Fancy something loud as hell? Well that’s what today’s BotD, Dark Serenity, promise…
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
Dexter, Michigan, a small city just outside of Ann Arbor.
How did you meet?
We all went to the same high school together.
How long have you been playing as a band?
Just over two years, we began April 28th 2017.
Before you get sick of being asked… where does the band name come from?
“The driving force for life is death”. This idea is what we based our name as well as a few of our songs around. You can find serenity in dark, in this case a purpose in the one inevitable truth: all life comes to an end, so you must live life fearlessly.
What are your influences?
Zach (Bass) is largely influenced by Rush, Black Sabbath, Bach, Geddy Lee, Geezer Butler, and Billy Sheehan.
Kate (Guitar, Vocals) is influenced by Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath, Rush, Fleetwood Mac, Ronnie James Dio, and Ritchie Blackmore.
Mike (drums) is influenced by Dave Grohl, Taylor Hawkins, John Bonham, Mitch Mitchell, Keith moon, and Buddy Rich.
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
Our music is head banging, driven, and loud as hell. Our sound is unique in the sense that as a three piece, every instrument shines, and we all stand out playing lead parts. Our bassline is strong, and breaks out of the ‘four on the floor’ pattern that a lot of rock music falls into, largely due to Zach’s melodic and experimental bass parts as well as Mike’s triplet-centric bass drum patterns. Kate’s guitar riffs can go from melodic and cinematic to heavier, more headbanging hooks. Her vocals are fierce, fervent and soaring. Because the band’s mix is heavy in mids and lows during vocal parts and heavy in higher treble tones during their lyricless parts, neither the vocals or guitar parts cancel each other out; instead they stand out individually.
Do you have any particular lyrical themes?
Our lyrical themes are generally different for most of our songs, however, if we were to draw any similarities between some of them, they would be similar in theme to the concept of our band name. Life and death are interesting and virtually limitless themes to write about. For example, what are you living for, what motivates you to persevere, etc.
What’s your live show like? How many shows have you played?
Loud as hell, and energetic. We give a true rock show, we play our instruments behind our heads and join the crowd. Mike, our drummer, is especially known for hitting his drums as hard as humanly possible for every single hit. For this reason he’s called the animal pretty frequently. One of the comments we hear a lot is that people can tell just how passionate we are about what we do and what we stand for.
We’ve played approximately 50 shows, but have lost total count.
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
Our gear used too much power and killed the lights at the venue. We had to finish our set in the dark.
What kit do you use / guitars do you play / etc.?
Ludwig centennial “Queen Anne’s Revenge”
Fender basses and a Rickenbacker bass called “Hades”, run through an Ampeg SVT100.
Gibson Sg named “Persephone” and a Laney IRT60.
What are your plans for 2019?
Tour our asses off and “dominate the states”. Upon returning from our tour we will immediately be preparing for what 2020 has in store.
If you were second on a three-band bill, which band would you love to be supporting and which band would you choose to open for you? A chance to plug someone you’ve toured with, or a mate’s band we’ve not heard of before!
Opener: Dube From Canada
Closer: Rival Sons
Dark Serenity: official | facebook | twitter | instagram | soundcloud | youtube | spotify
