Serpico <serpico-band>
"Let's turn this world into a Neon Wasteland....."
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 | Mikey Serpico’s Official Statement Regarding the Departures of Iain, Steve and Olli.... | 7 Tage her | ||
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| Dear friends,.... .... By now many of you will have heard that Iain, Steve and Olli have decided that they no longer want to carry on playing in Serpico. First of all, I’d like to say thanks to all of them for all the hard work and dedication that they’ve poured into the band over these past few years. .... Iain has been with us right from the start of Serpico and he’s been a real rock. He was always reliable, willing to do the things that needed done on tour (normally the ones that no one was queuing up to volunteer for) and he was really an unsung hero, making sure that everything ran smoothly… plus his squirrel based comedy was second to none. .... Steve joined in early 2006 and his guitar style has made a major impression on the sound of Serpico. Coming straight into the recording of the EP, he was able to add a flair and skill that lifted the songs to a different level. He carried this into the album and his uncomplicated, but often inspired solos added a whole new dimension – it’s certainly going to be a task to find someone with such an intuitive soloing ability and with such a great sense of (non-squirrel) based humour!.... Olli joined the band at the end of 2007 and immediately was thrust into a tour with Stone Gods and then recording Neon Wasteland. He’s an effortlessly cool guy and even in such potentially daunting circumstances, nothing fazed him. He’s been a great addition to the band: hitting the harmonies, kicking out the solos and all the while still scowling like a true badass..... .... Secondly I’d like to say that this is DEFINITELY NOT THE END OF SERPICO!! Jonny and I are going to carry on the band. We will be looking for new members in due course, but we’re unsure whether that will be in Scotland or possibly in London. That’s a discussion for another day. But as long as I can play a guitar and sing a song, there’s gonna be Serpico. It’s my life and my passion and I’m thankful every day for the fact that I can write and play music and there’s people out there that care. So thank you guys..... .... Thirdly as to why the decided to leave… it was really personal decisions that they had all made which just happen to coincide. We’ve had a bit of an enforced break recently with Steve injuring his hand and the economy meaning that many bands, especially from the US are touring less frequently, thus giving fewer opportunities for us to support them. In this time, the guys have started working more regularly (actually earning real money!) and also doing other activities and they all came to the realisation that Serpico was no longer the main priority in their lives. They just didn’t feel that they had the same commitment that they once had and that it wouldn’t be fair all round to continue when their hearts weren’t in it anymore. Being in a band at this level, you really need to want it, you really need to be 100% committed, because without that you can’t get anywhere. No one will hand you success..... .... At lunchtime on the 17th November, we met at the Tron pub in Edinburgh (ironically the place where I first met Iain) to discuss the future of the band, because Jonny and I had started to notice that the others seemed to be less enthusiastic that they once were. There was no acrimony, no finger pointing, no ill will, just a realisation that it was time to move on to pastures new. Good luck to everyone in the future, I’m sure everyone will find success wherever they apply themselves..... .... Thanks to everyone for their support and fingers crossed Serpico will be back stronger than ever!.... .... Love,.... .... Mikey xx.... We would like to add that we are all sad at the depature of Steve, Olli and Iain but are unbelivably glad that this will not stop Serpico from playing. | ||||
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| Mikey Serpico Interview for SKIM | 42 Tage her | ||
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| Hey! Long time no update  Decided it was about time I put up the interview which shall be featured in SKIM (: What made you and the rest of the guys form the band? Well, I’d been writing music for a few years and I’d been playing in Open Mic acoustic nights at pubs and getting good reactions, especially from some of my own music, so I was kinda spurred on by that. I was in the middle of my degree at uni and it wasn’t the kinda place that you could really find other people wanting to be in a metal band, so I advertised on the net for people to join a band and it just went from there. I’d tried applying for a couple of other bands in London and I got quite far but never made it (thank god!) but the whole experience of it made me really focussed on getting together my own band back home in Edinburgh. How did you and the rest of the band meet? It was through advertising on the net. Obviously back in the day you used to put adverts in the back of music magazines (like Metallica did way back!) but nowadays it’s all online… and basically it’s kinda like Match.com for band dudes! Haha! Basically you see an ad you like, email the guy and then go on a blind date with him and see how you get on – it’s certainly an interesting way of doing it! Luckily I found Jonny and Iain straight away and none of us were so weird that we put the other ones off, so that was good. Then Stevie joined about a year after I initially met Jonny, just a couple of months before I left uni and