There is something refreshing about a band that does not seem interested in staying inside the lines. The Scarlet Goodbye have built their identity around the space where different musical instincts meet, where rock, alt-country, melody, harmony and a touch of the unexpected can exist in the same song without feeling forced. On “Losing The Only Game In Town,” that instinct becomes particularly clear.
The song began with Daniel Murphy and Jeff Arundel simply following the music wherever it wanted to go. Jeff describes their writing process as getting on a toboggan together and heading downhill, without knowing exactly where the ride will end. That sense of discovery has become central to the partnership, allowing the duo to stay out of the way of the song and let the music reveal itself naturally.
What makes the collaboration work is not simply the contrast between their musical histories, but the trust they have developed. Dan brings his experience from Soul Asylum and Golden Smog, while Jeff approaches the partnership from the perspective of a singer-songwriter, producer and musician with his own distinct instincts. Somewhere between those worlds, The Scarlet Goodbye have developed a shared language built around melody, minor keys and harmony singing.
“Losing The Only Game In Town” started from a more playful musical idea, with the pair initially imagining a cow-punk, alt-country direction. But once the lyrics and vocals began to take shape, the song changed character. What emerged was something more wistful and reflective, with the opening carrying the feeling of a funeral procession for people who have run out of answers but still refuse to walk away.
That refusal is important to the song’s emotional centre. As Jeff explains, part of The Scarlet Goodbye’s wider narrative is about people who may not feel like they are winning, but continue to throw punches anyway. There is no pretending that life always rewards persistence. There is simply the decision to keep going, to stay in the fight and see whether the next haymaker lands.
The recording itself became another exercise in trusting instinct. Cut in a small room in Brooklyn, the track grew from a relatively defined structure into something much richer. Charley Drayton’s rockabilly shuffle and unexpected tom fill helped transform the rhythm section, while Rob Arthur’s keyboard bass and bright, ticking bass sound gave the song another layer of character. Baritone guitar, gang vocals and Pat Frederick’s gypsy violin eventually completed an arrangement that feels expansive without losing the song underneath it.
At the centre are Murphy and Arundel’s voices. Rather than treating the two singers as separate identities, The Scarlet Goodbye are increasingly discovering what happens when they sing together. Dan’s husky, raw quality meets Jeff’s more pointed vocal character, creating a blend that allows harmonies to move in and out of the co-lead vocal. It is becoming, in Jeff’s words, their own “TSG voice.”
There is also a sense of gratitude behind the music. Dan describes Jeff’s studio, affectionately known as “The Pod,” as a safe haven for songwriting and recording, a place without clocks or the usual pressures of a professional studio. That freedom has allowed the band to capture ideas quickly, while they are still fresh, before self-doubt has time to take over.
Now, as The Scarlet Goodbye work on what Dan believes could become their best record yet, the band seem to be entering a particularly confident chapter. They are not trying to recreate where they came from. They are taking everything they have learned, surrounding themselves with musicians they trust and continuing to follow the ride.
In this conversation with Spinex Music, The Scarlet Goodbye open up about the unexpected journey behind “Losing The Only Game In Town,” their intuitive songwriting partnership, the emotional meaning of the song, the musicians who helped shape its final form, their evolving vocal identity and why, even when the odds seem stacked against them, they still believe in throwing a few more punches.
“Losing The Only Game In Town” brings together The Scarlet Goodbye’s Durango roots with its symphonic sensibilities. What was the original spark behind the song, and how did you discover the balance between those two very different musical worlds?
Dan and I have been writing together for awhile now, and I think we have evolved into a highly intuitive phase of the process, it’s like we hop on a toboggan together and start downhill, and veer wherever the ride takes us. Not at all sure how we ended up with the “symphonic durango” on Losing, but that’s the beauty of the ride—we are letting it take us where it takes us, and in some manner, we are staying “out of the way” JEFF
The Scarlet Goodbye emerged from the creative meeting of Daniel Murphy and Jeff Arundel, two artists with very different musical histories.
What happens creatively when the rocker and the troubadour bring their individual instincts into the same room? My theory is song writing either works or it doesn’t somewhat irregardless of your past experiences? I think Jeff and have developed a strategy which is to work quickly and record the music when it is brand new and freshly written and composed, cut it with the full band and after that is done we start crafting lyrics and melodies. That way you alleviate the self doubt aspect of human nature and questioning everything you are writing which is somewhat inevitable after some time has passed and repeated listenings. We both share a love of melody, minor keys and harmony singing and these are the things that set The Scarlet Goodbye apart I feel. DAN
Your partnership began almost by chance and eventually developed into a serious creative collaboration in an attic studio in St. Paul. Looking back, what do you think each of you recognized in the other that made the partnership work?
