Samantha Scarlette's "FlameBoy" Burns with Emo Heart and 2000s Heat

There’s something magnetic about the first few seconds of Samantha Scarlette’s new single “FlameBoy.” The guitars hit with that thick, slightly fuzzy texture that instantly evokes skatepark afternoons and bedroom walls covered in band posters. Then the beat settles in—a steady, mid-tempo pulse—and by the time her voice cuts through, you’re already somewhere else. Somewhere nostalgic. Somewhere real.

Scarlette has always had this ability to bridge past and present without leaning too far in either direction. She doesn’t pander to 2000s emo nostalgia, nor does she run from it. “FlameBoy” is proof. It sounds like something you might have fallen in love with in 2004, but it’s sharp, current, and entirely hers.

If you know her story, this all makes sense. Raised between Saddle River, NJ and Hudson Yards before relocating to Los Angeles, she’s been a lifer in skate and alt culture since she could barely reach the trucks of her board. Guitar came at 12. A serious skateboarding accident at 19 turned into a strange twist of fate: out of the wreckage came her songwriting voice. That voice has only sharpened with time—and “FlameBoy” might be its most refined expression yet.

The song is a love letter to that unshakable moment of recognition when you meet someone and just know. Scarlette has described it as a “twin flame” anthem, and that tracks—the lyrics carry the same wide-eyed intensity as your first real crush, but filtered through adult emotional honesty. It’s a track that’s sweet without being soft. Romantic, but with an edge.

The guitars feel lifted straight out of a Smashing Pumpkins b-side, while her vocal phrasing floats in that sweet spot between Hole-level rawness and The Used-style heart-on-sleeve drama. There’s even a flicker of Deftones in the production—the kind of dreamy weight that adds a slightly haunting texture to the whole thing.

And then there’s the visual world around the song.

The video for “FlameBoy,” which dropped the same day, is pure West Coast fantasy. Shot along the glowing, neon-drenched sprawl of Sunset Boulevard, it’s part Lana Del Rey dream-sequence, part Sofia Coppola teenage reverie, and all Samantha. Scarlette leans hard into her Y2K skate-girl aesthetic—vintage motocross gear, crop tops, chunky sneakers—and it works. It doesn’t feel like cosplay. It feels like she’s just being herself in 2005… in 2025.

Somewhere between Avril Lavigne’s Let Go era and a B-side from Disintegration, Scarlette has carved out a sound and look that doesn’t just nod to the past—it resurrects it in a way that feels lived-in, not retrofitted.

And this isn’t her first rodeo. After her moody 2023 release Disintegration and earlier projects like Violent Delights + Violent Ends (produced by HIM’s go-to guy Hiili Hiilesmaa), Scarlette has kept evolving without losing her emotional core. With “FlameBoy”—the second single from a new album due later this year—she’s showing she can tighten her songwriting while keeping things emotionally loose, raw, and human.

There’s another single dropping next month, and if it carries even half the weight and charm of this one, we’re in for something special. Until then, “FlameBoy” is the one to sit with—blast it on a night drive, throw it on your heartbreak playlist, or skate around your neighborhood pretending it’s still 2003. Whatever you do, don’t miss it.