Recently, New York, singer, songwriter, musician Scarlett Macfarlane sat down with Riveting Riffs Magazine to talk about her music and life. Perhaps the most important things you could know about her came from the answer to a question we asked her near the end of our conversation. That being, What do you think has shaped your music?

“I think life has informed my music. There are so many things. When you talk about multi-level highways, I had nineteen levels at once (when I was thinking). I think a stream of consciousness answer (is best) rather than taking time to think about it, because if you ask me tomorrow, I will have a different answer. The values in my family have never felt like anything that was material was the most important thing.  Who you are mattered more than any of it, that inner sense of self, that inner conscience. I was treated like an adult from a very young age. My parents would always ask me for advice. They never treated me as less than in any way, shape or form in any phase of my life. Not that it gave me a sense of self-importance, but rather it gave me a sense of self-worth. What you do is not who you are. I was raised to believe that anything was possible. It is just a matter of figuring out how to get there. That could be a bad thing to, because it could set you up for well why I didn’t  succeed. I have never lost sight of; sure, I will give it a go. I am not afraid to think big, dream big and have aspirations. I think that has fed my music more than anything.

I also think and the first answer that came to mind I consume a lot of science fiction and fantasy. I feel like I live in a science fiction novel half the time. I don’t know if that is a good thing or a bad thing. I see the world as being pretty crazy. This is pretty crazy what we are doing here and so life is a crazy thing. There is so much we don’t know and so much we think we know. So much is always changing, it is like living in a science fiction novel. When you consume a lot of that and you consume a lot of fantasy, I think that finds its way into my music as well. Those are my two answers, family and self-worth and the sense that anything is possible. That kind of surreal, fantasy thing finds hidden ways into my music too,” says Scarlett Macfarlane.

That ability to be introspective, to reflect on life in general and her own life informs her song  “Sorry.”

“Sorry," is one of a series of songs I am releasing and they were all recorded in a batch. It is one of the first two songs that I wrote. The initial, kernel of an idea was written in my car and I was hyper emotional for reasons unknown. I asked (myself) what is the most vulnerable I can be? It was an exercise in writing (concerning) the things I am most embarrassed about or that I am the most insecure about. What does that look like? Anything that you have ever felt bad about yourself and what would you want to say.

The word “Sorry” is coming from the place of remorse, but it is also from the place of forgiveness. When you say the word, sorry there are two things happening,  you are asking the other party, whether it is yourself or others, to understand that you truly feel bad about what you have done. Yes, I feel badly about whatever that thing may be, but also, I don’t want it to happen again. I want that to change and I am coming from a new version of me. There is something about going from someone who is hiding to somebody who has now opened up to the world and to be able to say this is who I am and I am okay with it, whether you are proud of it or not.

It was a whole internal thing. If I was going to be putting music out for other people and not just for myself, I didn’t want it to be only the best versions. I wanted it to be all parts of me. That is where it came from. I wrote it in my car. I write a lot in my car. My car and my couch are my primary writing places,” she says.

The companion video for “Sorry,” also has a story behind it.

Scarlett Macfarlane explains, “The street visuals are meant to feel like a metaphor for being stuck in your head, walking around aimlessly. The rooftop visuals are meant to feel like a metaphor for freedom from that internal space, like being exterior from your head and rising above and moving on.

If I could change one thing about this music video, and as artists we’re always tinkering, I think I would’ve added some extra classic NYC b-reel stuff like me stopping to get a cup of coffee at a bodega, or glancing in a store window when I walk by, or accidentally stepping into a puddle on a corner,  which is always the worst and stuff like that.

There is a singular experience of feeling alone in a big city like New York that I would have loved to capture. But I can save that idea for a future video because I absolutely love how the video for this one turned out. It accomplished what I wanted which was a very personal feeling (see we told you there was a story behind it).”

As for her clothes when the video was shot, “The clothing I wore was largely pulled from my own closet with a couple of fun accessories added in. The layered scarves were a fun nod to one of my favorite legends, Steven Tyler (more on him later),” she says.

The video for “Sorry,” was shot on a windy day in Brooklyn, New York and on the same day as one of her other songs, “Red Lights” was videoed.

How did your musical journey start Scarlett?

“I started wanting to be a recording artist after an Aerosmith concert. I sat in the last row for a whole gig and I didn’t understand it was a job that a person could have. What do you mean you can stand on a stage and do what Steven Tyler does? Well, I have to do that. I came home and told my mother I was going to be a recording artist; I was going to be a singer. Before that moment I didn’t understand you could do that. My mom being my mom was okay, how are we going to do it?

I applied for a grant when I was fifteen and got it, but it was in the Pop space, but I wasn’t into Pop. I was into Aerosmith and that space. I did not want to dance in front of sixteen dancers. I wanted to sing and I wanted to connect with people a thousand rows back. I don’t care about the showmanship of what I am wearing or dancing or any of that other aspect. I rejected that whole space and I decided I was going to swing to the opposite extreme. I thought if you are angry at the world that translated to a Punk Rock group. There was an era when I did Punk Rock. I call it Punk Rock. It was more like Punk Pop. I wish I could say it was like the Ramones or the Deftones or something like. It was still pretty, young, blonde girl Punk Rock. That’s the sales pitch.

The grant allowed me to record a few songs and to do some Pop music. I was allowed to submit myself to assorted labels. I was offered a contract with Capitol Records when I was fifteen or sixteen, but I did not end up taking it.

