Hi! Tell me about your band and what kind of previous experience do you have as musicians?
– Hi! We are Serial Vice, a band of five young elements, and each of us has had several musical projects or, in some cases, collaborations with famous bands before joining in this group, which is definitely the most important musical experience for each of us. Beyond that, we are a group of five old friends, all part of the historical underground metal movement in our area.
Why did you pick your band name? How did you form? Why did you decide to play the genre or genres you do?
– We came up with this name because our lyrics are about the way mankind always lose against its vices – thinking about any kind of “vice”, not just drugs, alcool, sex: even the desire to kill, the desire to die, the desperation for a lost one we cannot stop, and so on.
The idea to establish a band was born in 2011 from Alessandro Scorrano (drums) and Andrea Donaera (guitar). After some line-up changes, in 2013 another guitarist, Matteo Cirfeda, joins the project, and finally we started to compose our own songs. In the middle of 2014 bassist Stefano Bianchini and singer Giacomo Albanese join Serial Vice and between January and February 2015 we recorded our first album “Nightmares Come True”, finally out this year via Sliptrick Records!
With the actual line-up the band’s sound is emerging more and more, up to consolidate into a Heavy Metal between classic and modern, gritty and melodic, with various and extensive influences – from Hard Rock to Thrash, from Doom to Power. We want to play some True Heavy Metal trying to always remembrer we are in 2017 and not in 1985!
What can you tell us about your latest record?
– “Nightmares Come True” contains songs that are a powerful mix of classic metal riffs and melodic choruses, with a cohesive combination of influences. There are eight tracks which shows each side of the Serial Vice’s metal: Classic Heavy Metal ideas, played with a fresh and modern sound. Lyrics are composed trying to create a strange concept about what can be defined “vices” in our society. And so, not just normal vices such as drugs (You Are Heroin), but we can consider also vices the lust of killing (Killers Combine and It’s All Wrong), hate (The Disregardful), death (Master Of No-Life) and love (the instrumental title track Nightmares Come True and the outro Can’t Erase My Scars).
What the kind of album feedbacks are you waiting for?
– Our hope is that this album will please everyone: old school’s metalheads and new adepts. After all, this is what we try to do searching for our sound. So far we have received numerous positive feedback from both experts and those who are neophytes or simple rock music lovers. We hope to continue like this!
Are you gonna to make some world tour in the future? Do you think this is available for everybody option to tour around the globe? What do you think band have to do to get such opportunity?
– Organizing and conducting a world tour is currently a thing for very few – rich and famous – bands. As far as we are concerned, we will try in the near future to promote our album first of all in Italy, and then we will try to organize some dates abroad (but always in Europe), perhaps availing of the collaboration of specialized agencies and some sponsors. We’ll see what will happens in 2018, when we’ll promote our album on the road!
Do you believe in heavy music scene without money?
– No, not anymore. Unfortunately the “garage days” are over!
What do you think about online music sharing? Do you ever give your music away for free? Why?
We come from Southern Italy and it is really hard for us to be appreciated right here, because people like to listen to other music than Metal. So we try to play in as much live shows as we can, and obviously we also try to spread our music on the Internet with all the media instruments: we believe that it is the only way to become well-known all over the world. Actually there is only one of our song available for free (You Are Heroin), but we recently shared our first official video (Master Of No-Life) and various live reportages. Of course, our last album is available in streaming on Spotify, I-Tunes, Deezer etc.
Who are your musical influences? Have you ever think your band could be so famous as your favorites?
– We listen to a lot of music and we love to use different influences in our songs: classic big names such as Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Black Sabbath; many underground NWOBHM bands such as Grim Reaper and Angel Witch; Hard Rock and Street Metal such as Skid Row and W.A.S.P.; modern bands such as Enforcer and something from other classic band such as Metallica and Gamma Ray. Reach the fame and the glory of the groups that we like remains our “dream in the drawer”: for now we are content to feel like we are juxtaposed, on a musical level, to groups like Maiden or Priest by the people that listen us!
Do you have a formal music education? Do you think it’s a Kind of important thing?
– We are all proudly self-taught musicians, however we are firmly convinced that a good musical education is essential to become pro-musicians with balls.
How do you balance your music with other obligations – mate, children, job?
– This is certainly the hardest part of our “being musicians”: what is not about music. Reconciling our private and professional life with our musical passion and the the band’s projects is a complicated process that often, as is happening in this period, leads us to stay away and therefore to not be able to spend much time in rehearsing, in composing new stuff and to play live gigs. Despite everything, we crossed the finish line many times with the band during all this years and we are sure that we’ll continue to shoot out riffs and screams for a long time!
How do you handle mistakes during a performance? Or you can assure there are no any mistakes during your gigs? Do you get nervous before a performance or a competition?
– We believe we have achieved a good level of confidence in our live performances: the songs and the set-list are the result of a long running-in, so we are all very cohesive and we commit fewer mistakes. Of course the unexpected is around the corner, but we manage the performance very well. There is always a bit of adrenaline or nervousness before a performance, especially when we play in new places, but we have our own tricks to…calm the nerves!
What’s next? Thank you!
– This year was a blast for us. New label, new album out, new fans, new gigs, new stuff. We hope that 2018 will lead us to most important things, and of course, that we’ll be on the road again! Thank you and … Up the Vices!
