| Thank you for taking the time out to talk to me about the band and your new album. |
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Chris Ferraro:
No problem! This is Chris Ferraro and I play the drums.
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| How's everything going on your end? Have you been busy lately? |
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Chris Ferraro:
Everything is going great! We have all been really busy. I feel like we all live on social networking sites lately. We really do our best to talk to everyone that contacts us.
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| Your debut full-length, Inheritors, just hit store shelves through Bullet Tooth Records. What has it been like for you and the band since it's release? |
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Chris Ferraro:
It's been really exciting. We have never done this before, so it's been a ridiculous learning curve. Releasing the album has been really difficult but one of the most awesome things that has ever happened to us as a band.
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| What has the reaction to the album from fans, critics, new listeners, etc., been like? Is it what you expected? |
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Chris Ferraro:
So far it's been really really good! Fans/new listeners seem to be really excited on the material. Which seems to be bringing a lot of buzz around to people who may not have heard it otherwise. The reviews have been hit or miss. It is really nice to see criticism good and bad. We really had no idea what to expect, we just wrote music we loved and we hope others will love it too!
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| How did it come to be that Serianna signed with Bullet Tooth Records? Was there a specific reason, or did they just offer the band a deal you guys couldn't resist to pass up? |
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Chris Ferraro:
We met Josh Grabelle through our manager, Nate Steinheimer. He sent in a few songs of ours about a year ago. Josh said he liked what he heard and wanted to see what the rest of the album sounded like. So we spent the next few months writing the remaining parts to what is now Inheritors. After we sent it to him, everything just seemed to click. We could tell that Bullet Tooth was a great home for us, and it's been great ever since!
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| Has the label been living up to your expectations? It seems that your album Inheritors is getting a strong push from them that I haven't really seen for other bands on their tab. |
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Chris Ferraro:
Josh and Bullet Tooth has been far surpassing anything we could've wanted from a label. He works all day, every day for us, which no one could complain about. I can't really speak for any of their other bands, I only really know what's going on with our own. From what I can tell though, all the bands on BT seem to be growing and doing very well for themselves. The Affiance video for "Call To The Warrior" is incredible! Deception of A Ghost is about to be on a really huge tour with support from The Bunny The Bear. Kid Liberty just released a new EP "Give Up, Give In." All of these things are extremely huge.
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| Well, back to the recording itself, one of the few issues I had with it was the audio quality. Are you guys happy with the final product as far as that quality went, do you feel that it could have been a little deeper or bassey then it really is like I do, or did you go into the studio wanting this overall sound to the album? |
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Chris Ferraro:
I noticed that you said that in the review (which I love how in depth you got by the way, Thank you!) I feel like there is always room to improve on an albums recording, especially in our genre. Keep in mind we were doing this out of pocket. We had our entire album recorded prior to working with Bullet Tooth. We work 40+ hours a week to pay for the recording, so I would personally say we are all really happy with it. Joel Wanasek at JTW studios is a very good at what he does. Metal-core has a lot going on in it, specifically with bass. We had to cut a lot of the bass simply because the double bass and bass guitar would often cut a lot of the cymbal work, or guitar leads. It's all give and take, and I know we could have spent a ton of time working more and more on the bass tone, but we were working with what had at the time. We love the way it turned out, and I hope others do as well!
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| You guys really seem to stick with screaming, which sounds great, but also having more singing along the chorus then anywhere else. Why was there a heavy focus on this sort of pattern through the album, and do you think it helped the recording in the long run? |
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Chris Ferraro:
I feel like screaming helps to show the intensity we were trying to capture in the album. A lot of the reviews have said that the album is too intense, which that is honestly what we were trying to do. The theme of this album was focused around raw intensity. Chris is a phenomenal singer in my opinion. He is spot on live, and fans seem to really like it. Singing is something we used to try to separate ourselves from bands in our genre. We get compared to August Burns Red a lot. Even though they are pretty much our favorite band, I feel like we sound much different.
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| On "Guilty Spark" I heard the screams go much lower, almost into guttural growling territory. I loved it and was hoping the band would do it a bit more. Why was it just that one word that got this treatment and nowhere else on the album? |
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Chris Ferraro:
I'm not 100% sure why it's not. I find those guttural lows placed throughout the album, although maybe his tone was just really on with whatever wording he used that specific low on. Our singer Chris Nutting is a beast, I'm really excited to see fans get into him.
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| For the most part, Inheritors sounds pretty fluid from start to finish, but you have an interlude instrumental on here titled "Colors". Why exactly did you put that on the album, especially in between the title track and "Deep Sleeper"? Was there a specific reason? |
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Chris Ferraro:
I'm happy to hear you say the record is fluid, we worked hard on making the songs flow well together. "Colors" is one of a few instrumentals we wrote, trying to bring a little bit of a calm to the album, without losing the theme of intensity. Ironically it's been a favorite of almost every review so far. It was a very very fun song to write, Kris and myself have always been huge fans of instrumentals on records. We put it before "Deep Sleeper" because that is the fastest track on the album and it is easily one of our more difficult songs to play. We were trying to make that moment when the album slaps you in the face.
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| You have a good deal of melodic elements, and a stronger Hardcore influenced Metalcore approach. For Serianna, what is more important about your music, as in did the band focus on one sound or style more then the other? |
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Chris Ferraro:
We really didn't have a focused approach to our genre, at least getting that specific about it. We are wholehearted metal-core fans; it runs through our veins. We were hoping to capture that feeling you felt when you heard August Burns Reds "Messengers" album for the first time. It's fast, it's intense, and there is never a break. Again, we wrote for intensity. If our heart was racing after we wrote a part...we felt we were going in the right direction.
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| When you sit back and listen to the final product of Inheritors, are you happy with it, or do you wish you could go back in time and change some things around before it went to press? |
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Chris Ferraro:
Going back and listening I always get ideas for things that I could have done differently or better. There's just a point when it gets to be too much -I love the way Inheritors turned out. We have been sitting on this music for a good year now, and I can't wait to write more. That's when I will be able to do those things I hear and wish I could have changed or done better!
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| What's next for Serianna? Are there any plans in the works to push the album that are confirmed or that you can disclose at this time, or is the band looking to rest up a bit and let the album sales give you and the label a better sense of how to approach your next steps? |
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Chris Ferraro:
Right now we are just taking it one day at a time. We are looking to get a good support spots on solid tours. We are also in the midst of confirming a full U.S. tour with some bands under Thrust Management. I don't have specifics for that at the moment, but it's going to be a ton of fun. We really want to work as hard as we can to get this music out there. I really feel like it will speak for itself among fans of the metal-core genre.We can't wait to meet fans and bands everywhere!
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| Is there anything else you would like to mention before I let you go? |
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Chris Ferraro:
Yes! Thank you so much for reviewing the album, especially going as in-depth as you did. It really means the world to all of us in this band. Word of mouth is the best tool possible for promotion. If you're a fan of our music, please tell everyone you can to help us spread the word about us and our album! Even if it's just one person it all helps!
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| Well, hey, my pleasure on the review. Again, thank you very much for your time. I hope all goes well with the album and the band, and if you're up my neck of the woods I'll try to catch you guys. Take care! |
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Chris Ferraro:
Thank you Jason! We would love to see you at a show sometime!
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