we recorded the EP – again, he saw we were looking for a guitarist, messaged us on myspace and it went from there. Then Olli joined at the end of 2007, after Joe left the band… again he’d seen something online about it. He actually was playing (and still does sometimes) with a band that we’d done a show with a while back so I think that’s how he’d come to know about us. Funny how things like that happen! Who came up with the band name and how? I’d always loved the name Serpico and it was just one of those names that I said to everyone and they were like… yeah, sounds good. Normally there’s someone that goes… “hmmmm… yeeeeaaah, maybe….” But everyone was just like, “Serpico… ok… cool” and that was that! Who writes most of the songs or is it a joint effort? Normally I’ll come up with the basic structure and some lyrics, then we kinda workshop it a bit with the rest of the guys. Normally I’ll have some ideas in my head about how things should go, but I can’t always realise it on the different instruments. So I’ll have an idea about a beat in my head and then Jonny will play what he’s thinking and we’ll kinda work something from there. Same with the lead guitar, Stevie will improvise and we’ll kinda go… that bit’s awesome, that bit’s not bad but could be better etc. So I come up with the songs and then we come together to flesh it out. I kinda like to use the analogy with a script writer – I’m the guy who comes up with the overall vision of what’s going to happen, the “who, when, why, what, where” of the story… but then when the actors who’re going to be playing the characters come in, they’ll often add new touches, little nuances to a character that that weren’t explicitly in the script and that’s what the rest of the band do. They flesh out the songs. Also though, they’re my first port of peer review on the songs… so when I write a new song I’ll send it to them and they basically get to chop it down or not! So there’s a lot of power there! What is the first song you wrote and how did you go about it? I think the first song I wrote, certainly music-wise, was a song called Decline that, if we’d had more time in the studio we’d have probably recorded as a B-side for the album, but we didn’t! I’d only just got my first guitar and kinda learned how to do easy hammer-ons and I’d been listening to a lot of INME’s first album, Overgrown Eden. I kinda took the idea of the hammer-ons in the main riff of that song and was like… well, why don’t I write a song with a hammer-on riff and so I did. It wasn’t too bad, considering I could barely play… but it certainly wasn’t my most accomplished musical oeuvre! haha What was the first gig you played and were you nervous? The first gig I played with back in the days of Decline, when I was still at school. My friend Dan and I (Dan was an original member of Serpico, but left because of uni commitments) organised this rock concert at school, where 4 ragtag groups of kids just threw themselves together to play some covers and a couple of original songs for about 300 screaming school mates – and it actually ended up being really awesome! Technically our first gig was earlier in the evening, we’d done a warm up show at this bar in Edinburgh and I was pretty nervous for that one (basically the audience was just all sitting round the side, no energy at all… no fun) but because of that when we turned up at school I just felt great and we all went out and rocked it! Is being in a band what you expected? Yeah, I guess so! It’s a really hard slog a lot of the time and it can be incredibly demoralising (getting a bad review, missing out on a tour, seeing other bands get promoted ahead of you) but it can also be the most amazing fun! Doing a good tour with other cool bands is incredible. Feeling the energy of a crowd really enjoying a show is unreal. Like when we played Download in June… seeing 2000 people there, just to see us and all going crazy – that was pretty special! Do you ever have fights within the band? Of course you do sometimes, just like anything where you’re cramped together for long periods. It’s normally just stupid things like not loading the van when everyone else is or stuff like that. It’s rarely serious… we’re all fairly slow to anger and quick to forgive so it’s not a big deal. When we had our old guitarist Joe in the band we used to fight a lot more because he had quite a volatile temper… he’d be up and then down really hard and that would cause friction. But we’re all fairly chilled out guys so it’s normally a pretty good environment! Who is the most annoying member of the band? Almost certainly me… obviously everyone’s got little things that can be annoying, but I reckon I’m probably most annoying to the other guys! haha Who spends the longest the getting ready for a show? Well, it’s definitely not Iain! None of us really take that long… but I probably take marginally longer than Stevie straightening my hair! Jonny likes to do stretches, but I go and do my vocal warm-ups… it’s gonna be me again! Do you get on well with other bands? We get on pretty well… I mean, we’re not a really luvvie scene band that knows every single band in the world and are their “super best friends” but 99% of the bands we’ve toured with we’ve got on really well with. Obviously it’s much easier to become friends if you’re headlining a tour and you’ve got bands supporting you than vice versa… but yeah, when I was walking around backstage at Download or at the Kerrang Awards there were plenty I could talk to! Did any of you ever think you would be in a band as a living? Well… it’s not quite as a living yet! But, to be honest… I kinda did! I’m quite a positive, optimistic guy and