Today we’d like to introduce you to Go Scarlet. They and their team shared their story with us below:
After years of both scouring and posting her own ads in effort to form an all-girl rock band, Go Scarlet Guitarist/Vocalist Heather Moonflower was brought together with Keyboardist/Vocalist Tamara Monasterio and other female musicians during the Covid-19 Pandemic (not such an unusual story). After playing together as a band for just over a year, the original band dismantled after life took the girls down different paths. Realizing that a new creative endeavor was exactly what the doctor ordered, Heather and Tamara quickly began seeking other women with a similar burning passion to continue the project. The current lineup of Go Scarlet features Heather Moonflower (guitar), Tamara Monasterio (keyboards), Arlina Hoeschen (Bass Guitar), and Christina Leigh (Drums). The band as it is, officially formed in the Winter of 2022 and is quickly taking off. In June 2023, the band released their first single, “Change”, a gritty, angsty, yet hopeful track about struggling with intrusive thoughts in a relationship. The song recently closed out their performance at the 2023 Orange County Fair. In between writing and recording their first EP that is anticipated to be released in the New Year, you might find them on a stage near you, bringing powerful female energy with a mix of 80’s-90’s nostalgia.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Has our journey been a smooth road? After we came together last winter, it’s been nothing but a great adventure! We pulled together a short setlist of cover songs from the ’80s-’90s and quickly got to work on original music. Heather had written an album’s worth of songs independently in early 2022 and was eager to collaborate with like-minded female musicians (girl’s-only club)! Heather played in a girl band back in high school and has always had a rock n’ roll spirit. Heather has struggled with mental illness since adolescence, and music has been a great therapeutic release. After discovering her self-proclaimed knack for songwriting, she truly puts her vulnerable self forward in her songwriting approach. Tamara played classical piano for years and only discovered the keyboard about five years ago with a different band. She realized her passion for playing live and recently started writing music. Arlina has played bass for quite a while, playing with a few bands here and there, but no success really came because the musicians were not fully committed. Along with the drums, Christina plays multiple instruments, including the sax, guitar, and djembe. She recently completed the drum certification program with Berklee College of Music and is immersed in the local music scene often playing out with friends in Encinitas.
We see how much hard work and dedication it takes to not only put yourself out there but even more so as women over 30. We are blown away to have so much support from our friends and family and the community as a whole. Our biggest challenge is accommodating everyone’s busy schedules. It’s extremely difficult to manage the day-to-day, let alone band practice, gigs, writing, and recording. But HERE WE ARE, DOING IT!
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Aside from being all women in a very male-influenced industry, our band is comprised of women of various ages and walks of life. The fact that we are just getting started truly sets us apart from others. 3/4 of us are busy moms and wives with full-time careers. Heather is an active community advocate outside of the 8-5 grind, Tamara works in education and volunteers regularly, Christina works as an acupuncturist and herbalist in Encinitas. Yet the band still makes it work. We are un-traditionally, so-to-speak, following our dreams. Most women at our stages of life (30s-50s) have given up their passion, or just feel too busy and discouraged. It’s just not in our culture to encourage anyone to pursue their dreams after a certain age. It is, however, becoming more common to hear similar stories such as this, successful men and women reaching their full potential at mid-life.
This all makes us truly unique! We aren’t getting younger, but we are getting better at what we do. Our goal is to pursue our passion and to inspire others to do the same.
The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you, and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
We all have our personal opinions about the Covid-19 Crisis. What we can say is that we’ve realized that technology can bring us together no matter where we are. Tamara recently took her family on a worldwide excursion (she’s spontaneous like that), and the band was constantly in touch throughout that whole trip. The band has had band practices and songwriting sessions via Zoom. Although it’s extremely convenient, we also appreciate our time together that much more. We were brought together at the end of the Pandemic, but the result is that we continue to move forward with our musical dreams.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/goscarlet
- Instagram: @goscarletband
Image Credits
Kayla Egan
