Interview with Tim Synistr (vocals / lyrics and Mel Butler (bass / drum machine, synths, songwriter) from The Scarlet Hour
THE SCARLET HOUR are one of the North East’s most promising bands - a duo who are quickly cutting a swath through the alternative scene, with an Industrial Electro-Goth sound that is highly danceable, juxtaposed against lyrics that remind us we are about two seconds to midnight on the Doomsday clock. Tim Synistr provides vocals with Mel Butler on bass. As a live act, they are an entertaining watch. Their striking red, black and white aesthetic, combined with Mel’s traditional Goth / Post Punk elegance and Tim’s enchanting stage presence is winning them fans every time they play live. Their first album ‘Warning’s has been highly sought after - especially the vinyl edition and their latest video ‘Torment’ is racking up those views on YouTube. I had the pleasure of chatting with Mel and Tim over Zoom one Sunday afternoon, about their creative process, their forthcoming gigs at Corrosion Fest in Morecambe and Leodis Requiem in Leeds and how their fans helped them to produce their debut album. (For context, I had already sent them a list of questions that I was likely to ask.)
Reflections of Darkness [RoD]: Hi, thanks for joining me. How are you both doing?
Mel: We’re Ok, we’ve had a very productive day, haven’t we?
Tim: We have taken the opportunity to work on some new music.
RoD: And of course the last time I saw you was in that little club in Wakefield, wasn’t it. Have you played since then or have you just been rehearsing and recording?
Mel: Oh yeah the Vortex. When was that? That was May 2023, wasn’t it?
Tim: We’ve done a couple more gigs since then. Playing at Darkside of The Tyne festival at The Black Bull venue in Gateshead, supporting Nottingham’s finest - IN ISOLATION.
Mel: And we’ve got another gig in March. That’s Corrosion Fest in Morecambe - which we’re really looking forward to.
Tim: It’s going to be a really good do!
RoD: I know where the name THE SCARLET HOUR comes from, but not everyone will, so would you like to enlighten our readers?
Mel: Yeah, we are kind of into our “film noirs” so we basically went through the list of film noir titles and obviously, the really good ones have been taken.
Tim: laughs.
Mel: We just picked a few out that we liked and ‘The Scarlet Hour’ stuck. It’s a 1950s “film noir” title.
RoD: I like the (band) aesthetic as well - like when you are on stage and you have the red and black theme throughout.
Mel: Yeah, always thought red, black and white tend to go well together you know, bands like THE SISTERS OF MERCY have used that colour scheme and also THE LAST CRY as well.
RoD: It looks very clean and sophisticated, but it kind of also makes the association with blood and the lyrics - the kind of nihilistic atmosphere as well.
Tim: Exactly!
RoD: So how did you guys meet? I understand you’ve been in other projects together before this.
Mel: Well we first met in what - 2010.
Tim: Yes
Mel: It was at the Gacienda venue, in Keighley, it was an Anne-Marie SKELETAL FAMILY gig and we just kind of hit it off and we’ve been friends ever since. We’ve been to gigs together and I don’t know - hung around each other’s houses, got drunk, met up at Whitby Goth Weekend etc. I don’t know why it took us ages to get round to forming a band together.
Tim: You’d think it would be the most natural thing in the world, because we both have similar - often complimentary music interests to each other and had an interest in music that you would expect to naturally lead to it, but it wasn’t until about 2016 when you suggested starting a band!
Mel: Yeah, we were in a band together called THE SEVENTH VICTIM, it was a trio and we disbanded back in 2021 and we just carried on as THE SCARLET HOUR as a duo.
Tim: We realised there was a bit more music to be made there after all. It kind of felt in 2021, that we had done everything with it (the band), put it away a bit, then a few months later, it was like, “We miss this! Could we do something different - you know - go in a different direction, now that we are synth-based band, rather than a guitar based rock n roll band.”
Mel: I suppose Covid and all the lockdown stuff didn’t help, cos it derailed us a little bit - we lost two years.
RoD: I think it did give a lot of bands that breathing space, time to start writing new stuff. Did you use that time to start planning and writing?
Mel: I did a lot of writing when we were SEVENTH VICTIM during Covid lockdown, but I kind of felt like I was on my own with regards to any creativity. We couldn’t really hook-up or rehearse together and the guitarist we had at the time was busy doing other stuff and it wasn’t really working, was it?
Tim: No!
Mel: But yeah, whatever I created during that lockdown period kind of ended up as SCARLET HOUR.
Tim: Yeah, absolutely, went into the new outfit and since then, we’ve created more and more, so it was really the start with lockdown weirdly enough, it was the catalyst for us.
RoD: And what - or who - inspires you, with the music?
Tim: Hmm… it’s a great question (laughs).
