What is Scarletien? Scarletien was formed at the end of 2006 by guitarist / songwriter Alex Pogosov and guitarist James Hickey, whom Alex had worked with previously on an experimental project called Blackgrass Beheader. The idea behind the Blackgrass project was to mix bluegrass with Black Metal, but the idea was quickly abandoned as not sufficiently interesting to those involved. In its place was conceived a new project, one that would attempt to take elements of ska, gothic, and industrial music and fuse them together into something altogether atypical and unique. Lacking a name for this new endeavor, James and Alex began brainstorming in an attempt to come up with something that would fit the new style they were going to create. After a time, it was Alex who came up with the name of Skarletien, the "Ska-" in the name intended as a direct reference to ska music. They wanted something that would emphasize their music’s roots in ska, reggae, and Jamaican music, while at the same time suggesting something dark and sinister.

Ultimately, feeling that an attempt to merge such disparate musical genres was unlikely to succeed, Alex decided to focus instead on writing music in the style of 90's indie rock, especially Pavement. The band’s name was accordingly changed to Scarletien, this change reflecting the fact that there would not now be very much ska influence in the music. James’s musical influences proved to be different from Alex’s, and Alex brought in his friend "Potential Schizophrenic" Kevin Cook to join the band on bass. They had worked together previously on a freeform rap project called "Capt. Crunch and the Craminals," which had been put on hold before the beginning of the Blackgrass project and prior to the formation of Scarletien.

The first band rehearsals took place in March 2007. At that point few original songs had been written, and the material played consisted entirely of covers, most of them paying tribute to 80's and 90's alternative bands. Original material soon followed, however, and by early December an entire album’s worth of music had been composed. The lineup, however, was still incomplete, as the band lacked a drummer, second guitarist, and possible keyboard player. Drummer Darek Sanchez had joined the band back in April, but had to pull out of the project after two rehearsals due to outside commitments. A second drummer was brought in to take his place, but the lineup proved to be unstable, and Scarletien has since remained a duo.

Scarletien’s lyrics are often studied and deliberate, intended to give voice to the beliefs and experiences of bored, disaffected youth. Much of the lyrical content is drawn from the personal history of principal songwriter Alex P. "For the longest time, I just did booking because I didn’t think my original material was good enough to be used by a real band," he commented. "This group of people. . .boosted my self-esteem, and they were willing contributors, so it all clicked. I’m a huge music geek, so just thinking that I can contribute to the world of music as a whole excites me."

Scarletien’s tentative plans include a single, followed by an EP, and an eventual (possibly double), album.