For years, A Scarlet Empire was merely an idea conjured after William Rogers (vocals/keys) moved from Clarksdale, Mississippi to York, Pennsylvania in 2003 and started writing songs influenced by classical composers such as Liszt, Rachmaninoff, and Chopin. After a year playing, Rogers sent a few pieces to long-time friend and former band mate, Wes Butler (guitar/vocals), through AOL Instant Messenger. Butler offered to add guitar to the classically infused piano music and after another year, had hammered out a guitar riff to a song called "The Lie." On vacation from college, Rogers recorded the piano tracks for "The Lie" on an eight track recorder and Butler added the monolithic guitar lines reminiscent of early 1970’s Pink Floyd. After listening to the rough demo, Rogers and Butler knew they had stumbled on something with lasting power. They knew a band had to be formed, but still, Rogers lived too far away to practice with a band so the two shared riffs back and forth through the power of AOL Instant Messenger as they had done before. All the while, on the home fronts of the Mississippi Delta, a band was being arranged. Austin Britt, lifelong friend of Rogers and Butler was at first thought to be the band's bass player. However, after jamming on his brother's set of drums, Britt offered to play percussion. Another friend and former band mate, Coleman Card was to be added to the band as a guitarist. After the foursome had been set up, they waited as they had done for years with a fifteen minute song on musical layaway. In the fall of 2005, Rogers moved back home to Clarksdale, Mississippi to attend Delta State University in Cleveland, Mississippi. The band finally began loose practices in December of the same year. Within months the band had crafted enough of their classically influenced rock music to play in Cleveland, Mississippi's Other Fest, where they were met with a screaming standing ovation from a crowd of nearly three-hundred.
All these events strengthened the creative bond between band members, encouraging them to expand their vision and make every emotion audible to their listeners. In the following months, the band tied bits and pieces of different songs into one to create a massive release of emotion, energy, and creativity. This 46 minute track, to be called “The Mirror,†would be the complete revelation of the band’s personalities, struggles, hopes, desires, dreams, regrets, and the peaks and valleys in between. This album was to mirror their own lives in hope that listeners everywhere could sense the passion and identify with the songs.
The band recorded the 46 minute track, entitled “The Mirror,†live during November 2006 at the Delta Music Institute on the campus of Delta State University in Cleveland, MS. The album was recorded by well-known producer and engineer, Willie Pevear (Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Lyle Lovett). Broken into 15 individual songs, the 46 minute album is a passionate, moving display of what it means to be alive, what it means to regret, and what it means to love, and encompasses everything beautiful about the creative human spirit and its will to prevail no matter what the situation.
Since recording the disc in 2006, the band finally went into production on the cd in the summer of 2007. In the meantime, the band has written more songs such as “Decisions†and “You Know It Already†that display the bands creative growth as a single musical unit. There is no doubt that A Scarlet Empire’s sound is as big and powerful as the band’s name itself. Call it classical rock, rock symphony, or art rock. Call it what you will; it is definitely a work of art.
