Last Second Chance: ‘I’m just there behind the microphone, giving it my all, really trying to get the best out of every line’

LA hard rock band Last Second Chance have released their second single, a remarkable, heavier cover of The Police classic ‘Roxanne’ featuring Avenged Sevenfold drummer Mike Portnoy on drums.

The band comprises singer Alessandro “AxiA” Serradimigni, who moved to LA in 2015, and guitarist Manuel Giusti: ‘I think it was fate that brought us together,’ Serradimigni said. ‘I wanted to move to LA. Manuel was already living in LA and the very funny story is that although we are from the same city in Italy – Modena, near Bologna – we met here for the first time, even though we had so many mutual friends in Italy (laughs). Modena is not a very big city, especially if you’re into rock music, so it’s pretty funny that we somehow never ran into each other in Modena but then started doing music together here!’

Of their band name, he says: ‘We came up with the same Last Second Chance because it really is what this music project is, now we are in our 30’s, we are aware there might not be many other chances to make original music if we don’t do it this time around!’

Covering ‘Roxanne’, or any song that well known, is always a brave move but they’ve done a spectacular job, creating a harder and edgier version, thanks to Serradimigni’s powerful vocals kicking down the door and demanding your attention from the first note. You’re hooked from the first mention of ‘Roxanne’ as Giusti’s clipped, vintage guitar tone demonstrates what a powerhouse version they’ve unleashed: ‘Some people love it, some people hate it because it’s different,’ Serradimigni admitted. ‘The idea was to give it a new spin in terms of how it would sound if it was made by a hard rock band. That was the key and because we had the great privilege to have Mike, we decided to spend a little bit of money and take him and all this music and record it at the Foo Fighters’ Studio 606, which has a lot of analog gear. We’ve used all the vintage analog gear to record our music in the old school way.’

‘We decided to elaborate on our version that already existed that’s changed a bit live, night after night, to get to that shape and form’

Did he always know that they would dial ‘Roxanne’ up so much? ‘Actually, me and Manuel play it acoustically sometimes, I used to sing it like that with just an acoustic guitar. He had his guitar parts that were really similar to the ones that are on the record. And because we saw that the live audience always really connected with how we played the song, we decided to elaborate on our version that already existed that’s changed a bit live, night after night, to get to that shape and form.’

They met Portnoy in the most serendipitous of ways, showing just why you should reach out to your heroes sometimes. Both Serradimigni and Giusti are on the TV show ‘On Cinema’, an American comedy web series and podcast starring Tim Heidecker and Gregg Turkington as amateur film critics. ‘It’s a very fun story,’ Serradimigni said laughing. ‘Heidecker is from ‘Tim and Eric’, which used to be a very famous TV show, I think, in the U.K. as well. We’ve been part of this comedy show for years where we play a goofy version of ourselves as two Italian rock musicians in America. In the show, because of the parody, we try to make it extra fun and don’t try to really show off our music skills. For a long time, that was our only musical gig because both me and Manuel are very busy with our own separate careers.’

Over the years, they noticed that Mike Portnoy was following them on Instagram, probably because he was a fan of the show: ‘So we decided to do a wild reach out, we just cold DM-ed him on Instagram (laughs). He was excited at first, I think, because he was getting to be a part a little bit of that comedy music world. When he heard the songs, he said: “I actually love it, I’m down to come and record with you guys.” And that’s the story, really!’ I tell him what a brilliant story it is and he gets very animated: ‘A great friendship has blossomed between us because he’s such a great guy, a bear.’ I say that he always comes across as a genuinely lovely guy and he says that he is: ‘That was the most shocking part. I remember when he came out of the airport, we thought: “We cannot believe that Mike Portnoy is going to show up to do our record, this is insane”, because we’re not famous. If it wasn’t for that show where we make fun of ourselves, it wouldn’t have happened, but we also wanted to show that beside our comedy stuff, there’s also a real substance to what we do.’

‘A lot of people always tell me: “Your voice is a little too rock, a little too rough, a little too distorted”‘

Singing is something that has always come naturally to him: ‘I’ve been singing all my life, sometimes in the shower, sometimes on stage,’ he said. ‘In my family, they’re all musicians – my dad is a bass player, my sister sings and my aunt plays the violin, so I was into music very early on. We all have seen each other playing for a long time and we all got inspired by each other.’ However, it is only now that he is learning to accept his fantastic vocals for what they are: ‘I’m starting to embrace that,’ he said. ‘A lot of people always tell me: “Your voice is a little too rock, a little too rough, a little too distorted”. The funny thing is, the moment I just accepted it for what it is, people actually are liking it (laughs). When I was trying to force myself to sing more cleanly or more like other people, that’s when I wasn’t as successful. Now, I’m just there behind the microphone, giving it my all, really trying to get the best out of every line and not leave any line weaker than the previous one, trying to get that intensity up.’

