“Déjà Vu” perfectly captures the warm R&B flavors and pulsing pop textures that make Scarlet Pleasure a promising breakout artist in 2018.
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There’s a fire rising out of Copenhagen, and it goes by the name of Scarlet Pleasure. The “new, young kings of the Danish music scene,” the trio of longtime friends Emil Goll, Joachim Dencker and Alexander Malone exploded onto Denmark’s music scene in recent years, and are now gearing up to take on the world at large. Their song “Déjà Vu,” which just won the Danish Music Award for Song of The Year, perfectly captures the warm R&B flavors and pulsing pop textures that make Scarlet Pleasure a promising breakout artist in 2018.
Blue eve on my Vespa
Take me to local cities
Take me to local fiesta
I know it’s a fine line but
I’m on vacay on a half time ’cause
I need the space to get over you
Watch: “Déjà Vu” – Scarlet Pleasure
Atwood Magazine is proud to be premiering Scarlet Pleasure’s live video of hit single “Deja Vu,” taken from a recent performance in Aarhus, Denmark. “We’ve played [there] a lot over the past few years,” the band shares. “Somehow the crowd in Aarhus always give us so much energy. So what else can you do but embrace that vibe?” Released in early 2017 as a single off Scarlet Pleasure’s debut EP Limbo (June 2017 via Copenhangen Records/Universal Music), “Deja Vu” spent 9 weeks in Spotify’s Top 10 in Denmark, and enjoyed a 3-week run at #1 on the Danish Airplay charts.
A vibing, lovelorn protest embedded within feverish heartbreak, “Deja Vu” is an invitation to dance and dwell in the burning heat of intimacy. The band capture the poignant portrait of a torn-up romantic, trying his best to forget about and embrace the love who gets away every time, all the time:
My deja vu
Like so many nights before
We’re so wavy on the floor,
Gentle dancing, maybe feel a little fancy,
Deja vu
Alors, alors
Broken hearts and sweet liqueur
Where did you go, my karaoke señorita
With the frozen margarita
Deja vu
“Deja Vu” is a song of indulgence; it’s a song of endless days and nights, of love and lust and sorrow and surrender. No matter where he turns and what he does, our protagonist sees his love and desire again and again – “she” is his déjà vu, as lead vocalist Emil Goll sings; she haunts him, in spite of (or perhaps, because of) his in-the-moment passion.
“We wrote the song up in northern Sweden after a creative period of not knowing what direction we wanted to take our music in,” Scarlet Pleasure tells Atwood Magazine. “By that time, we experimented a lot with how to incorporate more silence into the tunes instead of too many production sounds. It felt right from the first note/hook we made, and we were all kind psyched about the “anti-drop” thing when “My déjà vu” hits the beat in the chorus.”
They continue: “Lyric-wise, the drifting bass made us think about a show we played earlier that year in Spain. We drove around on Vespas in a vacation paradise, partying a lot, and enjoying the European summer. It felt like a déjà vu, waking up to the same day every day and then falling in love with another girl at the local bar each night.”
Cold breeze by the ocean
Radio gives me a feelin’
Radio give me emotions playin’
Clichés from the 80s and
All it does is remind me that
I need the space to get over you
Catchy, bouncing lyrics make for an easy singalong throughout “Deja Vu” as Copenhagen’s rising stars engage their audience. Their live show depicts a packed crowd hooked onto the band’s every word, grooving with every beat and chanting the song’s unnervingly catchy words in unison. “Doing live shows in general is very important for us,” bassist Alexander Malone tells Atwood Magazine. “We are a band, and the journey from creating something in the studio to playing it in front of a live audience is the best feeling. The vulnerability of performing songs live is the closest you get to that moment you wrote the actual song, and that’s some of the reason why [we] make music, right? To feel you speak a common language with your audience.”
It’s more than just their infectious sound and accessible lyrics: Scarlet Pleasure care deeply about their art, and are pushing pop music forward while bringing people together. Their sophomore EP Lagune was released in November 2017, and the band very recently issued a vinyl LP combining both EPs in one physical album. Having jettisoned into Denmark’s spotlight in 2017, Scarlet Pleasure are set to take off in 2018 – and we can’t wait to watch their fire glow.
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