Mel: Um, well we just love everything from classic horror movies like your Hammar Horror and Universal, film noirs. We love cyber-punk - films like ‘Blade Runner.’ I think that sort of comes out in our music.
Tim: Yeah, I think a lot of our songs are kind of built into this kind of near-future, post-industrial, dystopia.
Mel: A bit like ‘Hardware’ that kind of thing.
RoD: I think I’ve described it in the review I did of ‘Warnings’ as music for Armageddon!
Mel: laughs
Tim: That is very high praise indeed - I’ll take that!
Mel: Yeah, it’s kind of like - dark and broody, with a sprinkle of synth-pop for a bit of optimism. The bands that we are into vary from everything from VELVET UNDERGROUND, IGGY AND THE STOOGES - right through to bands like THE SISTERS OF MERCY and the bands that came out in the West Yorkshire area in the 1980s. Then you’ve got JOY DIVISION, you quite like NICK CAVE, PJ HARVEY. Obviously, I’m into THE DAMNED and THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN, also the newer bands like TALK TO HER, ACTORS, bands like DEATHTRIPPERS who are from your neck of the woods - Leeds.
RoD: Yeah, I’ve not seen them. I must remedy that.
Tim: Yeah, really outstanding guys.
Mel: Yeah, he’s a really interesting guy to talk to - Sasha, music-wise, they are always developing creatively.
RoD: I saw a video of them on YouTube. I think there are a lot of newer bands coming out who are really interesting these days. We seemed to go through a phase in the 90s where everyone just wanted to sound like the SISTERS - or even sound like bands who sounded like the SISTERS! I think now though, there is a lot of really interesting and inspiring material.
Mel: Yeah, I think it’s started to get really interesting since about 2010. There was a revival of Death-Rock - especially around the Nottingham area, cos me and my partner used to go to the Maize in Nottingham and everyone had massive Mohawks and looking a bit ALIEN SEX FIEND, SPECIMEN, there was a big revival of that sort of music in about 2010 and a whole wave of new bands that came along.
RoD: I remember when SCREAMING BANSHEE AIRCREW, GHOSTS OF LEMORA stuff like that came out and it was… a bit of excitement there again in the scene.
Mel: Yeah I know.
RoD: Have you heard many of the European bands?
Mel: Yeah, like LEBANON HANOVER, there’s TALK TO HER from Italy, SHE PAST AWAY, SAIGON BLUE RAIN.
RoD: Going back to your own music, what is your own creative process?
Mel: Well, we’ve been doing that a little bit today haven’t we?
Tim: We have yeah.
Mel: I tend to start the ball rolling by doing the song-writing and getting the structure of the song correct. That will be anything from programming the drum machine to creating riffs on the synthesizer, then putting my bass riff down, then I just pass it over to you Tim, don’t I!
Tim: That’s right. That’s when I get something great from Mel and I start kind of hacking at it with my bluntest daggers and I put my lyrics over it, suggesting a few bits that come in and go out. Then between us, we’ve knocked a song into shape and it’s usually really fast. That is something I think that THE SCARLET HOUR is blessed with is that we are really creative - once Mel has given us the foundation of a song, it comes together really quickly. Just this afternoon, for instance, we took three songs from the bare bones to pretty much good to go and I can’t wait to share these!
RoD: Excellent, I can’t wait to hear these and how often do you get together to rehearse?
Tim: That’s always the challenge.
Mel: Yes, that’s always the challenge isn’t it? Tim lives in Newcastle, and I live in Teesside.
Tim: Yes, other obstacles - jobs, lives, pets to look after.
Mel: I think over the summer it’s been a bit hectic - family commitments, holidays, other events that we’ve attended and things like that. I think heading towards a gig, we usually rehearse quite often. We usually give it about six weeks ahead to sort of get practicing. With the current Tracklist that we do at our gigs, we’ve been doing them for about a year or two, so we’re confident with them, so rehearsing isn’t as often as some people might think.
Tim: Yeah, our practicing is really just to blow the dust off and remind ourselves that we know these songs down, packed.
Mel: I think as we head towards the next couple of gigs or so, we’ll pick it up and put more rehearsal time in and get the new songs knocked into shape.
Mel: Couple of the new tracks are about ready to go so we will be slipping that into the setlist.
Tim: Yes, absolutely. We are looking forward to getting out and playing live again - definitely!
RoD: So when you are not rehearsing or in the studio, what do you do to relax?
Tim: Rum! (laughs)
Mel: I actually find writing music relaxing cos that’s where I get my creative outlet from. Other than that, it’s usually watching films or binge-watching series on Netflix.
Tim: It’s similar for me, I like escapism, so I’ll trumpet away with a big thick book or video game or similar to Mel a film or a series.
Mel: Yeah, you’re into you virtual reality Tim.
