"...pensive, smart, lyrical chamber pop..." - Alan Young, New York Music Daily
Scarlet K Brazie is a songwriter-producer, background vocalist, arranger, French hornist, and pianist based in Brooklyn since 2004. She holds a Masters in Music Theory & Composition: Songwriting from NYU where she was awarded the Paul Simon Scholarship, Lawrence Ferrera Scholarship, J. E. & B. Scholarship, and a Steinhardt Graduate scholarship. A Virginia native, she also holds a Bachelor of Music with a Brass Concentration and a Minor in Education from James Madison University where she trained classically on horn, voice, and piano, and learned rudimentary skills for playing and arranging all orchestral woodwind, brass, percussion, and string instruments.
In May 2023, Scarlet made her production debut with a private EP of pitch demos called ||: don’t call | don’t text | don’t write :|| comprised of five original songs written alone or with classmates during the graduate program at NYU. The EP includes demos of “River Run,” a soul-searching piano-based gospel-pop song written with Sanjay Gupta and E.J. Lim, produced and performed by Sanjay Gupta; “Luna (I Want to Fly),” a delicate, fluttering guitar-based acoustic reflection on leaving someone you love, written with Sirena Beard-Galati and Michael Burke, performed exquisitely by Sirena Beard-Galati and produced by Michael Burke; the titular “Don’t Call,” a smokey original song about longing and temptation adapted into a new version for performance by Savannah Cribbs, produced by Michael Burke; “ICED (Someone Call the Doctor)” a danceable electro-pop track from the perspective of an incarcerated mentally ill inmate, written with Clara Young, featuring pop R&B vocals by Matt Relevo, produced by Scarlet K Brazie with Maxwell Perkins and Jared Cavazos; and “My Ugly Friend,” a strange, driving, atmospheric EDM dive into the shadow self, performed by Rylie Dempster and produced by Scarlet K Brazie with Maxwell Perkins.
A descendent of Appalachian Puritans in Virginia, Scarlet’s musical training began early via congregational singing of a cappella shape-note hymns and she has deep roots in Folk Americana and Southern gospel. She has been fluent in four-part harmony and voice-leading since kindergarten. Due to modesty requirements in her religious sect, she was not allowed to dance. After leaving the sect at age 19, she developed a passion for dance and dance music, immersing herself in international folk dances, contra dancing, salsa, merengue, bachata, tango, swing, waltz, fox-trot, and Irish “7’s and 3’s.” She studied band, chorus, and marching band in high school and in college, where she was a member of JMU’s 350-piece marching band, the Sudler Trophy-winning Marching Royal Dukes.
Scarlet brought these elements together for her songwriting debut, an autobiographical collection of original and traditional Americana-folk songs about leaving her religious sect, performed and recorded Live at Subculture in NYC (August 2014) with a 13-piece band under the project name The Scarlet K. The setlist included “My Father Was A Barber,” “Ask Seek Knock, “Projector,” “Microbiology” (later adapted into “Don’t Call”), “My Baby’s Gone to Vegas,” “Liza Jane” (traditonal), “Boats & Snow,” “What Wondrous Love Is This (traditional shape-note hymn), and “Song without Words.” Band members included Scarlet K Brazie (lead vocals, piano, ukulele, horn) Hugh Ash (trumpet), Hope Bagley (woodwinds), Matthew Gelfer (fiddle/guitar/banjo/ukulele), Brian Herrick (mandolin/trombone), Casey Howard (guitar/banjo), Victoria Langford (trombone/clarinet/piano), Britton Matthews (drums), Annie Shaver (cello), and P.J. Shaver (tuba), along with Gretchen Poole and Emilie Williams (back-up vocals).
In addition to her songwriting career, Scarlet has been a member of the Young New Yorkers Chorus (alto), Brooklyn Wind Symphony (horn), has subbed with the Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra and Queer Urban Orchestra (horn), and has been active in the choir and musical life of Park Slope United Methodist Church (Brooklyn). She has taught public school music K-12 in Virginia and Florida, worked for 18 years in NYC’s classical music business as a music publicist and entrepreneur, and currently teaches part-time for the NYC Department of Education. She also teaches private lessons in songwriting, piano, French horn, music theory, and ear training, and offers consults and workshops to early-career songwriters and composers on the topics of music publicity, entrepreneurship, and music publishing. She is available for co-writes and collaborations and works primarily in Logic Pro X.
