live show. Like Luka is the theatrics, Luka brings the performance, mixed with Chance’s tech ability, mixed with Danny's performance, and Justin's. It feels like the place where we're all really being ourselves the most.
DANIEL: And on top of that, it's really fun to play music with people you really like. It's pretty, as simple as that. That's the bare bones. There's nothing that beats looking at every individual person throughout the show, on stage and connecting on something that we've been doing together for a long time, and also a shared dream we've had since we were kids. So to be able to be on a stage with people you share that with, if that's not the part that's the most joyous part, then you're probably in the wrong band or the wrong business. This band is really, really amazing to be on stage with. There's a shared language.
LUNA: Lastly, what more can we expect from this fabulous quintuple in the rest of 2024?
LUKA: Even more music for sure. And sooner than last time. Bigger shows and set pieces and fun theatrical things.
