Serfs - Marijuana Mom + Exclusive Interview

Serfs

Not long ago, I came across a band from Charlotte, NC on Youtube. It was the band Serfs and their video and single Marijuana Mom. I couldn't just watch the video once - it actually turned into at least a dozen rewinds the first time. The video itself - superfresh and full of color, nakedness and energy ... the song - a juggernaut of that same energy, an incessant guitar riff and lead singer Phil Pucci's raucous vocals make this one a winner.

I had to find out more about Serfs so I reached out to them and lined up an interview:

Who is in the band / who plays what / and how did you come together as a band?

 I'm Phil and I play guitar and sing. Nicholas Holman plays drums, Patrick Doherty plays bass and David Scanlon plays guitar. Nicholas has been travelling in Southeast Asia this year and Alex Ruiz has been filling in. He also plays drums in It Looks Sad and Couches. 

When I listen to your music, I hear influences from Foo Fighters to Sonic Youth to My Bloody Valentine; in my mind .... who are some bands that have inspired you? 

All four of us are definitely influenced by Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine. We'd probably be quicker to cite Sonic Youth though. Sonic Youth are one of those classic bands that we all agree on. I love My Bloody Valentine to death but I feel like if I tell people we sound like them, we are pigeonholing ourselves and they will expect something very specific. And then they might see us and get upset that we're not shoegaze as fuck, riding our tremolos on every chord or whatever. Another band from the shoegaze genre that I think we identify with more are Swirlies.They have such great guitar tones and their sound is so expansive.

What is your definition of success as a band?

I think about it the same way I think about my own success as an individual in society. It's likely I'll never find financial success -- certainly not from playing music. There are bands on hot indie labels, selling out theaters and living well below the poverty line. So I'd prefer to think of success as being happy with what I'm doing. If I could make a living playing music, that would be good enough for me

How supportive is the local scene in Charlotte?

Charlotte is very supportive of us. We have a nice, growing music community. I've been playing in bands for twelve years but it wasn't until I started Serfs a few years ago that I felt like I was truly part of the scene. I have the honor of calling some of my favorite musicians my friends. My only gripe about the music scene is that I wish more people would start bands. I go to shows at least two or three times a week and I can't get enough of them.

You once played as an Interpol cover band - what other bands would you like to cover?  

We did that for an annual Halloween show at The Milestone here in town last year. This year I think we are going to cover Joy Division, which I guess is an obvious natural regression for us. We used to talk about covering bands a lot but this year we've been so focused on writing our first full-length that we haven't thought too much about it. I want to cover Blondie at a show sometime.

How has the music business changed since you started playing music? 

I started playing music in 2000 when I was 14. I think that was around the peak of Napster's popularity, before it was shut down and changed over to a legit subscription service. So when I was in high school, I bought CDs AND downloaded music illegally. Those are the pivotal years in a person's life, too, so I was soaking in music any way I could get it. It was fun. After high school, it was 2004 and downloading music illegally became so incredibly easy that I was just putting all my music on an iPod. I missed owning physical copies of music for so many reasons. And I kept hearing about a new record store in town called Lunchbox that sold mostly vinyl. So I got on a vinyl kick that never really ended. Nowadays I use Spotify to find new music and buy records that I really like. I'm 100% legit now, so get off my back, feds.

Let's talk about Marijuana Mom for a bit. I've watched the video at least 3 dozen times and I can't quite make out all the lyrics, which I actually like - but I imagine the song is about a hot milf who comes to the club with the best weed. The potency of the pot along with her hotness makes her the object of affection for everyone there - male and female ... or something along those lines. Am I close at all? 

Hahaha, that is pretty funny. I think I will tell people that whenever they ask about the song from now on. 

The video looks like it was a lot of fun to make. I'm guessing these are all friends of the band? And the ending reminds me of a skate video I saw once.

The video was very fun to make. We basically hung out and drank beer and had a good time. I heard our songs more times than I would have ever cared to. During most of the shots where we are dancing around or crowd surfing, we weren't listening to Marijuana Mom, we were listening to random rap songs. Three people in particular came together to make the video happen - Blake Raynor, who shot, directed and edited the video, Christine Rebich, who did a lot of fashion design for the shoot, and Nicholas Holman, our drummer, who rallied to get all our friends there to participate. I think the video captures the spirit of the song really well.

Anything else you want to add?

The only thing I can think to add is that we are currently crowd funding our debut LP via indiegogo: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/serfs-make-an-album 

Thanks so much for taking the time to interview me and feature Serfs on your awesome site.