I toured for a long time all over the northeast (editor’s note with her band Scarlett’s Web), mostly I did the whole country and I went to Europe for a few shows. I was in Germany for a hot second and I did some shows in France (where my sister) lives. It was nothing big, nothing major. I can’t think of anywhere else. Then I (thought) this isn’t working and I wasn’t going anywhere with it. It wasn’t a particularly happy time, so it was that’s it. I am going to stop now. I took a break and I went and figured myself out. I think I was chasing other people instead of chasing myself. I did not really take the time to sort myself out. I wasn’t really figuring out who I was as an artist,” she says.

From the reflective “Sorry,” we go to talking about the song “Immortal,” and we marvel at her powerful and emotive vocals.  

“The subject (in the song) “Immortal” is about immortality or eternity or that which lasts about us and whatever that is to you. I loathe to use the word spirituality, because that feels so religious in nature, not that I am opposed to that. I just don’t want to be pigeonholed into that. It is what you leave behind or the poetry you write or the lives you have touched. That has always been a subject that is very important to me.

The infinity sign is one of my favorite symbols. I just love it. I was so excited when I was hired to work as a personal trainer at a gym that is called Immortal Fitness. I did technically write the song after I started working there. I also wrote the song, while I was at the gym. I had no concept that I used the word immortal until later. It was such a cool confluence how the words eternity, immortal are clearly a resonant theme for me. It lives in the back of my brain rent free. Immortal is my mom’s favorite song,” Scarlett Macfarlane explains. 

The song “Love Is a Best Friend,” offers the kind of transparent look into a songwriter’s life or inner thoughts.

“What a great descriptor. I really try hard to like myself a lot. When you like yourself, it is easy to be transparent.

Songs come to me in a variety of different ways. When I write the words and the melodies flow out of me like a stream of consciousness. I am probably exaggerating when I say this, but it was written in what felt like ten minutes. I don’t think I tweaked the words to it dramatically from when I first wrote it and I don’t think I tweaked the melody much. It is not a repeating chorus, to me it was like a sixties British Pop influence meets a happy go lucky love song.

For me “Love Is a Best Friend” is personal because going back to being fifteen and being offered my first record contract that I turned down, everything I had done up until then was very Pop and I thought I don’t want to just sing love songs all of the time. Somehow, I had gotten into my head at that young age if you did Pop music, women had to sing about love. I wanted to do more than that. I wanted to sing about the world and I wanted to sing in a Punk Rock band. I wanted to talk about things that were world views and changing things. By the way Punk Rock bands don’t necessarily sing about changing things either. That is a whole other tangent I could go on. [I say counterculture] I didn’t even counter. I didn’t go in that direction. It was bad and now I am the opposite.

All that to say, fast forward and three or four years ago I was talking to my sister and when I think of the songs that women sing, the most famous songs, the big ones are always about love. I don’t only want to sing love songs. There is a reason why love songs are so big, because it is such an important subject for people, but I didn’t want to sing, just about that. I can’t remember if it was “Sorry” or “Love Is a Best Friend,” that was one of the first two songs that I wrote and it is about love. Of course it is. I had rejected it for so long and I thought I guess we are doing this now. It must have weighed on my brain,” she says, tapping her temple with her forefinger.

Let’s stop there for a second, so who is Scarlett as an artist?

“This is such a good question (she smiles). I am still trying to verbalize in a sentence or two. You used the word transparent. I love that. I love the word honest. I like the word eclectic, because I am a little bit all over the place, I love that about myself. I don’t know how to bottle that or what that looks like in terms of a gimmick.  It is authentic and I think real people are that way.

When you think of Britney Speers or you think of The Magic Dragons or you know what Steven Tyler is going to be wearing. He will be wearing a long scarf and he will have flowy pants and there will be a little bit of a sixties and seventies retro vibe. You know what Britney Speers is going to look like when she shows up on stage or you know what Sabrina Carpenter is going to look like. It is really identifiable, but real people aren’t necessarily that way. They have so many facets of self. If I could figure out how to bottle eclecticism and turn that into something that was easily identified, like a collage. (we suggest that would be an oxymoron) Right! There is something there and when I figure it out you will be the first to know. A collage is something like that. What does a collage look like on a person. I have so many facets of myself. Sometimes I am a little bit Rock, sometimes I’m a little bit Pop and sometimes I am super happy and sometimes I am super sad. Aren’t we all? As an artist I aspired to figure out how to really be that and not be just any one thing,” she explains. 

As our conversation winds down, Scarlett Macfarlane has a treat for us, “Let’s talk about my next song. The next song is not announced yet, so you get to hear it first. It is my song called “Fireflies.” This one is a left turn, maybe two left turns away from “Sorry.” It is a very happy song. It is very nostalgic and summery. It is all about chasing fireflies on the Fourth of July, which is also my mom’s birthday. (It is also) about the treasure of being a child, the optimism and wonder that is there and the perspective shift, because everything seems so big and new. It feels like summer is an eternity (when you are a child) and now it feels like summer is gone like that. The next thing you know it is August. When you are little, it is (seems) longer. The song is about holding onto a moment for the rest of your life.

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This interview by Joe Montague  published  May 20th, 2026 is protected by copyright © and is the property of Riveting Riffs Magazine All Rights Reserved.  All photos and artwork are the the property of  Scarlett Macfarlane unless otherwise noted and all  are protected by copyright © All Rights Reserved. This interview may not be reproduced in print or on the internet or through any other means without the written permission of Riveting Riffs Magazine.