when I started the band I really felt that we’d get somewhere… I was always pretty confident. Now, I know we’re not My Chemical Romance or anything yet but the fact I’m sitting here doing an interview means we must be doing something right! What does it feel like to play onstage in front of so many people? Well, as I said above… it’s incredible! I mean… it can be scary if the crowd doesn’t seem to be getting into it. Walking onto the stage without a cheer or anything really sucks… but when you can hear the crowd cheering as the intro music goes on and then the screams when you go on stage… there’s nothing much that beats that! Then seeing the crowd just explode when you start playing – it’s a really nice feeling, let’s put it that way! Do you guys ever hang out as just friends without the band stuff? Sometimes we do, yeah. Iain and Steve live kinda outside town, so we don’t see them as much, but Jonny and I see each other a fair amount and talk on the phone every day and we see Olli a fair amount for drinks and stuff. It’s cool to meet up, but equally, it can be good to have time apart, when you spend so much time together on tours etc. If you could would you change anything in your life right now? Well… yeah, I’d get us on the front cover of Kerrang, supporting MCR on their next arena tour and then headlining a sold out Brixton Academy! I’d make our album sell 20 million copies and I’d buy houses in Edinburgh, London, LA & Mauritius! That would be all right… slightly better than right now. Either that or I’d graft on Cristiano Ronaldo’s body to my head and I’d make £200k a week playing for Real Madrid… that’d be all right too! Who would be the band's main influences? Avenged Sevenfold, Bad Religion, Offspring, Greenday, Metallica, Papa Roach, Alice in Chains, Sabbath, Pantera, Iron Maiden Kill Hannah, HIM, AFI… bands like that I guess! Do you have any advice for young bands trying to make it? I’d probably say that the best thing to do is try and beg, borrow, (steal), save any money you can, because it’s not cheap being in the music business these days. Until you can pull a decent crowd, promoters aren’t going to be giving you any free money! Also there’s quite a lot of upfront expense… like merch etc that people don’t often think about. One of the things that really helped us when we started out was giving out badges and stickers at gigs… people really appreciated them and they remembered us because of it. It’s like bits of promotion like that that can make the difference between someone coming home and saying, “The opening band was called Serpico and they were really cool” and “Yeah, that opening band wasn’t too bad… don’t remember their name…” But… badges and stickers aren’t free for you – so I think young bands really need to concentrate on the business aspect as well as the music, because long gone are the days of major labels throwing £200k at a new band they heard down the pub like in the 80s! What band- except your own of course- would you love to be a member of? I’d love to be in Avenged Sevenfold… that’d be cool! They’re a great band musically and I love their songs. Also, I’d get to dress up as “rockstar” as I could and wear sunglasses 24/7, which would obviously be fun! What band or artist are you embarrassed to say you are a fan of? I’m not really embarrassed, but other people are normally embarrassed on my behalf! I absolutely love Basshunter! Jonas (Basshunter) and I have become good mates since I met him last year in London, but even before that I just loved the music. It’s so cheesy, but brilliantly constructed pop and great to work out to! What is the most embarrassing thing to have happened to you onstage? I’ve lost my voice three times during a set… once in Amsterdam with Black Stone Cherry and once in Edinburgh with Kill Hannah and on the headline tour in Norwich… it never gets any less devastating! With BSC I just blew it out in Berlin and then in Amsterdam I sounded like Wednesday13, croaking along! It was horrible… although the crowd kinda dug it and we had a fun night in the end! The Edinburgh one was terrible because it was the first night of the tour and our first big hometown show for ages… and I just sucked. With my Dad in the crowd. Ugh… that was embarrassing! In Norwich it was pretty bad, but the support band had taken most of the crowd with them… so that was quite embarrassing anyway. If you weren't in a band what do you think you would be doing with your life? I’d be really unhappy for starters! But I do have a law degree, so I might be doing law… or I’d love to get into broadcasting in some way, I did student radio at uni and I’d like to get into that – possibly a future career anyway! In your opinion, what is the band's greatest achievement so far? I think that Neon Wasteland is a great achievement – I think it sounds as good as almost any album out there and it was made for a 10th of the budget of most similar albums out there. Other than that I’d say that Download was definitely huge for us… we packed out a tent, got great reviews – all from the biggest gig of our lives, that’s got to be a result! What does the band hope to accomplish over the next few years? Well, I’d love to get another couple of big support tours for this and next year, release another couple of videos perhaps and then start writing our second album. I’d really hope that we start getting more mainstream coverage because I feel that we deserve a bit more recognition than we’re getting at the moment from mags like Kerrang – fingers crossed we’ll get it! Well that's it xD | ||||
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| Next Single and Interview :) | 68 Tage her | ||
