The music industry can often be a dark and gritty place full of hidden dangers and seductive evils. For upcoming bands, the industry is often a frenetic revolving door.

Young bands are quickly signed and just-as-quickly fired when their CDs fail to garner sales in the millions.

Scarlet Runner is on the brink of entering this hostile industry. Despite the band members’ youth (vocalist/guitarist Jason Christensen is 18, bassist Jack Christensen is 16 and drummer Luke Rathe is 18), they understand that success at such a young age comes with some advantages and a lot of disadvantages.

“Being a younger band, it’s harder to get shows because people think we will act unprofessionally,” Jason said. “Record labels are hesitant to sign us because we’ve only been around for five years and they are afraid that we will break up after they sign us. Some musicians also give us crap because they believe we haven’t paid our dues yet.

“But I think being younger is actually better,” he added. “We still have the youthful exuberance about playing. Some musicians who have been around for awhile get tired of playing and their live music suffers because of that. We still have many, many years ahead of us, though.”

Scarlet Runner, which is named after “an African bean plant,” issued its debut release, “South Chain Gang” a year ago, after the group won a battle of the bands contest.

The prize was free studio time, which the band used to make a demo tape. The group then took out a loan and pressed the CD.

“People kept asking if we had anything coming out,” Jason said. “At every show we would have dozens of people asking for CDs or tapes and we didn’t have any to sell them. So we won the contest and finally did it.”

Jason learned how to play the guitar from watching his father strum at the instrument. He picked up more techniques from mimicking guitar players in music videos.

“My style is very blues based because that’s what I learned how to play first,” he said. “I try to throw in some funky riffs whenever I can. I try to put together a lot of the styles of the guitarists who inspired me.

“Back in 1993, when we first formed, I was mostly into Stevie Ray Vaughn. Our music was really bluesy. Now we don’t feel as afraid to throw in the rest of our influences.”

Unfortunately, since the group is so young, it hasn’t had the opportunity to copy its influences in private, as many bands do, before finally gelling and making music that is distinctively its own.

“I get a little scared because there are a lot of guitar players out there,” Jason said. “There are a lot of really good guitarists who get dismissed as carbon copies of someone else.

“I don’t want that to happen to me,” he added. “I have as good of a chance as anybody else in becoming successful. But there are really a lot of good players out there that I have to compete with.”

Jason has gotten fairly used to competing with the best. He won the Midwest Regional Jimi Hendrix Electric Guitar Competition and will be competing at the Hendrix-sponsored National Voodoo Chile Awards at Madison Square Gardens in the near future.

Scarlet Runner was also a semi-finalist in Musician Magazine’s Best Unsigned Band Contest.

“Those are some of the most flattering things that have ever happened to me,” Jason said. “It’s very cool. There are a lot of people out there who have worked many more years than us and haven’t gotten as far.

“But we’ve still got a hell of a long ways to go,” he hastily added. “It would be nice to do this for the rest of my life. I’m going to give it my best shot.”

Jason isn’t worried about the pitfalls success might bring.

“In my opinion, those pitfalls are just people’s misinterpretations of the things that come along with fame,” he explained.

“Most people assume that being famous leads to bad things. But I just want people to hear our music. The more people hear our music, the more people that it touches, the better.”

Scarlet Runner will perform at The M-Shop on Saturday at 9 p.m. Tickets are $5, $4 for students and will be available at the door.