Scarhaven

From years of isolation and defiance, frontman Michael Saint and (bassist) Jared Edson clawed their way out from the wreckage of (former band) Embassyrowe to discover bandmates Matt Kilroy (guitar) and Alex Shapiro (drums) and create the grunge revivalist powerhouse, Scarhaven. 

Washington D.C. born, Saint was raised by a hard-working single mom, that often found him glued to flickering screens, with film scores burrowing into his skull. “They stirred shit I couldn’t even name,” he says. Private Catholic school was a gilded cage—smug rich kids, fake piety—until he got expelled senior year for pushing back too hard. Dumped into public school, he scraped by, before stumbling into Pitt to begin the slow choke of nursing school. “I’d have withered there,” he spits, and ditched it for art—acting, poetry, something to breathe through.

When 2020 broke everything, COVID-19 hauled him back to D.C., a ghost town where he rotted indoors, sketching jagged lines and scribbling poems that went nowhere. “I’d wander the woods or stare at walls, drowning in my own head,” he recalls. A basement guitar—dusty, strung-out—became his last grip. No clue how to play, he hacked at it anyway, screaming karaoke covers into his phone at 3am, voice cracking from cheap whiskey, doubt and despair. “I thought I sucked, that it’d never stick,” he says. But as the world limped back, he linked with multi-instrumentalist and songwriter, Jared Edson in the DMV (DC, MD, VA) scene.

Rounded out by guitarist Matthew Kilroy and drummer Alex Shapiro the jagged, melodic howl from the muck called Scarhaven ignited.

Sonically, the familiar gut-rip of the 90s with an updated and fortified wall of distorted riffs, with lyrics like open wounds, vocals that snarl and soar. Live, they’re chaos—fury smashing into fragile quiet. From EmbassyRowe’s alt-rock echo to this nu-grunge beast, Scarhaven’s a middle finger to polish and pretense. It’s the sound of a kid who once hid in movies, now bleeding through a mic, proving music can drag you out when you’re too fucked to save yourself. 

Contact: mgmt@scarhavenmusic.com