Band Interview

1.       How did the name Two Faced Serenade come about?
A –  Ellis: Basically a lot of people are two faced (laughing) Er it was sort of partly random, we hated our first name

Jack: SOS even I remember that. There was Here Are flying then it was Seeing other signs and then it was Two faced Serenade.

Ellis:  Anyway and then I guess a lot of people were two faced and we were playing music (laughing).

·         SO ITS LIKE YOUR SERENADING ALL THE TWO FACED PEOPLE

A – Jack: Yeah you just finished his sentence for him

2.       Where did you all meet?

A - Ellis and Jack met in secondary school and the others were introduced through each other and college.

·         YOU KNOW IN BANDS WHEN YOU GET THE PERSON THAT IS SILENT AND DOESN’T SPEAK VERY MUCH IS THAT YOU?

A - Yeah, pretty much.

Jack: to everyone else yeah

Ellis: Dylan is the silent one

Jack: He looks that way to everyone on the outside, but once you know him he’s a really weird.

3.       Who’s your biggest inspiration collectively as a band or if not your individual inspirations?

A – Ellis: Jesus Christ! That’s a tough one

Ryan: I mean I don’t think as a band we have someone we aspire to be because we are all really different musicians

Ellis: Our bands quite weird

Dylan: I think it’s probably the Red Hot Chilli Peppers

Ellis: I knew you were going to say that

Dylan: Or it’s like Jimi Hendrix or something like that, I like blues as well.

Ellis: I like a bit of K pop (laughing)

Jack: I wouldn’t want really to be the music taste I like, like I wouldn’t want Jazz or something like that to aspire to be something jazzy or progressive or anything like that which is my sort of taste.

Ryan: But you sort of bring elements to that

Jack: Yeah I like to include bits of that, just to make things more exciting and a little bit less mandating

4.       Who is your favourite artist right now?

A – Jack: I’ll go first then, Tasaracked by far at the moment

Ellis: It’s funny because no one is going to know who they are!

Ryan: I know who they are!

Jack: Ryan knows who they are! Tessaracked are SICCK

Ryan: I’d probably say the world alive or cross day because metal core is bae

Ellis: I knew you were going to say something along those lines.

Ryan: Paramore (in a sarcastic voice)

Ellis: No I’ve gone through my Paramore stage; I’m out of it now.

Jack: Like a bit of hasinku Minku now?

Ellis: Who’s that?

Jack: I thought you like k pop

Ellis: It was a joke, um I don’t know, Dylan what about you?
Dylan: I like loads of old stuff and they are all dead. I don’t know I’ve got so many. Gary Clarke Jr is pretty cool. Eric Gales also they are just guitarists really

5.       You’ve played at places like; The 02 Academy Islington, The garage London, Chinnerys Southend, where is your dream venue to play?

A – Ellis: At the moment I’m looking at O2 Brighton or something like that.

Jack: YEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSS! Anywhere is Brighton, I REALLY WANT TO GO TO BRIGHTON

Ryan: I’d probably say Brixton

Dylan: I don’t know where I want to go, um probably the same as Ryan, yeah Brixton would be pretty cool.

Ellis: It’s like to against two here they can go to Brixton and we can go to Brighton

Ryan: A bass player for the entire show

Dylan: What’s the biggest venue in the world?

Jack: Yeah! That. I don’t know like other countries that would be exciting, on the road sort of thing you know different sort of things yeah.

6.       You were also on BBC introducing, how did that feel to hear your selves on the radio?

A – Ellis: It was a bit weird

Dylan: I was playing GTA I think we were in the same call Jack.

Ellis: Um yeah it was pretty cool.

Dylan: It was weird hearing the guy go Two Faced Serenade

Ryan: He did mention this band and the fact we spammed him the hell out

Ellis: But we didn’t spam him at all

Ryan: We did a little bit.

Ellis: I didn’t! And I’m the only one that uses the twitter

Jack: He did say though “yeah they’ve filled up my letter box haven’t they” so, or whatever he said

Ellis: So basically we forced him to play our song

Ryan: We sent him loads of letters, “dear Mr BBC introducing, play us please yours faithfully two face serenade!”

