Last week Scarlett Johansson and Este Haim unveiled a surprising supergroup called the Singles, rounded out by the talents of Holly Miranda, Kendra Morris and Julia Haltigan. Billed as “super pop” and taking its cue from Grimes, the Bangles, and the Go-Go’s, the band dropped a pretty decent debut single in “Candy,” a saccharine-sweet synth-pop tune that certainly wasn’t the worst bit of music an actor has ever unveiled.
But it turns out there’s been a Los Angeles-based band using the Singles moniker for nearly 20 years, and this week the OGs took legal action against ScarJo and her crew. “A cease and desist demand has been issued by the Singles’ lawyer to the representatives for Johansson and the new all-girl group, alleging trademark infringement and a variety of other legal claims,” reads a presser.
And the original Singles, a duo with a sound falling somewhere between garage rock and power pop, are speaking out. Here’s what founding member and guitarist/vocalist Vincent Frederick had to say:
“I don’t understand it. Our band, The Singles, has an account on nearly all social media sites and our music is available in record shops, on iTunes, SoundCloud, and other websites. Just a simple search on Google would have revealed that ‘The Singles’ was already a band name being used by another pop/rock band – our band.”
“I woke up one morning and learned from the news that our band name was literally just taken by someone else as their own. It’s hard to believe that any musician would do something like that to another band. The Singles has been my life for the past 16 years. We have worked so incredibly hard to make it a success.”
Here’s ScarJo’s Singles’ track “Candy,” in case you missed it last week, and a track from the Los Angeles outfit…