Photos by Angel Ceballos, courtesy of Scarlet Room

Masterminds who founded a musical style they’ve dubbed “cabaret rock,” twenty-somethings Aleksandra Weil and Eloise Govedare are a match made in musical heaven in the vein of a younger, hipper and female Kander and Ebb or Weill and Brecht.

Not your typical BFF’s, these best friends, who formed their Seattle-based band Scarlet Room when they were just 15, collaborate on creating fresh and poignant music that blends a rock and cabaret sound with a theatrical bent. And if that’s not enough, with their truly original music, vocalist and composer Weil and lyricist and drummer Govedare foster a message of embracing self-expression and individuality. Through their vibrant, self-empowering music and style the gals’ figuratively encourage coloring outside the lines.

With a CD release party slated for May 10, and a series of gigs scheduled in Weil’s native Uzbekistan in September 2007, the band is poised for a bit of international exposure. But before garnering their exponentially growing fan base and venturing out of the country, these virtuosos had a back-story. “We have this incredible musical connection,” Weil says of her friendship with Govedare. "I knew that Eloise read poetry. I read one of her poems and fell in love and felt really inspired,” she says of Scarlet Room’s nascent stage. In the seven years since Weil first set music to Govedare’s poem, the pair has developed a remarkable friendship filtered through their art of making music. And it shows in their mutual respect for the others’ work.

“She finds the perfect melody,” Govedare says about presenting Weil with a new lyric. “That’s the glue in our songwriting.”

Longtime friend and bassist Kris Darr and guitarist Tim Keller round out the band. But Scarlet Room is Weil’s and Govedare’s brainchild and they’ve nurtured it into a full-on theatrical phenomenon within the competitive Seattle music scene. Audiences continue to grow, says Govedare, who credits the band’s success to the palpable dedication to their art the band members exude. “This band values integrity and doing art for the right reasons,” Govedare says.

Classically trained pianists, Weil and Govedare approach their music from a background that includes classical, jazz and cabaret music. After years of performing cover songs and playing a style of music that already existed in the world, Weil and Govedare’s extensive musical knowledge led to an epiphany.

“We thought about doing something that’s never been done before,” Weil says. The young women dug deep and thought, “Who are we? What are we? What are we trying to say?” Weil explains.

An inspiration for the band’s style derived from Weil’s early love for Bob Fosse’s Cabaret—the film that cemented Liza Minelli as a bonified superstar.

From Liza’s androgynous tailored vest, bowler cap and short shorts to Fred Ebb’s and John Kander’s colorful music, Weil and Govedare pay homage to the show. Weil cites Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht—who collaborated the paean to the progressive art scene in 1930’s Weimar, Germany in the Threepenny Opera—as more inspiration for Scarlet Room’s theatrical edge.

Weill and Brecht’s tunes aren’t the stuff that pop music station’s heavy rotation lists are made of and that’s right in line with Weil and Govedare’s focus on “thinking outside the box.” That ideology birthed the pair’s leap into virtually uncharted musical waters and their appeal to a wide audience including Seattle’s Gay Pride revelers.

Govedare is refreshingly unmoved by the notion of hers and Weil’s likely sex-symbol status among their straight male and lesbian fans. “It’s always fun to get attention,” she says with erudition beyond her 22 years. “It’s more welcome when it comes from women. There’s a different power dynamic with men than women. Women don’t make you feel like your some kind of stripper.”

While Weil and Govedare’s utter passion for their work and, inadvertently, their androgynous Marlene Dietrich outfits ala Morocco—which is pure catnip for lesbians—makes them accidental sex symbols, Govedare eschews hotness as a motivating factor for their art.

In the band’s veritable hit “Marionette,” her lyric “I want to be a real girl without strings,” reflects Govedare's gender politics. It’s about a little girl who feels restricted as many women are by gender roles and expectations, she says. A self-reflective ditty about what Govedare calls “gender performance,” the song illustrates the stifling terror of girls from whom self-expression is denied.

But decked out in their gender-neutral garb and having broken free of pop music’s suffocating, narrow scope, Weil and Govedare are the polar opposite of their “Marionette”—no strings attached.

For more on Scarlet Room, visit www.scarlet-room.com .

Until next time!