Jack: And we got more aggressive with each letter until it ended up with “play us you ****”

Dylan: Death threats (laughing)

Jack: Ill skin your cat if you don’t play us (laughing)

Ellis: and yeah overall it was pretty cool.

7.       Do you guys find writing songs hard and a long process or do lyrics just come along easy for you? Are your lyrics about things that have happened to you or just ideas?

A – Ryan: Sometimes we really have to work at it and sometimes everything sort of clicks and just falls into place

Ellis: We all have sort of selective roles in song writing I think, we have, if we just jam or something we expect the other person to play because like obviously we know how each other works.

Jack: It’s mainly just like a matter of fun you know? We will write a song and then jam out and find a really god riff that we like and we work on that till a point where we are happy and then it gets to the nitty gritty where its less fun but it’s like we really have to perfect this now because it’s a proper song, it’s on the way.

Ellis: We play it to death until we are sick of it and then it’s alright then.

Ryan: And then we write another song and do it again.

8.       Where do you see your selves in five years’ time?

A – Ellis: Um well Dylan will be playing GTA

Me: To be a character in GTA

Jack: Yeah to be in GTA!

Ellis: Um for my I’m not sure I mean I’m planning to go to Uni and what not but I have no idea

Ryan: Wait what the time right now?

Ellis: What is the…Oh because you’re going to say I’m going to be in bed (sarcastic tone)

Ryan: Completely that

Jack: Hopefully in a pub, I’ll be in the pub with a pint with my mates, I don’t know! I have no idea!

9.       Favourite album of all time?

A – Ellis: That’s really difficult

Jack: I can give you one for right now, but I can’t pick an all-time one

Ryan: I suppose my go to album would be something by Fall Out Boy, just any of their albums

Jack: I though you said stomach by Fall Out Boy

Ellis: Ur I would say sex magic, because that a pretty fine album

Dylan: Or dark side of the moon by pink Floyd

Jack: I, my favourite album for a long, long time was the black album by Metallica

Dylan: But that was when they were amazing

Jack: Yeah!  And now they are just like (weird guitar noises) you know there are like no leads at all.

10.   Do you think growing up in Essex specifically Southend has been hard for an up and coming band like you?

A – Ryan: Yes and no, because if you are open about the music you listen to and like the bands you like you kind of get ridiculed for it as soon as you sort of leave school you meet loads of people that are actually alright.

Jack: Like Chinnerys being just down the road, that’s like everyone loves Chinnerys it seems you know? And you’ve got loads of other places like The Railway and O’Neil’s, from what I hear not that its anything special, but yeah you’ve got lots of starting places and Chins is…I love Chins to bits

Dylan: I do hate it when you say chins

Ryan: You don’t mention it when me and Ellis say chins

Dylan: It’s just his voice, he thinks he’s so cool

11.   Have you got any albums or singles in the process of being released?

A – We just released our second EP and we started writing again today I guess.

Jack: Yeah, literally today, so I guess this is the very start of another one.

12.   Is there any band/artist that you would love to see live? And what band would you love to support?

A – Jack: I wonder what you’re going to say (to Dylan) Red Hot Chilli Peppers (sarcastic tone)

Ellis: No to be honest I would be up for supporting them

Jack: Yeah Chilli Peppers their good I could go all progeny but I’ll say Chilli Peppers because they are good. But can you imagine trying to keep up with that (fast guitar) and then we are there like (slow guitar) “yeah”.

13.   Where has been your favourite venue to play?

A – Ellis: I’ve got to say Islington main stage that was the best we have ever played

Dylan: What was that really bad place?

Ryan: The Railway

Dylan: That’s my favourite (laughing) No I’m the same

Ellis: Islington was insane.

Jack: But then I like Chinnerys because its home turf, and it’s just nice, feels like home

Ryan: Yeah but the floor is really sticky

Jack: and you’ve got a layer of gunge on your foot.

Ryan: If you’ve got wheels, like where I had wheels on my drum case, as soon as you hit that carpet they just slow down, then it’s literally like a massive boulder! It’s horrible.

14.   Favourite gig you’ve been to?

A – Ryan: I’ve been to more of our gigs then I’ve been to any other gigs.

Ellis: I’d say Lincoln Park, Of Mice and Men, that was probably the best gig I’ve been to, that was pretty awesome!

