For the Italian opera conductor, see Tullio Serafin.

For other meanings of Serafin, see Seraph (disambiguation).

Serafin
Serafin playing live in 2005. Courtesy of Sam Brett. Rights reserved.
Years active	September 2000 - present
Genres	Noise Rock Alternative rock
Labels	Taste Media
Members	Ben Fox Smith - Vocals & Guitar Christian Smith - Drums Darryn Harkness - Guitar, Keys & Vocals Ben Ellis - Bass & Vocals
Past members	Ronny Growler (until 2004) Mike Clark (until 2002) Stuart Quinnel Richie Mills Johnny Borrell
Website(s)	Official Website

Serafin is a rock band from London who formed and began playing in September 2000. Often compared to almost anything in the rock industry, Serafin's sound is sometimes compared to bands like Pixies, Nirvana, The Smashing Pumpkins, Placebo, Radiohead, Blur and Jacob's Mouse.

Contents 1 Band History 2 Releases 3 Appearances 4 External links

Band History

The original band lineup didn't play live but the two members who have stayed throughout are Ben Fox Smith, and Darryn Harkness. The band itself was formed after the demise of Stony Sleep (who were awarded single of the week by Ozzy Osbourne) when Ben met Darryn at a Eurovision Song Contest party in Highbury, London. Darryn played on some John Peel Sessions before forming Serafin. They added Johnny Borrell (bass) and then Stuart Quinnell with Richie Mills (drums) from Cable. These line-ups were short lived (a few months) and their first gig had Ronny Growler on drums and Mike Clark on bass.

Stuart Quinnell appears to be the bass tech for Frankie Poullain from The Darkness and plays in the road crew band Onion Trump

Mike Clark left to go back to Canada in 2002 and is now working on Ben Smith's acoustic-electronic solo project Young Sawbones. He was replaced by Ben Ellis who had been playing for Catherine Wheel who had decided to call it a day. It was this line-up that was to storm the world with their debut album 'No Push Collide'.

On the 26 August 2004 Serafin posted this note on their website: "We have replaced our drummer Ronny Growler with a guy called Lonely Blue boy. We love Ronny who is a fantastic drummer in his own right, but have had to realise our musical differences and preferences which, while considering the chemistry of the band and its future, became too great to continue with." Not too soon later did they announce that they had returned to the studio for their second album.

The new drummer was Ben's brother Christian Smith who had left Razorlight in March 2004.

Famous fans include Simon Pegg of Spaced and Craig Nicholls of The Vines

Releases

Although the band has been around for a few years only one full album has been released, No Push Collide (2003) on Taste Media with minimal promotion. It was produced by Dave Sardy in Los Angeles.

Two singles were released before the album: Things Fall Apart and Day by Day

Serafin have released two Extended 4 track EPs also on Taste Media before No Push Collide. The first was in April 2002, the second in August 2002

Taste Media was bought by Warner Music Group in 2004 which forced the band into legal limbo with no way to get out of their contract and no funding to promote To The Teeth. The management was fired and all four members spent more time on side projects New Telepathics, French Car And The Bulimic Wizards, Young Sawbones and Triggerbox.

At the start of May 2005 Ben began releasing acoustic mp3s on their site culminating in 21 ideas for songs free for download. The recording quality varies due to the nature of four-track recordings. They now have rough mixes of non-acoustic tracks on their Myspace page.

The Second album, 'To The Teeth', has now been mixed and is awaiting mastering at the infamous Abbey Road, it is expected to be around 15 tracks.

Songs expected are: I Love the News, Keypourdiem (Quipourdiem), Scars and Bloody Lies, To the Teeth (previously 'Drug Dog Handler'), Lost and Found, Phobos, Trudy (AKA 'to the lady' and 'to the cat'), Anaconda, Religion is good for you, To the Arms, Isling Town, Deimos, There Lies the Question, You Against the World, To The Bones.

Appearances

They sold the most records in France on Naive Records, 24000 or so. They have toured extensively playing the Reading and Leeds Festivals twice, once on the Carling Stage (2002) and once on the Radio 1 stage (2003). Played many festivals in other European countries and supported Frank Black, Muse and Feeder. The Feeder support at the Brixton Academy in April 2003 was noted for ill treatment of Feeder and their fans, and were told the following night to play their support set and leave the venue. Earlier in the tour, one of the band's members threw a glass bottle intending to hurt the crowd, but instead it luckilly smashed on the barrier.

Serafin's Day By Day appeared on the Madden NFL 2004 video game.

One of the most notable things about the band, which is evident in one song, is that the founding members Darryn and Ben Smith are vegan.

External links

• Official Homepage
• Serafin's Myspace page
• DrownedInSound (Interview, News)
• Live Photos