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Here is some more great music from Serfs:

http://serfs.bandcamp.com/

and be sure to follow them on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/SerfsUSA

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FLWRS + MARALISA Exclusive Interview // Muddy Your Feet EP

I really get geeked when I find out about great new bands that are not widely known. It is my mission to share this talent far and wide so that others can enjoy them as much as I have.

FLWRS + MARALISA is such a duo, made up of Emiliano Hernández Flowerman and Maralisa Simmons-Cook. They recently came together to make music and have released their first EP on Belgian Man Records - Muddy Your Feet. I had a chance to talk to them both today on Facebook and here's the transcript of that interview:

Maralisa, you live in Brooklyn and Emiliano, you're at Oberlin in Ohio, how did you two meet and start making music?

Emiliano - We actually grew up together ... Maralisa was like best friends with my little sister when they were really little. Didn't you guys go to preschool together?

Maralisa - Emiliano and I grew up together in the same small town, and after losing touch during both high school and college, we reconnected out of the blue when Emiliano came to visit friends of mine in Brooklyn this past semester.

Emiliano - Yeah, we went to Roberta's in Brooklyn and then went to our friend's photography showing at an art gallery and on the way over there i was like "yo Misa we should do some music together". She listened to a couple tracks i had on soundcloud at the time and was interested.

Maralisa - He had mentioned that he was dipping his toes into some production type stuff and wanted to collaborate on a song or two, but after a few very rough tracks we were thrilled at how well our sounds worked together and chose to turn his EP release into a collaborative EP.

Emiliano - Hahaha yeah, I couldn't believe how well the tracks were sounding once i got her vocals.

So were you together during the making of the album or did you do a "Postal Service"?

Emiliano - Yeah, we pulled a Postal Service ... we actually haven't seen each other since that day when I asked her if she wanted to make music together.

That's awesome! Can you both tell me a little about your musical backgrounds?

Emiliano - yeah, I started playing drums in 8th grade i think, and went on to playing with several bands in high school and early college, mostly funk, rock and instrumental bands. This past fall I took a TIMARA class at Oberlin College, which is basically a department in the Conservatory that specializes in experimental electronic music, where I learned all about the history of electronic music and how to use Logic Pro and stuff. Once I started producing, I loved it so much that I couldn't stop. It was all I could think about. I taught myself how to use Ableton and also some music theory.

Maralisa - We composed the tracks entirely via social media, tediously sending tracks and rough cuts back and forth, texting, emailing, facebooking...after a semester my thumbs are just exhausted. hah!

Emiliano - Sooo many emails and phone calls and texts ... I'm sure Maralisa is exhausted from getting so many messages from me.

So, what's your background Maralisa? Have you been singing for a while? 

Maralisa - I've been singing since around third grade, and became seriously invested in it during high school, at which point I joined a large teen a cappella group and continued private lessons, performing in student showcases and occasionally with my band Brick n' Honey. Who knows why that name was decided?

Emiliano - I remember Maralisa being known in the area as having an incredible voice ...

Maralisa - I was raised up mainly on heavy hitting blues artists such as Taj Mahal, Keb' Mo', Jon Cleary, and great female vocalists such as Nina Simone and Billie Holiday. Billie was ALWAYS my favorite...when I began performing jazz music my mom would bring me a white gardenia to wear in my hair and I just thought I was the coolest thing since I don't know what.

You should check out the Nina Simone rework that I just posted yesterday.

Maralisa - I will absolutely check it out!

Emiliano - Maralisa is also a fan favorite at this little restaurant/club called The Sleeping Lady in our town, Fairfax, CA

Maralisa - Now as a vocal jazz major, I'm studying both the traditional jazz idiom in school as well as experimenting with genre all over the map and trying to collaborate with as many musicians as possible. Doing collaborations has already improved my own songwriting and sense of style tremendously, so I am continuing to hunt for projects!

I would have to agree with you Emiliano ... Maralisa, you have a beautiful voice. So, on this EP Maralisa, where you the primary songwriter?

Maralisa - Thank you so much! I did write the lyrics and melodies/harmonies to the songs, and the production is entirely Emiliano.

Emiliano - Yeah, its kinda interesting actually cause the songs are fairly evenly split up. Drumdrunk was an acapella that Maralisa sent to me and i produced over it. Wake was one of my older productions which Maralisa really liked.

Maralisa - Drumdrunk, though, was a piece that I had written in the privacy of my apartment, mainly as a joke, about a year ago with chords/lyrics/melody, and it was originally a vocal piece recorded on my computer. Emiliano loved it and created a kick ass track for it.

Emiliano - Haha yeah the original version of Drumdrunk was kinda lo-fi, using the vocals she recorded on her computer
hahaha ... and Growl was one that I produced specifically for Maralisa.

