Interview with Serenades: ‘We want to improve, we want each release to be better than the previous one’

Southampton-based rock band Serenades have just brought out their debut single ‘First To Say’, giving us an idea as to the energetic, rifftastic crowd pleaser this exciting new band is capable of delivering.

The band comprises Keelan Hills (vocals), Kai Croissant (drums), his cousin Callum Reilly (bass) and Adam Cooper (lead guitar). Hills and Croissant are long-term friends and Hills and Cooper played in a former band together.

‘First To Say’ is the kind of song that grabs you from the off, with its pounding bass line, drums and fuzzed up lead guitar that reminds me of The Libertines. It’s a classic ‘boy in search of girl’ love song and centres around a night out that Hills had: ‘I always go through some kind of experience,’ he joked. ‘I was out the night before with my mate’s sister and we got chatting – I got some inspiration. It’s our closer at the moment.’ Croissant nods: ‘It’s a feel good tune,’ he said.

As the track kicks off: ‘I’ll be the first to say I’ve not stopped searching your name since I heard that you like my music, all I’m asking for is a chance to see if there is a certain romance around us’.

They’re now mulling which songs to release next: ‘We’ve got a lot of songs,’ Hills said. ‘We want to improve, we want each release to be better than the previous one.’ Croissant interjects: ‘We don’t want to put a time frame on singles, although we’d like another one before the end of the year.’

One likely contender is ‘Figure It Out’, which was written by Hills and Cooper: ‘We needed another song for a gig,’ Croissant said. ‘In the studio, when we want to write something, it never happens. Me and Adam left the room for half an hour and came back with the tune.’ Cooper joins in: ‘Yeah, we didn’t even talk to each other, did we?’

‘The song’s about someone being like home and not being there’

On YouTube, they have a video of them singing an acoustic track of theirs, ‘Take Me Home’, an altogether more mellow number that shows a different side to the band. ‘We wrote that first, I wrote it,’ Cooper said. ‘It’s a bit of a soppy story (laughs). My girlfriend was away in Portugal, the song’s about someone being like home and not being there with you.’ Croissant looks surprised: ‘We didn’t know that!’

As a band, they have very similar musical influences, according to Hills. Reilly is a big fan of English indie rock group Viola Beach, Cooper likes Oxford-based rock group Foals. Croissant is a big fan of The K’s, an English indie rock and pop band from Newton-Le-Willows. Hills, for his part, loves Southend-on-Sea, Essex pop band Busted: ‘They got me into playing guitar when I was five,’ he said.

The big challenge is getting exposure outside their home city, according to Croissant: ‘There are a few good venues to play at here but the hard part is getting out of Southampton, if you know what I mean? There are some good bands here, Pioneers (indie rock band) are good.’

Further away from home, the gigs are plentiful and Croissant has just got back from Glasgow’s music festival, TRNSMT, where he saw The Lathums, who he said were incredible. ‘I wasn’t sure what to expect, to be honest, but they were just sooooo good,’ he said. ‘Brooke Combe (a Scottish singer who recently did a brilliant cover of ‘Yes Sir, I Can Boogie’) was in front of me watching The Lathums. She’s really talented.’

‘I love ’em now, they’re all over my playlists’

Hills has got into Kilmarnock, East Ayrshire rock band Biffy Clyro in recent months: ‘I went to Reading Festival, I didn’t go for Biffy but they were brilliant there. I love ’em now, they’re all over my playlists.’ Cooper has become a big fan of London-based rock band Sea Girls and I say that I love them as well. Reilly gives a shout out to Doncaster’s brilliant The Reytons.

If they could hear ‘First To Say’ anywhere, Hills plumps for the BBC’s Match of the Day: ‘I’ve watched it since I was seven, it would be brilliant to hear us when they’re showing the goals of the month, or to be on Soccer AM (a British football-based comedy/talk show on Sky).’

Picking who to tour with causes them all to pause for thought: ‘Oh my god, there are about 15-20 bands I’d love to tour with,’ Croissant said. ‘I met Jack from The Snuts’ mum at TRNSMT. I’ve got a tattoo on my calf of their Matador artwork (a bull’s head) and she saw it and said hello, so should I say them?! It’d be great to tour with The Libertines and Pete Doherty but I’d have a death wish!’ Hills has decided: ‘I would go with The Killers, they’re one of my favourite bands of all time,’ he said. I ask what he thinks of their latest album Pressure Machine? ‘It’s good but not as good as some of the others,’ he said diplomatically. ‘They took it in a bit of a different direction.’ Cooper goes with Arctic Monkeys: ‘They’d be a laugh,’ he said. Reilly has also picked one: ‘This is left field (laughs) but I’ll say The Doors, they’re one of my favourite bands.’

(Photo from left to right: Callum, Kai, Keelan and Adam.)