Tim: And this is it, I’ve got VR so I’m constantly escaping into an alternate dimension (laughs). And all that feeds back really, you’ll realise later these are similar to things we talked about earlier - Bladerunner, Cyberpunk, David Lynch, Twin Peaks. A lot of these dark, supernatural themes come through in our music and they come from the world around us. They’re common themes that I think the fans recognise and enjoy.
RoD: Yes, cos when you first see a track titled ‘Getaway,’ you presume this must be about going on vacation and then you listen to it and realise it’s about trying to escape a monster or something.
Mel: Actually ‘Getaway’ is about trying to get out of a student house in Leeds!
Tim: Well, that was part of it but imagine like your student housemate is Cthulhu (laughs) and he’s cursed the house so it’s a brilliant song. We choose to end on ‘Getaway’ a lot of cos it’s one of our most frantic, deranged songs and it leaves fans blown away, wanting more and it’s like, “Sorry, that’s us done, you’ll have to buy our music if you wanna hear anymore.” (chuckles)
RoD: Absolutely and how’s that going because you brought out a vinyl pressing didn’t you?
Mel: That went really, really well, which kind of leads onto one of your other questions which was what is your proudest achievement? At the end of the day, it was the release of our debut album ‘Warnings’ on vinyl, because we don’t have any management behind us, nor are we on a record label. We literally did this ourselves with the help of people pre-ordering the album in order for us to start pressing it.
Tim: That was so encouraging the amount of people who would come up to us at a gig and be like, “Have you got anything that you can sell us?” We would tell them that we were currently in the process of recording an album and they would say, “Great, let me pre-order it now!” Nothing to go on, just a willingness to help us make the music and they got it from us. They got this beautiful vinyl for the early and extra big spenders you know and a few treats that we had slapped in. It was a labour of love - no record companies, no labels, just us and the fans who helped to produce our debut album: ‘Warnings’ it’s on BandCamp, get it now!
Mel: Yeah, I don’t want to come across really big-headed or something, but erm…
Tim: Why the hell no, this is our interview (laughs).
RoD: Go for it!
Mel: Well - the feedback from people who’ve bought it and obviously listened to the album on other platforms like Spotify and YouTube have really, really liked it. I mean, Mick Mercer (music journalist) reviewed the album and he said, “If the SISTERS OF MERCY and DEPECHE MODE ever had a love child, it would have been THE SCARLET HOUR!”
Tim: That’s praise indeed from the great Mick Mercer, who we’ve all grown up loving his reviews. The guy’s been a scribe on the goth scene for decades, so for him to give us his seal of approval, damn!
RoD: So one of the questions that I sent you, was what the wildest thing was to happen on tour.
Tim: Actually, we had to think about that. We take ourselves seriously, and we want to put on a good show, so all that getting wrecked in your dressing room before you go on stage, that’s just not for us.
Mel: Or being demanding on riders for certain coloured M&M’s.
Tim: It’s just not us at all, we turn up and we want to do a damned good show and we want clear heads to do that, so we don’t get too wild on tour.
Mel: I just get so paranoid that if I was to get so absolutely pie-eyed and legless before I hit the stage, I’d be just a gibbering wreck. I’d probably just have a massive panic attack, so I need a clear head. I might have a bit of Dutch courage to start with.
Tim: Nothing wrong with that.
Mel: There was that one incident when you did that gig at The Cluny.
Tim: Yeah, so this is always a mingle of amusement and horror, but we were booked to play support to GENE LOVES JEZEBEL at The Cluny in Newcastle.
Mel: I was so looking forward to this gig, cos you know, I love GENE LOVES JEZEBEL.
Tim: What an opportunity and then what happened to you Mel before the gig?
Mel: I had taken every single step to be sensible and not mingle too much and blah, blah, blah and about five days before the gig - I got Covid! We were thinking should we pull the gig, should we not? I don’t know. With it being Newcastle, it was local to Tim, so we thought if he takes backing tracks of my stuff and sings over the top of it, it will be fine.
Tim: Only it didn’t exactly work! You need stereo channels for a stereo recording and we only had a mono come out, so we had half the drums and no synths - and me on my own, on stage. So it turned into a kind of slam-poetry session - which nobody wanted! Nobody goes to a gig to see GENE LOVES JEZEBEL and a rock band before them, to hear me with half a drum track, trying to sling the words together - it was a disaster! I want to apologize to everyone at that gig, that was NOT an accurate representation of THE SCARLET HOUR - we are much better than that! The audience were brilliant though, they braved it out and cheered when I’d finished. We held that as the worst gig I’d ever done and we’ve always striven to be better than that!
Mel: I remember after you’d finished Tim, you messaged me to say, “I don’t ever, ever, want to do a gig without you - which made me feel really valued!”
