Interview with Saint Cure (Nov 2025)
What struggles and highlights have you guys experienced being independent artists?
As a 2-person band with full time jobs, releasing music in the current economy has not been easy. We have an astronomically low budget and virtually no outside help on our project. We try to do as much as we can for free, which entails doing all of our production, mixing, mastering, content, and promotion by ourselves. Social Media is WAY more work than people give it credit for!
On the other hand… having full creative freedom and a flexible release schedule is a total relief! If a single isn’t ready by our deadline, we can push it back with no repercussions. We don’t have to go through any upper management for approval. it is all within our jurisdiction.
On top of that, we have been able to collaborate with so many generous creators who have done photos with us, helped make merchandise, and promote our work. Choosing to work with people within our scene. As well as grow with other small artists like us, has connected us to a web of endless possibilities. We work hard to forge the careers we want, and the sacrifices have absolutely paid off!
How Was The Move To Asheville?
Moving to Asheville has been life changing. It may not be our forever home but it has all of the qualities of life that we cherish. We wake up everyday to a city surrounded by stunning mountains and filled to the brim with creatives like us. A small mountain town is a great change of pace for us! There is also an astronomical amount of plant based food for such a small city, which we very much appreciate!
We Luv U Saint Cure
<3
We Luv U Saint Cure <3
How Would You Guys Compare The Scene/Crowd In Atlanta Than Asheville?
The Atlanta music scene is a vast abyss of incredible producers, artists, instrumentalists, and venues. As much as we love our roots, the alternative music realm is a difficult to enter as a new band. We have often noticed that smaller bands get completely neglected by more established bands in the scene. Not to mention the few opportunities there are to play bigger venues.
I seen a couple of modeling shoots that you both did and I was wondering do you guys have any aspirations outside of music to model?
Salem has gotten opportunities to model for some local photographers, and by proxy so has Scottie. Career wise, neither of us have any plans to model professionally BUT we will hopefully be working on some exciting projects with designers and photographers in the near future!
The ATL goth scene will absolutely make a comeback in a few years. But when we decide to move, it felt like a new chapter for us as a band. The Asheville goth scene is tight knit like a family. Everyone knows each other and does their best to promote local projects. We have some great venues that put emphasis on small bands, niche genres, and building artistry within the scene. It has been a rich change in pace being in the heart of an artist built town.
I seen a couple of modeling shoots that you both did, and I was wondering do you guys have any aspirations outside of music to model?
Salem has gotten opportunities to model for some local photographers, and by proxy so has Scottie. Career wise, neither of us have any plans to model professionally BUT we will hopefully be working on some exciting projects with designers and photographers in the near future!
I seen a video of Salem talking about how the image for your album cover the original photo was AI. But looking in the comments I seen someone comment that they were the original artist to the painting. Did you ever find out if it was AI or if that was the original artist
The original piece was in fact a fully AI Image! luckily, the comment was simply an artist interested in painting the cover as an original piece!
Do you both play instruments or just Scottie?
We both do! Scottie plays guitar, bass,and saxophone briefly in middle school.
Salem plays guitar, bass, and all of the electronic instruments you hear on our record, although they prefer only singing during live performances.
Where do you guys buy clothes?
We thrift EVERYTHING! We are massive vintage/antique fans so we are constantly scrounging through local shops for cool stuff. For stage ware, antique stores are our best friend. Salem collects vintage lingerie from the 20s-30s which is usually what she is wearing on stage.
Knowing that your EP just came out September 12th 2025, What should we be seeing in 2026??
We are hoping to release a full length album in the next year! Everything on our EP was written over a year ago, which means we have a lot of material that has yet to be released. Now that we have started to solidify a sound, creating a more cohesive body of music is getting much easier. We also hope to be playing as many live shows as we can! It is important for us to perform and connect with the scene in an intimate way.
What inspirations do you guys have? Also I would like to know more about you guys journey during this?
We are heavily inspired by horror, gothic literature and imagery, and 80s pop culture. Bands spanning from Siouxsie and the Banshees to Deftones to Cradle Of Filth are all sonic influences for us. We have both been in the music industry since we were teens, but growing up in 2 different scenes established each of our unique styles. Salem came from writing bedroom pop with heavy electronic elements, where as Scottie grew up playing in metal bands. We both found common ground in the 80s goth scene. Scotties heavy guitars and Salem’s arpeggiated synths acted as the perfect foundation for atmospheric dark wave Saint Cure plays today.
And lastly, after all of these questions. What advice would you guys give to people that want to start a band and all of the baby bats that want to get into their local scene?
Creating your own music is intimidating in theory, but the power is now at your fingertips! Music creating tools like Garageband and Bandlab are easily accessible tools that allow you to record songs on a phone or laptop. If you have ideas, write them, record them, document everything! And if you’re waiting to meet the right people to make music, stop looking and start creating. Everything you create will act as a catalyst for finding people with similar interests and ideas.
If you are looking to get into your local scene, start supporting local bands, attend events, and don’t be afraid to talk to other people in the community. Also some cities have goth groups that promote local events! One of the best parts of being in a small scene is how we are able to support each others endeavors. To all the baby bats still figuring yourselves out: Be strange, be creative, and be yourself because you can be WHATEVER YOU WANT TO BE!
