Edgefest Interview:

Serial Joe

Serial Joe may be young, but they play dark, hard, moody alterna-rock with style and passion far beyond their years. Their new album, ).Face Down)., is a major step forward from last year's debut, Kicked. We spoke with all four members - singer Ryan Dennis, bassist Jon Davidson, guitarist "Stever" (Ryan Stever) and drummer Dan Stadnicki - over dinner recently. One word of advice: Don't judge before you listen (that's where the word "prejudice" comes from).

NEW VIDEO, NEW LABEL

The "Mistake" video was added to MuchMusic in heavy rotation as soon as it was released.

Ryan: That's cool! We're really excited about that. We did the shoot in Toronto, around Queen Street, and then at [video production company] Black Walk. Pretty much all around Toronto. Took two days, it was a long shoot but it was really fun.

Jon: We worked really hard.

Stever: We worked really hard, 'cause we only had a couple of days to do it, but we're happy with how it turned out.

Ryan: I can't think of a band like us right now. We're the first young band, really, that's not just pop. We play some really heavy songs, alternative and stuff like that. I think we have a good balance.

"Mistake" sounds like a relationship that didn't work out - maybe because there's a third person in the picture.

Ryan: Yeah, that's kind of what the video's like, too. The video intertwines with a lot of the lyrics in the song.

Most bands start out just for fun. It seems like you guys are getting more serious about what you're doing now.

Ryan: Yeah, we're taking it a lot more seriously. We're starting to learn how the business works. I don't think anybody can fully understand it, but we're starting to get more of a grip on it, learning how everything works.

Singing with Aquarius is old news now, but-

Ryan: -It's still big news to us!

Nobody's really asked you much about that yet. How did that happen? You guys seem pretty determined to remain independent.

Ryan: Terry Flood had come to our shows when we were just starting out, a year-and-a-half ago. He saw something, some promise in us. He stuck around, and we kept in contact with him. He got involved, and Aquarius came out to see us a couple of times, and it kind of led into this. But one of the main reasons we looked at Aquarius was because they're not a huge label, so we're on their priority list. They're actually looking at us and saying, "Let's work really hard on these guys." That's what we like about them: They still have that independent feel. It's not like they're a big corporate thing and we're just a number. We know them and we've hung out with them.

Is there any pre-EdgeFest touring going on?

Ryan: We're focusing heavily on EdgeFest. But we're doing a ton of dates opening for Edwin on the way back from EdgeFest. Gonna be a looong July. And a good one.

Stever: But we're going out to Vancouver first, and we're playing an opening slot for an Edwin show. We have a lot of good shows now, so we're rehearsing a lot and trying to get everything down pat.