On Drumdrunk - you warn about dating a certain type of musician, is that from experience?

Maralisa - Oh yes, totally from experience. That makes for the best songwriting though right?

Absolutely!

Emiliano - It's also funny cause that was the first song we did together, and I'm a drummer, so it was slightly ironic.

Maralisa - Although it could pertain to singers-dating-drummers specifically, I wanted it to be a sassy love song for any girl who's fallen for a musician (which is basically inevitable).

We all know the dangers of dating musicians too well ... LOL!

Emiliano - I might write a song warning drummers to avoid singers ;-)

Maralisa - Preach!

Emiliano, I understand that you are moving to Brooklyn, what's next on the horizon for FLWRS + MARALISA?

Emiliano - Yeah I'll be heading out there in about a month! Maralisa and I already have a gig lined up in the fall but we're gonna spend some time rehearsing and getting our live show together. Hopefully we'll start working on an album before the end of the year, working on new material.

Maralisa - Totally, Emiliano and I are going to start rehearsing right away and getting some more music together in order to perform!

Emiliano - We might enlist the help of some other musicians to fill out our sound live.

Now, I see that you guys are doing something special on Bandcamp, giving away stories and portraits with each purchase - what's that about? 

Emiliano - Hahaha we kinda wanted to give people something personal to enjoy with our music. Since we don't have any physical releases yet, people don't really have anything to hold in their hands when they listen to our music
we wanted people to have something to have personally from us.

That's a great idea ... something that is definitely missing in an age of digital downloads.

Emiliano - hah thanks!

How do you guys get picked up by Belgian Man Records?

Emiliano - Well I just graduated from Oberlin College and a friend of mine, Matthew Gallagher, is in a band called Wax Monsters. They're great, have kind of an 80's synth sound ... nnyway I was asking him about promotion tips and after he listened to the EP he was floored. He immediately sent it to his label, Belgian Man Records, and they signed us that very day.

That's very cool!

Emiliano - They're great, its a really tight community. Everyone is always posting tracks that they're working on and people give feedback and stuff. Someone asked a question about compressing 808's the other day and I learned a lot haha ..
they are the coolest guys on the planet, support supportive of everyone within their community and constantly looking to collaborate, remix tracks, or chat about music interests. It feels like a giant family!

Do you believe in UFO's and aliens because I hear of a lot of sightings in Brooklyn ... maybe they are attracted to all the swass graffiti?

Emiliano - I definitely think that we can't be the only life in the universe, though honestly it's probably unlikely that we'll encounter other intelligent life. Distance is so great in the universe that we'd probably be extinct before any other intelligent life reaches us haha ... (I've been watching too much Sci-Fi... my girlfriend is a huge fan)

Spoken like my favorite SETI guy - Seth Shostack ... Maralisa - your thoughts on aliens in Brooklyn?

Maralisa - No comment. You know, my dad tried to get me into aliens, Mars, etc., but I never really found an interest in it. If they were to appear I would be totally okay with that though. Haha I'm just joking!

haha ok ... anything else either of you want to add before we wrap up?

Emiliano - Yeah I'd just wanna add that we're very very excited about continuing to work on music and playin shows, if anyone wants to hit us up, we'd be delighted to play anywhere near the NYC area.

Maralisa - Ditto to that! Bat/Bar Mitzvahs, weddings, you name it

Emiliano - Haha yeah even if it's your grandma's birthday, we're down. Also Maralisa swears that she lost her first tooth at my house when we were littlebut i have no recollection of that, so take it with a grain of salt.

Maralisa - No I totally did! Maybe it wasn't the first tooth, but it was definitely one of the first and it came out while I was eating pasta, which was terrifying.

Emiliano - hahaha what kinda pasta was it? Knowing Camila, probably pesto.

... the crunchy kind apparently.

Emiliano - Haha Camila and I loved pesto when we were little... still do. Actually i think i swallowed my first tooth, it disappeared during the night and i was really upset cause i didn't have anything to leave the tooth fairy.

Sounds painful to have to pass a tooth ... maybe it's still inside.

Well, thanks to both of you for doing this. It's been a lot of fun. Best of luck to you on your musical journey and please let us know when you've got new releases, news, shows, etc.

Emiliano - of course! thank you so much! We're so stoked to be talking to you! Big shoutout to Barrel-dEM!

Maralisa - Thank YOU! It's been a real treat.



https://www.facebook.com/FLWRSmusic
https://www.facebook.com/maralisamusic
https://soundcloud.com/flwrsmaralisa
https://soundcloud.com/maralisamusic

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