Tim: Mel is integral, THE SCARLET HOUR does not exist without her! It’s got to be both of us!
Mel: That reminds me, I had a really strange dream about doing a gig. It was somewhere like Sheffield and for some reason, our old guitarist was with us - I don’t know why. It was a really pokey little venue, we went up some stairs carrying all our gear and I was in a really bad mood, cos I had a text message from Tim at the last minute saying that he couldn’t do the gig. In my dream, I was like ‘Oh does that mean, we are going to have thirty to forty-five minutes of instrumentals cos no way am I singing! (laughs). I can’t sing to save my life!
Tim: (laughing) Oh - nightmares, but thankfully, nothing that’s ever come true!
RoD: What advice would you give to new bands starting out?
Tim: Oh, can I tell you - get to the back of the queue (laughs), we are still finding our feet, thank you very much. Get behind me, I was here first! Mel give them a sensible answer!
Mel: I don’t know - over the last couple of years - through Covid, the cost of living crisis, we’re seeing venues disappearing and I think it’s harder and harder to try and get gigs - especially trying to organize what we like to call ‘a traditional tour’ It’s just difficult to organise - at grass root level anyway. It’s also difficult to get paid. Basically, I would suggest looking at other avenues - like live-streaming sessions, social media like YouTube, TikTok - things like that. Just get yourself out there and the most important thing is that you enjoy what you do.
Tim: Oh yeah, you’ve got to have your heart in it. Don’t come into this, thinking you are going to use the band to make money or get kudos or look cool in front of your friends. None of that happens right… what actually happens is that you sacrifice all of your spare time for a musical project that almost nobody might hear unless you work hard. As Mel says, go out on every channel, go in, snap every opportunity to play that you can.
Mel: Make sure you get paid!
Tim: Vital - and take that money, don’t plow it into the bar, use that money to finance your next recording. Buy better equipment, put yourself to tour, constantly turn your band into a working machine that has one goal, which is to get you through to the next stage - that’s my best advice!
RoD: That is brilliant advice, because certainly in the 80s, a lot of bands didn’t stay together for very long because they were chasing money and fame. Now I think a lot of the bands that have reformed are doing it for the right reason.
Mel: Yeah, exactly, I mean one of the bands that spring to mind is a band that we all love and that’s ROSE OF AVALANCHE. I absolutely love those guys to bits and I am so glad they are back together again, cos with everything that was kicking off in West Yorkshire with THE MISSION, SISTERS OF MERCY, SKELETAL FAMILY, GHOST DANCE, ROSE OF AVALANCHE never quite got to that level and they were a bloody brilliant band live.
RoD: Yes, they always have that something extra - like an unscheduled jam or Phil singing acapella and it turns a great gig into a fantastic one. One the subject of bands you love, if you could play with anyone at all dead or alive, who would that be?
Mel: If I could play live with anyone at all, it would be THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN, now I actually work for them, so it might be a bit cheesy me going up to Jim and William and going, “Hey I’m in a band and I’d like to play with you,” so I don’t think it’s gonna happen.
Tim: laughs.
Mel: Dead - I would just love to have been in the same room and presence as DAVID BOWIE! I absolutely love the guy, I still miss the guy and also, I would love to have a bass-off with Mick Karn (JAPAN, DALIS CARR).
RoD: He was such a lovely guy, I once interviewed him, Steve Jansen and Richard Barbieri (JAPAN). I expected them to be really pretentious - especially Mick and they were not at all.
Mel: He came across as quite a gentle man.
RoD: ¡He was - RIP Mick!
Mel: Bless him. Over to you Tim? Alive? Who would you like to play with or duet with?
Tim: Duet is a good word for it, I would love to duet with PJ HARVEY. I think she is one of the finest female singers in the world! She is beautiful, she is intelligent, she is a fantastically talented musician and ‘Henry Lee’ with her and Nick Cave, if I could jump into Nick Cave’s body and steal his place on that video alone, I would die a happy man! Also, we as THE SCARLET HOUR would complement a lot of other current bands, so we love to get on the bill under somebody like LEBANON HANOVER or COLD CAVE. I think our sound would complement them really well.
Mel: What about dead then?
Tim: I think we would all love the opportunity to sing with somebody like Nico (THE VELVET UNDERGROUND). In a lot of ways, she is the godmother of this whole alternative scene that we enjoy. What a voice, what a musical entity she was - that would have been magical. If I can’t get her on the afterlife answerphone, I would have to pick… Lou Reed! I think Lou Reed had one of the most magical voices going. Same as Mel, to just be in the same room as the man - that would be magic - a very talented musician - again a great influence on me!
RoD: Thank you very much, enjoy the rest of your evening.
Both: Thank you.
Website: https://thescarlethour.bandcamp.com/
Pictures by John Butler
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