The spider

Photo courtesy of Sherri Irons; art by Eva Jordan

The lead vocal of Skarlett Roxx, Deuce McClanahan ’23, shares his story.

Growing up with stage fright, McClanahan was surprised by how easy performing came to him. Jim McClanahan, his father and the band’s manager, saw the change firsthand. 

“He went to a Kiss concert probably when he was five or six, and he wore a Gene Simmons costume with the makeup all the way, the whole thing … He probably had his photo taken more than the band did that night,” Jim said. “[That] was a little much for him; he didn’t want all that attention. But as soon as he started doing shows through his junior high class, doing live performances, he couldn’t get enough of it.”

Despite his love for the stage, McClanahan is content staying out of the spotlight when he’s not performing.

“It’s really kind of a Jekyll and Hyde personality with him. It seems like he’s pretty laid back, but when he takes the stage: it’s a rush [he] gets,” Jim said. 

McClanahan’s first band was a cover group comprised of North Central Junior High students he met in Flex Music class. 

“I wound up taking the music tech class. It was either people who were interested in music and actually wanted to take a music class … or people who were there because they were forced to be there,” McClanahan said. “[The teacher] saw there were kids who didn’t have a music class to create, so she created a class called Flex Music that was basically a free open period for you to explore whatever instruments that you wanted to. For me, it was guitar.”

McClanahan had taken a few guitar lessons as a child but didn’t feel they were very engaging. He found teaching himself to be much more effective.

“You play something and if it doesn’t work out and you’re not at that level yet, you just kind of put it to the side and try at it a couple [of] months later,” McClanahan said. “It’s like completing a jigsaw puzzle. It’s the sense of, ‘Yeah, I did it,’ that keeps you going into the next piece. That’s kind of how I [stayed motivated] with guitar.”

McClanahan’s first band separated during his freshman year of high school as members became busier, but he was still hungry to perform. He reached out to Lizzy Jaxx, a family friend who McClanahan knew was active in the music scene, to join Jaxx’s jam sessions. After playing with the group a few times, they decided to form the band, Skarlett Roxx.

Skarlett Roxx’s music is hard rock with elements of metal, glam and punk, with Mclanahan being heavily influenced by 1970’s rock artists like KISS and Alice Cooper. While the group had worked on a few original pieces before McClanahan, the pace picked up rapidly after he joined.

“You can’t really force a good song out of yourself. It just has to come to you,” McClanahan said. “I write about 90% of the material on my own. And then I’ll record a quick demo of the structure of the song and how it’s gonna go. I’ll send it to the other guys, and then they’ll modify their parts.”

McClanahan is also the main lyricist of the group. He usually draws inspiration from personal experiences or other works of art.

“I remember watching the first ‘Scream’ movie, and thinking, ‘This movie isn’t the best, but writing out a horror-type song would be cool.’ And that’s how our second single came about, ‘King of the Dead,’” McClanahan said.

As Skarlett Roxx’s ambitions grew, Jim went from giving McClanahan rides to practice to stepping into a bigger role and becoming the band’s manager. 

“I started helping the band find shows, meeting with different venues. And from there, I’ve helped them get their music video recorded and worked to get them on some bigger shows with bigger name acts and the national acts that they’ve gotten to open for,” Jim said.

Currently, Jim is working on moving Skarlett Roxx from a regional act, performing at venues like NewBo and Wildwood Saloon, to an act that does tour support for a headliner, the main performance. McClanahan is grateful to his father for passing down his music taste and being incredibly supportive.

“My dad has done a ton for this band,” McClanahan said. “He kind of funded the production for the albums, specifically the CDs and vinyl, but other than that, the band has been pretty financially independent.”

One big project the band had to save money for was the recording of their debut album “Skarlett’s Web,” which they released Nov. 25, 2022. It can be streamed on Spotify and Apple Music, and physical copies can be ordered from the band’s website. Recording the album took many hours in the studio, and they also paid for it to be professionally mixed.

“The most rewarding [aspect] would be a mix between being able to hold my own album in my hands … and having people buy [our vinyl] all around the world. I think we’ve sold albums in Norway, Belgium, the UK; I think we [even] sold one in Argentina,” McClanahan said.

The band also spends money on their stage set-ups, investing in custom guitar picks, pawn shop guitars and low-grade pyrotechnics, such as firework fountains. 

“We go through probably 60 to 70 guitar picks a show just because they’re made of plastic. They’ll get scuffed, you throw them on the crowd [and] people love them,” McClanahan said. They’re essentially business cards too … Especially when you have a goofy way of spelling [your name], like us, with a guitar pick, they know they have your band name and they can go look it up and follow you after.”

McClanahan also smashes a guitar at the end of every show, a tradition he picked up from KISS.

“Just more ways to make our show interesting, more theatrics. You can’t be a boring band and expect people to show up,” McClanahan said. “[People] want it to be good for your ears and your eyes, so whenever I go and see other bands play, I’m always the biggest critic there because I’m saying, ‘Well, they’re not doing this, and we do that.’ Whenever I see people playing and they’re not moving, it just strikes me as crazy because I move so much on stage.”

McClanahan’s dedication to performing has paid off; promoters frequently seek Skarlett Roxx to open for other rock bands, such as Hinder and the Texas Hippie Coalition, when they come to Iowa, to help boost ticket sales. McClanahan and the other band members are eager to keep growing their audience and doing bigger shows.

“I would most definitely like to travel the country playing. And that’s definitely not that far out,” McClanahan said. “A couple years ago, I was like, ‘I want my own album,’ and that seemed very far away. But now I have that, so now I know I can do the next thing. I know anything that I can set my mind to, I can definitely achieve because I want it that bad.”