Dear friends,....

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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.....

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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.....

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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.....

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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.....

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Thanks to everyone for their support and fingers crossed Serpico will be back stronger than ever!....

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Love,....

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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.

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

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