Scarlet Desire’s music is dark, romantic gothic metal with symphonic elements like symphonic orchestration and powerful female opera vocals. The vocalist, Danae Komodromou has a classical background and she is an educated soprano. Her vocals are very powerful and she has a pretty big vocal range (3 and a half octaves) – this means that she can also sing extremely high notes and different styles when needed. The result is very classical-sounding powerful symphonic metal with a dark and unique sound. Here’s our interview with Danae and Esa!

Beginnings:

Esa: We met online already in 2013 when I was advertising my band on YouTube. Later I was looking for a vocalist and I remembered seeing that Danae was a vocalist and decided to contact her. When I heard some of her recordings, I was immediately sure that we can work on my songs together. We planned the first recordings and I flew to London and we recorded few demo songs and decided on the band name. Later we did recordings in Greece and Finland. We have used session drummer and bass player so far, but they are good friends and it’s possible to ask them to join the band later for concerts also.

Behind the name:

Danae: Our music praises the significance of love and internal power, courage, and determination. The inextinguishable desire to achieve your goal is the only path to success. Nobody else is going to fight for your happiness if you don’t. It‘s more than a right. It’s a responsibility for every human being. Face your fear, don’t bury it. Your weapon to fight it is your love for what you want to conquer. Your lance in the battlefield of life is your own and personal Scarlet Desire.
I got inspired to use the color Scarlet in our band name from the song “A Dream of Scarlet Nights” by one of my favorite bands, Siebenburgen. The song contains one of the most passionate and evocative pieces of dark literature encountered in metal music today and describes to a great extent the overall aesthetic of Scarlet Desire. Scarlet is also a royal color and that serves a purpose too: we should be treating ourselves and desires with respect, give them the #1 place in our lives, without letting anyone else lead them instead of us. 

Inspiration:

Danae: our influences: Majestic, Vanden Plas, Liquid Tension, Arthemesia, In Flames, Pantera, Kenziner, Symphony X, Luca Turilli, Kluas, Kalmah, Sonata Arctica, To Die For, Animal Alpha, Dream Theatre, Kamelot, Heavenly, Amberian Dawn, Sirenia, Xandria, Helloween, Iron Maiden, Dio, Lordi, Battle Beast, Led Zeppelin, Scorpions, Police, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, AC/DC, Dark Moor, Children of Bodom, Firewind, Dragonforce, Rhapsody of Fire, After Forever, Epica, Nightwish, Tears of Magdalena, Dismal Euphony, Dimmu Borgir, Siebenburgen, Tvangeste, Therion, Agathodaemon, Hypocrisy, Nox Arcana, Lunatica, Vision Bleak, Theatre des Vampires, Cradle of Filth Vampiria, Nostra Morte, Moi dix Mois, Moonspell, Limbonic Art, XII Stoleti, To Mera, The Birthday Massacre, Evanescence, Nemesea, Gina Gershon, The Doors, Emma Shapplin, Sarah Brightman, J.S. Bach, C.E. Bach, L. van Beethoven, R.Wagner, F.Mendelssohn, W.A. Mozart, A. Vivaldi, G.F. Handel.

Esa: I usually listen to some bands I like or movie soundtracks or just start composing. Sometimes new synthesizer sounds help to come up with new ideas. I have also a lot of old demos which can give ideas. Danae is usually inspired by historical stories and mythologies when she writes the lyrics. 

Teamwork:

Esa: For the first songs I composed the music and worked a lot on the production. Danae added some orchestration and choir arrangements. But Danae has also composed songs, so we can work on compositions from both of us. In general, Danae does all the lyrics and vocal melodies and growl vocal rhythms. I’ve been working mostly on music and producing the songs to the final form, going to the studio to record instruments, and working on promotion and advertising.

It has been really great. He is a very professional and great musician and orchestrator. He understood our vision and was able to create amazing orchestration based on our demos and wishes. 

Esa about the working process with Olivér Palotai (Kamelot)

COVID-19:

Esa: It has affected so that we could not work together in the same studio last year at all so Danae had to get vocals recorded in Greece without me. But we managed to do it still! 

Fun facts:

Esa: When we were recording our demo songs in London, we had dinner in a restaurant and after that, I was supposed to head to the airport. We decided to order desserts and basically, because of that, I missed my flight! Then I had to wait in the airport hotel for the next flight. 

The band’s merch shop just opened – check it out here!