SERAFIN - BEN ELLIS & RONNY GROWLER Interview by Mark Bayross

“We’ll be throwing beer into the audience at Reading and Leeds…make sure you get that down…!” Ben Ellis, affable bass player with up-and-coming rock band Serafin, is sitting in a Camden (London) pub, an hour or so before the band are due to go onstage for the second in three consecutive Wednesdays of XFM-sponsored shows at the Barfly, London. Despite his reputation for alcohol-fuelled hell-raising, the Scot is remarkably easy-going company tonight, even though it’s his birthday (I asked - he got a BMX). With a debut album to promote - the Dave Sardy-produced NO PUSH COLLIDE - and regular slots on MTV2 and Kerrang! TV, this mini-residency at the Barfly has come at an opportune time. “There’s so little British music making an impact, but we’re doing something quite original, and quite full-on”, says Ellis on the endorsement the band are enjoying from the likes of XFM. “These shows are to celebrate the release of the album, and the single [DAY BY DAY]. The whole idea is that we want people to come along to here every night and have a kind of party vibe”. Given that the band may be on the brink of rock stardom, he remains remarkably down to earth. Only last week, he and his girlfriend took pity on two fans who had blown their travel money and couldn’t get home by taking them back to theirs to kip on the sofa. “We just went to bed…I think they were a bit disappointed”. But these must be interesting times, with the likes of Kerrang! happily devoting column inches to them, but Ellis doesn’t feel under any pressure: “We just carry on as normal; journalists tend to write whatever they feel like anyway, so it really doesn’t bother us”. Pressure certainly doesn’t seem to be something that the superbly named Ronny Growler, Serafin’s shambolic Kiwi drummer, feels. He ambles into the pub, seemingly half cut, although I suspect he fulfils the band’s resident joker role with satisfaction. He grins behind a mop of black hair, as the discussion takes a decidedly surreal tone: “All our fans are all freaks”, he drawls, “FREAKS!”. Signed to Taste Media in the UK and Elektra in the States following a hard fought bidding war, the band are enjoying the benefits of having some major record company clout behind them, recording NO PUSH COLLIDE in LA with the legendary Dave Sardy. “We thought one day he’d be able to produce our second album”, says Ben, “He ended up producing our first”. Continued on page 2

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