Blue-eyed boy Ryan, the lead singer of hot band Scarlett’s Roses, talks about being ‘the only gay’ in an indie world
Scarlett’s Roses are a great indie-ska band with a jaunty pop sound that is guaranteed to get you dancing. However their lyrics, if you listen carefully enough, also have a poignancy of love and loss about them that render a greater depth. When we found out lead singer and songwriter Ryan Smith was gay we caught up with him/cornered him in a café to chat about being ‘the only gay’ on the indie scene, not doing Britain’s Got Talent and singing about the boys that broke your heart when everyone thinks you’re singing about them girls… Also, did we mention he’s quite cute?
So how did the band come about?
It started about three years ago, Scarlett in the band is my sister and she goes out with Daniel the guitarist and he said to me once ‘do you want to write a song together?’ People were like ‘that’s a really good song, you guys should keep going’ and so we kept going writing music more and more, making music and it started as a kind of family friendship thing.
And what are your musical influences?
Oh goodness, Amy Winehouse is a massive influence in terms of songwriting I think, the honesty of it, also The Specials, a lot of old ska and reggae. Scarlett likes Britney! And Oli’s into rap, so everybody brings their own things.
There was something about you guys and Britain’s Got Talent?
We got asked to do it this year, we’ve been asked to do it for two years. We said no, we kept saying no, and this year we said ‘oh, let’s do it’, so we auditioned and we got through to Boot Camp but we realised it was something we don’t really want to do. I mean no disrespect to Simon Cowell but being judged by Amanda Holden I would feel a bit unsure about that, and we could be up against a dog you know?
The indie scene seems quite straight. Does it ever feel isolating for you?
Completely. Being who I am and dressing like I dress, sometimes going anywhere it can be quite a bit intimidating being like ‘oh god, I’m the only gay person and whatever’ and when it comes to being in the band, a lot of people sometimes are like ‘who’s the girl you’re singing about then?’ and I’m thinking ‘it’s about a boy actually.’
As the main songwriter do you feel a pressure to conform lyrically to writing ‘she’ and ‘her’ in your tracks?
To a certain extent, yeah, it used to be like that. And then as time moved on and we really looked at ourselves as a band and there was a point where it clicked, we were making really good songs, I was like ‘okay, I’m going to put everything into being really honest about it’. I went through a point of never saying ‘she’ or ‘her’ or ‘him’ and keeping it universal, but as well I’ve started to be even more personal and sometimes used ‘him’.
You played Manchester Pride. How was your reaction there?
I remember Manchester Pride put us on their Facebook page, saying ‘oh, we’re going to have these as one of the bands’ and the comments were horrible. People were ruthless, I couldn’t believe it. And we were like ‘god when we’re going to play this is going to be a disaster, we’re like the opening act.’ We did a 45 minute set and all of the songs, bar one, were our own and the crowd went crazy for it and it was amazing, our Twitter followers went up, everything was really mad, you know. The people really, really got it. It was amazing!
So there might be a gap in the gay market for Scarlett’s Roses?
I think so. We do play our own instruments and we are an indie scene band but I don’t feel we’re doing anything like anybody else, certainly I think there’s room for us. I hope so!
• Scarlett’s Roses will be playing at the Camden Barfly (49 Chalk Farm Road, Camden, NW1 8AN) on Friday April 26th. They’ll also be playing Manchester Pride again in August and are in talks for this year’s London Pride.
The guy and the instruments are awesome but the girl really cannot sing!