Their debut single ‘Send Me A Sign’, which they released in April, is a compelling debut, with a huge, soaring chorus, strings and driving guitars: ‘I think it’s the song that really got Mike interested in the project, he made it clear that he really liked that one,’ he said. ‘We didn’t know which song to pick out of all our originals for our debut. For me, that song is a nice sweet spot, it mixes different elements. The verse is a bit R&B, I think that’s the Michael Jackson influence! I think the song says a lot about my influences, like Queen, with the big vocals on the chorus and the bridge. It’s testament to the kind of choruses that I like to sing.’

However, the track turns out to have a heartbreaking backstory: ‘It’s a song I wrote in memory of a dear friend of mine who died in a motorcycle accident,’ he said emotionally. ‘The lyrics talk about what I was going through at the time. Writing the song helped me get some of my feelings out about that experience. I’ve seen comments about it sometimes, maybe that is why the rawness of the song works. Actually, I wrote it with a good friend of mine, Lars – some of the colours of the song definitely come from him.’

‘My sister had the Bon Jovi greatest hits album ‘Cross Road’ (1994) and I remember listening to that every day, at least once or twice!’

Serradimigni’s musical upbringing got off to an boisterous start, thanks to his dad and sister: ‘Growing up, my dad was a big fan of the band Chicago, so I grew up listening to their three first three albums. My sister had the Bon Jovi greatest hits album ‘Cross Road’ (1994) and I remember listening to that every day, at least once or twice! The whole thing (laughs). I also had a bit of a Michael Jackson phase and I listened to a lot of Queen and other classic rock. Even when I was a kid in the early 2000’s, rock was already on its way out. I was always digging into the older records because I liked them more than the current stuff – I think I’ve always been drawn to music from 20 years ago!’

Of songwriting ideas he says: ‘When they come, they come. Sometimes they come, sometimes they don’t (laughs). Sometimes the magic clicks, sometimes it doesn’t. I find that I’m usually more inspired when I’m writing with someone who’s right there with me and exploring ideas. Maybe because of the synergy between two people, I seem to be able to write better things together than when I’m on my own. It’s the power of collaboration, it’s a way that keeps it fresh. Also, it keeps you from not giving up if you’ve been stalling for 30 minutes!’

Next up will be their single ‘Words In Vain’: ‘It’s quite different from what ‘Send Me A Sign’ sounds like,’ he said. ‘It sounds like it’s from the 70’s or 80’s. It’s a song about ending a relationship – emptying the bag, let’s say, of certain things that maybe you didn’t like about it. I’d describe it as classic rock. Some people have said it’s the best song we have but I don’t know, I have no idea!’ Serradimigni will do the cinematography for this video as he did for their previous videos: ‘That’s also my day job,’ he said. ‘When I realised that in order to sing for a living in LA, I had to do weddings or a bunch of those things, I decided to have a radical change of career and I dedicated myself to cinematography, something I never tried in Italy. I started from nothing in America. Now, I work full-time as a cinematographer and I’m trying to bring back the singing into my life because I halted it for years because I needed to find a sustainable way to live. I didn’t want to be a wedding singer because I didn’t like it (laughs) and in Italy, I was a realtor. Yes, really!’

As someone who used to live just outside LA, I tell him what a strange place it can seem initially and he agrees: ‘It’s so different to Italy, I really miss the food and the social life that people have there,’ he said. ‘The fact that you can meet people all the time. I come from such a small place, I used to go out on a bicycle to my local bar and hang out with my friends. I don’t have that now. I think one day I’ll go back to Italy. I mean, I go back once a year now. I have to for my mental health!’

‘I would feel very much like an imposter in that conversation but I would love to be there’

If he could go out drinking with any musician, dead or alive, for a night, he can’t decide between Paul McCartney, John Lennon and Freddie Mercury: ‘I would ask them: “How did you write those songs?” I would feel very much like an imposter in that conversation (laughs) but I would love to be there. Actually, Mike Portnoy told me a lot of good Paul McCartney stories. They’ve chatted a few times and Mike is a huge lover of music. And, of course, like every lover of music, you cannot not adore Paul. It’s funny because you see a rock star like Mike talking about those stories as the big fan!’ I say that I’ve heard from Liverpudlians that people there on the street go mad when they see McCartney is home and that he has reportedly, against all the odds, managed to stay down to earth, despite his stratospheric level of fame: ‘I wouldn’t be surprised if he has special skills like that,’ he said. ‘I’m not surprised because it takes a special person to write such special things.’

(Group photo from left to right: Manuel, AxiA and Mike.)