Jack: I’ve been to one that wasn’t our own, it was My Chemical Romance before they split up obviously and yeah and that was actually really good and I think Los Alone and The Black Out supported them.

Ryan: I’d have to say because the only other gig I’ve gotten into properly was Iron Maiden but that was like “ohhh Iron Maiden” “ohhhhhhhh”.

Ellis: Didn’t you go to see August Burns Red? (To Dylan)

Ryan: That was your first gig wasn’t it?
Dylan: Yeah that was something else that was! Nah I saw Jeff Beck at the cliffs pavilion, he’s cool and a guitarist I like so he’s cool.

15.   You hear horror stories of how unsupportive parents and friends can be when you start a band, where people supportive of you or were they a bit unsure?

A – Ellis: Most of my family members ever

Dylan: My dad’s a musician so he’s happy

Ellis: No um noooo (laughs) but here we are

Jack: Everyone for me was like not supportive or unsupportive its juts middle ground

Ryan: I think the only people that have been unsupportive of me is my grandparents but they support me now, like at first they were like “oh what are you going to do in a band, you’re not really going to make anything” and they were just like you know here’s £20 for a ticket, we are not going to go just here’s the money. So I guess that’s their way of being supportive

Jack: And now we have played a main stage the tables have turned ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Ellis: Uproar. Like sitting on their porch deck with bulletin signs.

16.   What made you want to start a band?

A – Jack: Love music

Ryan: Kills time

Ellis: The first thing you sort of, well for us when you first learn an instrument the first thing you think I want to do this with other people

Jack: Yeah sitting in your room playing guitar is great but, obviously when you’ve got a drummer and in my case guitarists to play along with obviously that’s something else isn’t it.

Ryan: It’s also nice to have a group of people that hate other people as much as  you

Ellis: Yeah we do have a lot of gossip

Jack: Oh yeah yeah, It’s not right if we don’t bitch about someone so. It’s all fun.

17.   Who plays what instrument?

A – Ryan: (points at Dylan), triangle, (points at Jack) Gong

Ryan: Okay, drums

Ellis: Um vocals and guitar

Jack: I play bass in this band so

Ellis: It’s like your bragging

Ryan: Yeah, you said in this band

Jack: Yeah because I do play some other instruments but I won’t mention them.

Dylan: I play guitar and sing sometimes

Ryan: If you feel like it

Jack: I sing when my voice isn’t dying so.

18.   What’s your favourite song that you’ve made so far? Or one that you have regretted making if there is one?

A – Jack: Regretted making! I know what

Dylan: Outcast

Ellis: You can’t regret the first song you write, as a starting point

Ryan: It was a bit naff, it was generic it was pop punk mixed with like pose hard-core.

Dylan: It wasn’t even that it was just

Jack: S**t

Ellis: No

Jack: Oh you loved it

Ellis: No it wasn’t even that it’s just you are a band that has never played before and that is your first song

Ellis: Anyway well the best song we have written musically is run away or

Jack: Yeah just the end of runaway gets me every single time, its soooo good

Dylan: No my favourite is, it’s got to be.

Jack: Parachute (sarcastic tone) laughs, no that’s actually alright

Dylan: Yeah it is, but what’s that one that has your favourite one on it (points at Ellis) oh um two weeks to love me

Jack: One that I regret is everyone say it’s okay

Ryan: I like that

Jack: I don’t

Ryan: I think it’s alright. There isn’t like one I completely regret.

19.   Favourite thing about playing live?

A – Jack: The energy and the feedback.

Ryan: Not the feedback

Ellis: The feedback from the crowd

Jack: Yeah that’s yeah what I meant

Ellis: Um I think it’s just that moment when we are playing live and we all just look at each other, it only happens I think once or twice

Ryan: It’s when you realise you’ve all clicked together, and you sort of do something you wouldn’t usually do and then you like look at each other and you’ve got a little grin on your face, or when I give you that dirty smile

Jack: Yeah and your just like orghhhhhhhhhh, check that out! Yeah and it’s just yeah everything is better.

Okay that is everything thank you for letting me interview you awkwardly.

Band: That’s all right

Jack: Speaking of awkwardness, who looked at the camera because I did that quite a lot

Ellis: I was staring at the camera to be honest, I was like (pulls face).