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| Hey! (: Woah...Haven't written a blog in a while Updating time xD First of all.... The guys next single. Anbody who has facebook should add Mikey ( http://www.facebook.com/mikeyserpico ) He is having a poll about what song should be their next single At the moment Godforsaken, Feeling Minnesota and Last Honest Cops seeem to be the most popular but vote and see if your favourite song could be the next single  Next is the interview (: For a school magazine I got an interview with the uber awesome Mikey xD At the moment I am editing it and getting it ready to put in the issue but I shall put it up here as soon as I has it all done so you gusy can read it (: That's it for now Laterz X | ||||
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| Youth 4 Youth Festival with Fightstar | 93 Tage her | ||
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| Serpico are back (: The guys just announced on their myspace today that the band will be playing the Youth 4 Youth festival with Fightstar on the 5th of September. The festival is being held in Bristol. Serpico will be on about 7pm and tickets are £5 in advance. This is Serpico's first gig in Bristol since they played with Kill Hannah last October, so people better get their asses to this gig | ||||
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| Serpico and Fans! | 100 Tage her | ||
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| Special Announcement Sitting here at 2am Jolita and I have come up with an idea to dedicate an album to "Serpico and Fans" So we would like any of you, who have photos of you with any members of the band to send your photos to us in a comment and we will put them in the new album. We know this is a bit of a weird request but don't worry we're not perverts...we just think it would look awesome. Lol So anyway....Send us your pictures!! Thankies!  Aoife & Jolita | ||||
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| Infernal Radio | 106 Tage her | ||
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| On Friday 7th August Mikey was on Infernal Radio, a US based I-radio station. Anybody who missed the interview you can listen to the podcast here: http://moonlightjfl.podomatic.com/en... Though the quality on the phone isn't the best =/ Check it out anyway | ||||
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| Kerrang Awards! | 114 Tage her | ||
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So as you all now Kerrang awards are tomorrow....Or today I guess considering it's half 3 in the morning  We are all totally gutted that Serpico weren't nominated for Best British Newcomer award but they're glad that their friends in Fei Comodo, My Passion, Attack! Attack! and Young Guns are all up for it The band hung out with a load of fans last year and would love to do the same this year so if you're in London tomorrow about 5-7pm-ish and can make it along to 'The Brewery' near Barbican and Moorgate tubes the guys would love to see you. | ||||
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| Cockrock Festival | 130 Tage her | ||
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| So as many of you might already know Serpico were due to play the Cockrock festival today in Cumbria but they have had to cancel their appearance at the festival due to an injury. Steve has torn the ligaments in his left arm, this means he would not be able to play as good as usual. The band decided to cancel their appearance because it wouldn't be the same playing without him. Hopefully he gets better and the band will be ready to continue playing shows in the near future. | ||||
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| Kerrang Burning Question, Feedback + More. | 158 Tage her | ||
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| As you know, mags like Kerrang and Rock Sound give great exposure to upcoming bands and there are some ways that us as fans can get the band some promo! *IMPORTANT* Kerrang Burning Question: This week's Burning Question: YOU SHOULD ALL HAVE NOW RECOVERED FROM THE SUN, BOOZE AND PARTYING OF DOWNLOAD 2009 - SO IT'S TIME TO DECIDE, WHO WAS YOUR FAVOURITE PERFORMER OF THE WEEKEND, AND WHY? Answer: SERPICO! And tell them why they were so amazing! http://www2.kerrang.com/2009/06/the_... Kerrang - Feedback: Be sure to post in any photos you might have taken with the band member's on the current tour or at download and leave a nice comment to go with it!! email Kerrang Feedback: feedback@kerrang.com Kerrang - My Favourite New Album: Nominate "Neon Wasteland" as your new favourite album and why! message them on myspace (www.myspace.com/kerrangmagazine) with the headline "My Favourite New Album" Rock Sound - RSVP Speak Your Mind: Send in your photos with the band and tell them how much you've enjoyed a recent Serpico show! email Rock Sound RSVP: rsvp@rock-sound.net txt Rock Sound RSVP: ROCK RSVP followed by your message to 88600 | ||||
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| Kerrang! Burning Question + Awards!! | 160 Tage her | ||
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| http://www2.kerrang.com/2009/06/the_... Click on the link above to answer Kerrang's weekly Burning Question about who was the best Artist at Download. Anyone who was at Download and saw Serpico should answer it!! And.... There is still time for you all to vote for Serpico in the Kerrang! awards. Vote for them as Best British Newcomer at: http://awards.kerrang.com/BestBritis... We want them to, at the very least, get nominated for the awards so vote as much as possible! Thanks  | ||||
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