What I recognized in Dan was a longing to return to something, and I give him alot of credit for that. People get mad or disenfranchised, and they lose the core element that brought them into music in the first place. To me that’s the real loss-I want to stay connected to the 12 year old that plucked at a guitar for the first time, and I don’t want to let the world take that away from me, because I move and soothe myself. I saw that Dan wanted to get back to that. I think in me he saw someone who was not from his previous orbit, which maybe made it safer to be vulnerable—no preconceptions, no judgement. I didn’t know him. JEFF
“Losing The Only Game In Town” is described as a juxtaposition of different musical idioms.
How important is contrast to the Scarlet Goodbye sound, and do you deliberately look for unexpected combinations when developing a song? That one was fun to write! I had come up with the initial chord changes on this one we purposely tried to make it sort of cow punk alt-country sounding before we wrote the lyrics and the musical story line. We were thinking Trampled by Turtles type of vibe? But after the lyrics and singing came together we toned it down to me a more wistful type of composition, the beginning is sort of like a funeral procession for the stubborn bastards in the song that are too out of answers to throw a towel in and leave the days of wine and song behind. Jeff and I are very bullish on this track. I love the production and the drumming and bass playing on this are sensational as played by Charley Drayton and Rob Arthur. DAN
The song carries both lyrical finesse and considerable musical ambition. When writing, do you usually begin with the story and emotion of a song or with the musical architecture that eventually gives that story its shape?
Most songwriters have both happen—we do too. It might be the snippet of a phrase that starts the engine running, but in this batch of songs we have architected music first and then looked at each other and waded into a topic that is on one of our minds. Dan tends to be more mystical and I tend to be narrative, so we have at this point I think found the blend of the two—I love these lyrics! JEFF
With acoustic guitar, electric guitar, keyboards, organ, violin, percussion, and the First Avenue Chorale all contributing to the recording, how did you determine what the song needed without allowing the arrangement to overwhelm its emotional center?
This one we recorded in Brooklyn New York late last year we tracked there in a very small room. We had a structure and the melody line for this one pretty much worked out when we tracked it which is unusual in The Scarlet Goodbye. Charley Drayton played the rock-a-billy shuffle drum thing and added a drum tom fill part on the chorus parts that literally blew us out of the water when it was recorded. Rob Arthur played a keyboard upright bass which sounds very much like the real instrument and added a tick-tock bright bass track as well with a sound like Johnny Cash used with that iconic that train track sound he wove into many of his tracks. When this basic track was recorded we felt we had something really unique and special, Jeff added a baritone guitar part and we added a bunch of gang vocal styled background singers. And Pat Frederick added the gypsy violin track that is just masterful – that was really icing on the cake. DAN
Daniel and Jeff share lead vocal duties on the single. What does each voice bring to The Scarlet Goodbye, and how do you decide which perspective should carry a particular part of a song?
In the earlier records we just each sang lead vocals on the song that we were each the principal architect of, but more and more now we have found our TSG “voice” which is both of us singing at the same time. My voice is husky and maybe a bit raw and Dan’s has a lovely “point” on it, so the blend of the two seems to make an emotional full-range thing that we are liking more and more! And we both love harmony singing, so within the “co-lead” vocal there are harmonies that weave in and out. Cool! JEFF
With Daniel’s history in Soul Asylum and Golden Smog and Jeff’s background as a singer-songwriter and producer, how have your previous musical lives influenced what you are trying to create with The Scarlet Goodbye?
I think I got good at song arrangements and background harmony vocal ideas. And I am very comfortable in a recording studio I see it as an opportunity to shine and it brings me no anxiety or duress. The studio at Jeff’s where we record at this point has become a safe haven for ideas, songwriting and recording great music quickly. There are no clocks, no ping pong table and no receptionist. I love it up there – we refer to it as The Pod” DAN
The title “Losing The Only Game In Town” immediately suggests defeat, competition, and perhaps the realization that the rules of the game were never entirely fair. What does the song mean to you personally, and did its meaning change as the recording developed?
As one ambles into their ’60’s, there is a creeping sense of “irrelevance”—obviously, there has been much written about this. Part of our overall TSG narrative ends up being about those that don’t seem to win, but By God, they keep throwing punches. I think that’s what we want to advocate—if we’re going down, let’s throw some f-ing punches. As the song says, “I guess that’s why we hang around”—to throw a few more haymakers and see if they land. JEFF
After building The Scarlet Goodbye from an unexpected meeting in an attic studio into a distinctive musical partnership, what are you still discovering about the band, and what would you like the next chapter of its story to reveal?
I think this new record we are recording has the chance to be our best record to date? Jeff and I are going to finish strong, and bring some menace, some beauty and some emotion into these tracks. We are lucky to be partnered with the other talented musicians that complete The Scarlet Goodbye and the studio is really a unique opportunity to record when the mood hits and when creativity is abound. In many ways the perfect storm and scenario! I have gratitude for sure. DAN
