Scarlet Rebels Interview

It’s Swifties versus Welsh Rock 20 years in the making in this week’s chart battle: Scarlet Rebels Land #3 in UK Midweek Album Charts with "Where The Colours Meet”

Scarlet Rebels have just released their new album ‘Where The Colours Meet’, OUT NOW across all platforms via Earache Records. In a stunning achievement, the band’s record has secured the #3 spot in the UK Midweek Album Charts, standing proudly among some of the biggest names in the industry.

This is more than just a chart position, it's a true "David vs Goliath" story. Scarlet Rebels, an independent rock band, are going head-to-head with industry titans, proving that passion and fan support can take on the giants. The band is calling on their dedicated fanbase to rally behind them and help secure another Top 10 hit, following the success of their previous album 'See Through Blue' (which peaked at #7).

Music News caught up with frontman Wayne Doyle to find out more...

Hello, please tell us about the new album 'Where The Colours Meet'.
It’s an album that speaks of all walks of life, politics, love, loss, mental health - anything that anyone would feel or see on a regular basis. We wrote songs about what we saw and how we perceived things from our little corner of the world.

When writing and recording, we wanted to make an album that reflects a more positive message and unifying message.

That idea of everything in life, having a colour associated with it is just intriguing to me…
Different political parties, sports teams and countries flags all have their own specific colours. But even people’s feelings and emotions and instructions will have their own associated colours…’Seeing Red’ or ‘Feeling blue’ being terms people use to describe their emotions.

It was important to us all, that the songs went where it felt natural for them to go. There weren’t any boundaries sonically that were out of bounds, we just wanted to make each song the very best version of itself.

I genuinely feel it’s the best set of songs we’ve written

You support Food Banks and various charities, why have you felt the need to do this?
Because people are struggling. People who work every day and can’t afford to feed their families and heat their homes. It’s just wrong. We just decided to try and help, so we organised the collections, it was the fans who donated, we just enabled it. Inherently, people are good and want to help.

What extra features can fans look forward to if they buy the physical album release?
I guess it depends what variant people have bought, but we’ve produced a beautiful collection and the team at Earache have gone above and beyond on the products. There are extra piano versions of ‘Out Of Time’ and ‘Practice Run’ on the bonus edition CD. Some of the vinyl’s come with 12-page booklets as well which tell how the songs came together.

Scarlet Rebels is a great name. What does it really signify for you as a band today?
It just represents where we’re from! We’re from Llanelli in South Wales. The local rugby team are the ‘Llanelli Scarlets’ so we wanted to represent where we’re from.

Independent rock band going head-to-head with massive names in pop is always a great story. How strong a chart position do you think you can achieve and how important is that in today’s market?
Honestly, a top 40 would be a huge win. It’s a really difficult time of the year with streaming figures and the Acts that are on tour which is spiking their Spotify streams. Of course it’s important, it’ll be a huge achievement for everyone if we manage to do it.

You must have had many great moments across your career. What have been some of the best?
Charting our last album was amazing. Also having moments when people sing our songs back to us…We played Steelhouse festival in 2022 and we had some technical issues. Whilst we were sorting them, the crowd just spontaneously started singing one of our songs. It was a beautiful moment.

What for you is at the heart of the enduring power of rock?
The integrity and honesty of it. There’s nothing like the sound of a live band, drums, bass and guitars

Anything else to say to Music News readers?
Just a massive thank you to everyone for their support. It means the world to us. If anyone wants to pick up a copy of the album today here, then we’d be super grateful.

Thank you and good luck!

Scarlet Rebels:
Wayne Doyle – vocals, guitar
Chris Jones - lead guitar
Gary Doyle – drums
Carl Oag – bass guitar