1) Hi Serenity and welcome to Virtuosa Magazine. Tell us a bit about where your from and what its like to live there Hi out there, this is Mario speaking, I play keyboards and do backing vocals in Serenity! We're situated in Tyrol, which is an austrian province and you may know it as a famous tourist destination in the Alps. We're almost blessed to live here because we've got great nature and huge mountains all around (very inspiring indeed!) though we have a well developed infrastructure in the villages and towns too. This also means the infrastructure for Heavy Metal, as there is a huge underground (especially in extreme metal styles) and a couple of cool venues where even „big players“ perform (i.e. we supported W.A.S.P. one week ago, DIO in 2004 and METAL CHURCH in 2005 – all in the town where we rehearse!) from time to time!
2) Of all the styles in the world - what led you guys to playing Progressive Metal I'd rather name it Power Metal with progressive influences ... well, despite the fact that almost everyone in the band goes nuts for Prog Metal, one can also find quotations in this direction in our sound. But we're doing this within the boundaries that are defined by our abilities and often try to create some kind of progression on other ways i.e. by giving some twists into the songs that you would not expect in Power Metal.
3) Your sound is incredibly melodic and catchy, and I feel that this will win you many fans - and fans who don't always like music to be too technical - would you agree Thank you for these compliments, I totally agree! It's for sure that the technical aspect in our genre is important, but what is much more important is the song itself! A song has to live, to breathe and thus attract the listener – and should then reveal the technical skills, after being listened to several times. In a perfect world our songs would attract both: the „normal“ head banger and the pretentious listener!
4) Your debut album is a real cracker - tell us how you hooked up with Napalm Records for this release One of Napalm's A&R managers saw us performing a show in fall 2004, since then we had been in contact with that guy. Our demo of 2005 was yet „too little“ for them, but after having finished the recordings for „WU&DU“ we once again knocked on their door – besides the ones of two other companies. But the contract offered by NR was closest to our expectations and there was no question for us left ... we signed to them in last December (cool song by ICED EARTH, btw;))!
5) How long has the band been together and how did you first form as a band The first line up was formed in the beginning of 2001 but began to crumble in late 2003 when our rhythm guitar player left the band. In early 2004 three musicians (Georg, Thomas and Simon) got in contact with me – they wanted to found a new band. After some meetings, somewhen around February/March, it was clear: we would continue under the moniker SERENITY but with a line up completely changed, with new forces and hungry for the real thing! The remaining founding members are Andi (drums) and me, we've been playing together now for almost nine years.
6) I can hear a big Threshold influence in your music.... Ok, I confess!! I'm a big fan of these awesome british proggers! I could imagine them performing the choruses of „Canopus 3“ or „From Where The Dark Is Born“ and making them sound like songs of their own! Even our former bass player Stefan said that when I presented the first new demos to him ... Thomas, Georg and Andi also like their music and we're looking forward to being on the road with them in September! Which means I'm not looking forward to it, in fact I start cursing thinking of it because I don't get no holidays in my job at that time – this sucks b** d***!!
7) You have some very exiting tours booked with some big names. Tell us about your live plans and what your expectations are for these shows.. As I already have revealed, there's the tour with THRESHOLD, COMMUNIC and MACHINE MEN (what a package!!) in September. We all hope and in some way are sure that this will bring many new fans in touch with SERENITY. But no more talking about that, the guys will have their fun while I will have my daily routine in the hospital. Then, in the first days of October, there will take place another road trip with Georg's (vocals) favourite band KAMELOT! Another big chance for us which one can be sure we won't let pass by! We heard about venues in a size for 1,000 people – we'll go absolutely crazy and play the hell out of us! If our music will be received well by all these metal heads it's no question that – together with the MORGANA LEFAY/SACRED STEEL tour in the past March - will be a valuable basis for our work in the next years!
8) You guys are very lucky certainly in that department because so many new bands these days find it really hard to get good tour support We are absolutely aware of that fact and believe me – you won't find an austrian band more thankful and ambitioned at the moment!
9) The finished sound of the album is also very impressive. Did you work hard in the studio to acheive this. We were glad to collaborate with such great people like Jan Vacik (keyboard player in DREAMSCAPE), our producer, and Teropekka Virtanen and Mika Jussila (Finnvox Studios), who did the mix and mastering! Of course we concentrated first on delivering our best in the recording sessions because a producer only can grant excellent work having good basic material! Jan is a great musician, he's into music since he was a child, and his suggestions for changing parts of our songs all were necessary, looking back now! Once again, thank you man – and don't forget: „so power, so energy!“
10) Can you give us any secrets to the direction of the next album already, and to the future of Serenity Ok, come closer so I just need to whisper! We'll put a focus on the catchy choruses, we'll present the slowest and the fastest song so far, there will be some really heavy riffing, huge choirs and relaxing synth parts. One song will have more death vocals than ever used by us and we'd like to present some solo spots of the bass guitar as well as some real, classical instruments, we'll see! Regarding the lyrics I have many ideas, some of them a little bit crazy, but interesting as I think! Of course, we have no title for the album already, but for sure it will be released before September 2008! Oh, a video would be cool, but it will depend on the sales of the recent release and the feedback at the live shows.
Thanks guys - fab band - fab album!!
Thank you for doing the interview, all best from everyone in SERENITY!
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