Songs to Nowhere: An Interview with SeRvo

Os SerVo estrearam-se em Portugal no inicio deste verão. Esta estreia foi proporcionada por uma excelente parceria entre o Sabotage Club e a Fuzz Club que traria várias bandas portuguesas e também internacionais ao palco do Cais do Sodré em duas noites. Uma sucessão de desaires e coisas menos boas levou a que o festival se viesse a resumir a uma noite onde actuaram os SerVo, Pretty Lightning e os portugueses 10 000 Russos. Apesar de tudo foi uma noite fantástica e a estreia dos SerVo não deixou nada ao acaso nem o crédito por mãos alheias, desde as luzes preparadas pela banda à projecção que se via quer no fundo do palco, quer outra mais pequena projectada apenas no amplificador de um dos músicos. A sua sonoridade que se pode situar nos meandros da nova vaga de post punk atinge o seu máximo potencial ao vivo, e se por agora, foi difícil encontrar alguma matéria sobre a banda, é seguro dizer que muito provavelmente daqui a um ano não será bem assim. O próximo disco já está perto de ser editado e a expectativa é alta.

Songs to Nowhere – How did you got acquainted and began to play?

SerVo - Louis (bass) and Arthur (guitar) know each other since they’re born. They began to play music together in high school. Hugo (drums) joined the band a bit later.

STN – What does it mean SeRvo?

SerVo - It is the name of a song from the BJM. I think, at the beginning, we just liked the way the word sounds. It’s quite difficult to find an adequate band name and we thought this one was not completely bad.

STN – How would you describe the music you do?

SerVo - It's hard to tell. We sometimes say “psych / cold”, but it doesn't really mean anything. Some people call us “postpunk” or “shoegaze”. The thing is that we use a lot of reverb, delay and fuzz but still try to avoid the “psych” stereotypes.We like to describe it as ambient, mechanical and violent.

STN – Could you disclose us a bit about your song Love#2 or anyother you would like to talk about?

SerVo - It's all about love and being ready to love.

STN – Where did you all learn to play? Did you have lessons or anything like that?

SerVo - We mostly learned by ourselves. Our drummer used to learn the clarinet when he was a child, but it is not something that's really usefull for the band.

STN – Can you tell us how was your first rehearsal?

SerVo - We don't really remember the first rehearsal, but we're almost sure it sounded awfull.

STN – How was it your first tour?

SerVo - For our first tour, we were with another band called Greyfell, we went to the east of France and Switzerland. It was mostly in squats and self-managed venues. It was cold and there were as many dogs as people during the shows, but we had fun.

STN – How the local music scene for you? Are there venues that were anyway crucial for you?

SerVo - We live in Rouen, which is not a very big city, there is not many venues but we've been supported by Le 106, a local venue where we can rehearse too, and the people who work there are really helping all the local bands. The other venue is Le 3 Pièces, which is a bar with a small scene in the cellar. We have to confess we spend a lot of time there. But there is actually a lot of bands in Rouen, and the scene starts to be really interesting. We created a collective with some friends that is called SOZA. It is meant to gather bands we like in Rouen.

STN – Which bands most influenced you?

SerVo – To name a few ones : - Black lips, A Place to Bury Strangers, Metz, Holograms, Dead Skeleton, Scrap Dealers and especially the opening song of Pokemon ..

STN – Could do us a short resume for dummies of French musical scene?

SerVo - There is a lot of bands, and some of them are actually really good. One of our favorite french band is Korto, you definitely should listen to their album.