As a woman in love with the rock world, I have always admired female rock stars. Women such as Halestorm’s Lzzy Hale and Spiritbox’s Courtney LaPlante have made names for themselves and provided diversity in modern rock. Tucson’s local version of those amazing women is Scarlett Chang, front (wo)man of rising rock band Pyrotechnica.
For Chang, her love of music came from her dad. Since he was overseas, whenever he came home he would bring CDs of new music for her to listen to. He used cassette tapes and CDs as a way to bond with her, but also to help her learn English; Chang was born and lived her younger years in Taiwan.
She has always loved singing, but her musical journey began when she was growing up in Taiwan, specifically when other church girls who also loved music formed a church rock band with Chang.
She moved to America around age 7. Much further down the road, Chang went to NAU for a year and after her year at NAU, she came back to Tucson to take a break; that’s when a friend was in a band and needed a female backup singer; wanting a distraction and a way to get back into singing, Chang said yes. She realized that her and the rest of the band members had different views on where they wanted things to go. Most of the band wanted fame and fortune, but she just wanted to make music and didn’t care as much about getting signed.
After that band fell apart, a couple of the more serious members went on with Chang to create Sara Bella. In need of a bassist, she met Ben Iniquez, the current bassist of Pyro and Chang’s fiance. “He was already so talented and he was already in a metal band here called Drowning Arizona, so he was already in that metal scene, he knew how to book shows, and he understood what my vision was. I feel like our friendship and our band relationship just kind of click instantaneously, so that was really cool,” she reminisces.
Although that band eventually fell apart as well, Chang made a lifelong friend and mutually-minded relationship with Iniquez. “Me and Ben, I feel like we’re people who can’t not be making music, we can’t not be writing,” she explains, “He likes me to write the story, and I like his songs;” Iniguez does the musical composition and Chang does the lyrical composition and melody writing.
The guitarist of Pyrotechnica, Dustin Russell was brought along from Iniguez. Two drummers came and went before Josh Dorame, the current drummer, was pulled from his own darkness. After quitting the band he was in before Pyro, he was ready to give up on music altogether; luckily, Iniguez found and brought him in.
Pyrotechnica came to be around 2015. Some of their biggest accomplishments include opening for rock band Black Veil Brides, winning Battle of the Bands for KFMA Day in 2019, and recently recording with Hiram Hernandez in Los Angeles.
Of course, recording with a producer is a huge thing for a band, but for Chang it was more than just that. She has heard many hateful comments about her singing voice; Hernandez loved her melodies and complimented her up and down for things that others have bagged on her for. When it comes to her writing, some including another producer have said it’s “too desperately wordy” but Hernandez didn’t have a problem with what she was doing and encouraged her. “I felt like their energy was very genuine and it opened an artist block for me,” she said.
Despite their successes, however, there will always be the haters. With Chang being a female front, she has dealt with criticisms on all levels. “Female drummers are cool, and female bassists are cool, female guitarists are cool, but I feel like singing for girls is very ‘Oh, that’s what she should do,’ and that’s the very feminine part that people plaster with ‘You’re a female vocalist, so you must do feminine singing,’” she continues, “I’m in the rock world, and I’m trying to make some epic rock music. I’m not trying to do angelic singing and I feel like that’s what it should be over our music.”
There’s also the stereotype that female rock singers need to be able to scream, or else they aren’t worthy. “It’s like I’m less if I can’t do something like that, or it isn’t as impressive if our music doesn’t have any screaming in it,” she says.
Chang admits that it hurts sometimes, but she is being who she wants to be and she’s makes music for herself. Even in her personal life when she was younger, she was on the tomboy side but was still relatively feminine; so people would be confused and treat her more masculine than she felt because she was “bigger and stronger than other girls.”
“Why do I have to be categorized as anything, like why can’t I just be me?” she asks.
Chang went on to bring up how many amazing female musicians are on social media; “I feel like if we are to dig more into the brighter side of social media, we can find these artists and these musicians that inspire us…I don’t want to say it’s a bubble, but it kind of is and there’s much more to the world than that.”
One problem many women experience is being parroted by men. Having ideas or words taken when they aren’t acknowledged by the woman and repeating it as a man is an ongoing issue. Fortunately, that isn’t something Chang has had to deal with. “Our opinions and ideas get parroted by men and they take the credit for it… Dustin’s never let that happen to me, Josh has never let me feel like I wasn’t listened to. You know, they repeat what I say and “Oh, Scarlett said that,” and it’s nice to have men around me who are like that.”
About her, fiance and bassist Ben Iniguez said, “Scarlett has been an instrumental factor into all of our successes in Pyrotechnica. Her drive and passion for music elevates each and every composition of music we’ve released.” “Scarlett has been a gem to work with for over 4 years. She’s extremely passionate for her lyrics and the music “the boys” create,” drummer Josh Dorame commented. Guitarist Dustin Russell added, “It’s been really cool to see how she’s grown both as a musician and a performer over the years. I couldn’t imagine having anyone else at the front of the stage for our group.”
A woman of attitude, epicness, intense passion. Her drive behind every word she sings and every lyric she writes is all a part of the beauty of Pyrotechnica, and her as a person.