ICARUS LIVES // Flying Beyond The Sun

Earlier this year, Icarus Lives kicked off their explosive new era with Secret Keeper, the first track to feature their new vocalist Aria Scarlett. It put the heavy-hitters on our radar and left us massively anticipating the release of their Scorched Reprise EP.

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We were lucky enough to give the EP a spin before its release and catch up with Scarlett to chat about how it came together, the band’s history and more.

Hysteria: How’d Icarus Lives come to be?

Aria: I only joined Icarus Lives a year ago, so I can only talk from that point. I’ve known Naomi (Treacy, drums) since we were 12 years old, doing Australian youth choir together incredibly badly.

We were on and off during high school, but we always seemed to end up back in each other’s spheres. So with how it happened. Naomi called me to say they had lost their old vocalist, and she needed someone to cover for a really important gig they had coming up named Stormrider.

I thought to myself, I’ll help my friend out for this one-off gig, and then I had the best time and told them they couldn’t get rid of me.

We feel like that’s the universe saying it was meant to be!

Yeah, as someone who doesn’t really believe in anything, I thought wow, we’re supposed to be doing some kind of art together. The world kept telling us to do so, putting us in the same situations over and again.

Congratulations on the upcoming release of Scorched Reprise! Run us through where the band drew their inspiration from.

Scorched Reprise is the first Icarus Lives release that I’ve written on. I took the incredible pieces of music that the band had established and wanted to put out in the world, and I got straight into it. The band is full of incredible artists; they had great instrumentals for me to work off. And it became a really collaborative effort from there. Every week, we’d meet up to do band rehearsals and just jam. I could come in with a stack of lyrics I’d written and get to basically poetry slam.

My favourite part was getting to do a lot of one to one work with our bassist and other vocalist, Chris Ayling. They got to explore their entire vocal range, more than they had in the past. I’m excited to be able to share that with everybody. Chris has some incredible vocals on these tracks.

With Icarus, it was cool because you’d have an idea and then have four other weirdos who were keen to hear it.
[ Aria Scarlett ]

That point about it being like a slam poetry session stuck with us. That sounds like it would’ve been a lot of fun!

It was! It’s interesting to come into a group at a time when things are partially established. And to bring these ideas to them that are weird and different from what they’re used to.

It must’ve been so special to come in and share those ideas so openly.

It was incredibly special. I’m a trained opera singer, so I live in a very different space from the band. There I mainly do covers of Mozart. There’s not a lot of new work coming out. It was great coming into a group that really wanted to collaborate with me and didn’t want to shy away from the things I’m good at. They’re an awesome band to be working with.

Was it a challenge for you to go from Mozart covers to melodic/metal music?

I’ve had the pleasure of writing some of my own music, but that’s all been as a solo artist. That’s great, and I respect people who do that immensely because it’s not easy. You often wonder if you’re insane because things only happen in your head. With Icarus, it was cool because you’d have an idea and then have four other weirdos who were keen to hear it. It was great to finally say all the things I wanted and use their incredible talents to get it across.

Build your dream lineup. Who are you sharing the stage with?

I love to have dynamics. I wouldn’t want it to be just a metal/pop/rock lineup. I love crossing genre boundaries. I’m a massive fan of Western Australian artists like Moana Mayatrix. She’s an incredibly expressive artist.

I’d also love to see groups like Moth Street Artists on the lineup too. If I got to go anywhere or do anything, I’d want to play the piano next to Elton John too. This night would be crazy! I’d want Ludovico Einaudi there too, for the classical nerds in the back row. It’d be an eclectic night, but one filled with fun.

What’s next?

We are really excited about our upcoming shows. Our EP may be followed by an extra special launch, but you’ll have to be across our socials to get the first look at that! We’re also already diving into the full-length album, so you can expect that very soon.