Merlot Embargo is one of those artists that is able to make you feel inspired with every release. Since the events of an almost fatal car accident, husband and wife Geoff and Scarlet were brushed with a never forgetting experience that pushed them to pursue their dreams and form a career in the industry. Bringing in unique twists of 80’s soundscapes with a not-so-subtle modern flair, the music that Merlot Embargo creates has that nostalgia flair while keeping a familiar touch. With Merlot Embargo’s latest release “One Day” having the feeling of pursuit, Merlot Embargo hopes that with the music that they create that it can inspire you to push yourself to achieve your goals as nothing will be given on a silver platter to you. Currently, Merlot Embargo is continuing to work on music and even has an EP’s worth of material written to soon show to the world.
With their weekly Thursday acoustic shows being a way to engage with the crowd, we are sure to have plenty of Merlot Embargo in our lives.
You can find "One Day" here.
Hey Merlot Embargo, welcome to BuzzMusic. We loved your latest release "One Day", for us it made us feel inspired to pursue a shelved idea. Can you tell us a bit more about the meaning of the song and how you wanted listeners to feel when they tuned in?
One Day is definitely about that feeling of pursuit. The pursuit of a calling, pursuit of a dream. It’s the feeling of longing to be remembered after you’re gone, to leave something meaningful behind so you don’t just fade away. It’s about choosing how your life will be told, how it will be seen and heard. It’s about setting the world on fire when you pursue what you are meant to do, and who you are meant to be.
You shared a very frightening experience with us and we are so thankful you are here today making your music. We know it pushed you to propel your music but did anything about the structure of your music change after the accident?
Scarlet: At the time we had only ever worked on music together as part of separate projects or work-related gigs. I had shelved the idea of pursuing a songwriting or singing career. It seemed like after so many years of false starts, empty promises, and failed attempts, it just wasn’t something I was meant to have. After the accident I realized it was never supposed to be something that was handed to me, it would have to be something I ran after and made for myself. I had gone through a two-year dry spell where I hadn’t written much of anything. And it was pretty soon after that I whipped out all of the songs for our EP. It was feverish to a certain extent, once I had let that dam be broken - how all of the songs just sort of fell out of me.
As husband and wife, how do you find the creative process working together?
Scarlet: It’s been a long journey of learning to work together and collaborate. I’ve been writing music on my own since I was 18. It takes a lot to allow someone else into that space and trust them with your most intimate possession: your work and your expression.
Geoff: We’re a good pair, I think our different abilities are a great complement to one another. Scarlet is definitely the more artistic, visionary songwriter. I’m the worker bee who does more of the nuts and bolts arranging and producing.
We were very intrigued when we read about Dave and Ben joining your band. As video game composers, how does that infuse and transform your sound? They work with music in a completely different realm than us. They can come in and completely turn a song onto its head in such an extraordinary and delightful way. It’s always fun to see what they think a song can be.
What can we expect to see next from you?
Scarlet: We have several songs on the back burner. I’ve written an entire EP’s worth of songs in the few months we’ve been on quarantine. A dream would be to get a Kickstarter going so we can produce the whole thing at once. Since we are self-produced with a kid and a day job between us, as well as being self-funded, it usually takes more time than we’d like to get songs recorded and released. This would be a way to speed that up a bit. We’re not getting any younger!
Geoff: Since we’re all on quarantine now too, and not playing live at the moment, we’ve also been doing a weekly acoustic Livestream show every Thursday evening on all our social networks. It’s been great to connect with people this way too. I wish we could have the whole band with us, but that’ll come when the social distancing rules ease up a bit!