Please list all of your band members and their roles in the band.

Tim Vecci - Vocalist
Jeremy Huhn - Drummer
Rich Villa - Bass
Kenny Byles - Guitarist
Criss Madd - Guitarist

For starters, what bands were you guys a part of prior to Serious Matters? How long has the band been around?

Jeremy was part of a band called Zorigami for awhile. Criss was part of Burned at Both Ends and The Bombshell Renegades between 2012 and 2015. Kenny had been a member of Burned at Both Ends in 2014 to 2015. Rich is in a band called No Below. Tim has a solo project that he write songs for time to time. 

What’s the origin of that name and have you changed the band’s name before?

The origin of our band name was brought up through text. One day Criss and Kenny were talking about forming the band and getting a line up while looking for a name to go by and Kenny mentioned that we should start working on “ more serious matters”. Criss repeated, "Serious Matters" and how he wanted to use that as our name. It grew on us and stuck. We didn't have any other band names before that.

Who writes your songs? What are the main themes or topics for most of your songs and do you think these topics will change over time?

Kenny, Tim, or Criss will come to practice with a riff or idea and then we’ll jam out the bones of the song. Once that’s all written out we’ll record the song and send it to Tim. He likes to take each song one at a time. The lyrics tend to go through multiple drafts before they’re just right. The song topics are very influenced by dreams, and spiritual aspects of life. There are a couple songs that are about being abandoned and kind of coping with reality. Vacant is a lot more deliberate, and is about being short tempered with somebody and exposing cowardliness. The topics depend on what Tim is feeling or going through at the time, but most of the topics are based on perspective rather than a specific person. 

What bands are currently inspiring the music that you’re making?

Tim has been listening to a lot of Citizen, Defeater, Explosions in the sky, mewithoutyou, From Indian Lakes, Saosin, and Underoath. Criss has really been inspired by Minus the Bear, Dance Gavin Dance and The Fall of Troy. He likes swaying back and forth from holding a rhythm to creating melodic lines. It’s a combination of techniques that developed into his own type of playing. Rich takes a lot of his inspiration as a bass player from people like Krist Novoselic of Nirvana and Cliff Burton of Metallica, people who took their skill seriously and really made a mark on the sound of their music. Jeremy’s drumming is a mixture of a lot of the bands he listens to, but with his own twist on it. He really got into some metal bands when he was younger that inspired him as a drummer such as Lamb of God, Atreyu, and Avenged Sevenfold. In addition to that he gets inspiration from other bands like The Used, Alien Ant Farm, Rx Bandits, Brand New, Queens of the Stone Age, Periphery, and Cloudkicker. Kenny listens to a lot of Thrice, Sorority Noise, Coheed and Cambria, Have Mercy and even Bayside.

Was there a particular band/artist or concert that inspired you to start a band?

We each have our own specific experiences, so instead of paraphrasing them, I’ll let everyone speak for themselves! 

Tim: “ At a young age, my dad introduced music to all my siblings and I. My dad raised us on stuff like the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Bad Company. We also got a lot of Motown though too, The Temptations, Marvin Gaye, The Four Tops, Dion and the Belmonts. We got a lot of variation. My dad is a musician, he was in bands growing up, he showed me music at an early age. My older brothers were in bands growing up as well. They introduced me to punk rock. Bands like Greenday, Blink 182, Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Radiohead, Deftones, Glassjaw, Thursday, Taking Back Sunday. A lot of the bands from the 90s and early 2000s.I grew up with a ton of music in my life. I had both worlds growing up, my father instilled that love of music into all of us. My older brother was in a band called Twilight City Fracture, they were awesome and had a huge influence on me growing up”

Rich: “ I could say The Front Bottoms pushed me into starting something originally. The way that the music, the words, the stories, the style, was theirs and no one else's. It couldn't be, because if anybody else tried, it just wouldn't sound right. That’s the way I wanted to feel whenever I was part of a band. Mix that with August and Everything After by Counting Crows, many, many listens to Separation Sunday by The Hold Steady, and my time spent with this Irish girl from highschool that Almost Killed Me. The experience, not the girl.”

Jeremy: “I would say Lamb of God really made me want to start a metal band. But one of my first real concerts I've ever been to was Warped Tour and that really made me want to tour with a serious band, play concerts and festivals like that, and just have fun along the way.”

Kenny: “It all started with my father. He would listen to a lot of Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, Black Sabbath, Heart, and a bunch of other classic rock bands. It was passed down from my father to my oldest brother who then added by listening to Alkaline Trio, Blink-182, Thrice, Coheed and Cambria, Bayside, and a lot of punk/progressive bands. When I was around the age of eleven I was selling merch for my brothers band ‘Throw The Heat’ and I just loved being around the music scene and traveling. Seeing my brother play and watching everyone sing a long to the songs was something that I’ve wanted since then. You can blame my oldest brother for my current position”

Criss: “ I was always in bands since middle school, but I didn’t get inspired to be in a band until almost finishing out High School. I had went to The Gramercy with a few of my friends to see Watsky play on his first tour ever and the performance he put on was electric. He had a full band with him, everything was perfect and the crowd ATE up his performance. It was beautiful. From that moment on, I wanted that.”

What do you do to prepare for a show? Any flexing, exercises, ect …

We're all about drinking water. We will drink room temperature bottles the day of shows. We also stretch out to make sure we stay limber. Kenny and Criss do finger stretches to get the blood flowing and everyone will do basic warm ups. Tim will usually have some tea to relax his voice. We all try to get in our zone before we perform.

What has been the biggest highlight of the band’s career so far?

The biggest highlight the band had so far was playing to more than seventy people at the Stone Pony in New Jersey. It's a real awesome venue with tons of history and mojo in it. It could not have gone better. We had such a ripper of a set. Playing the Pony to that big of a crowd as our first show was just mind blowing.

If you could tour with any bands, past or present, who would they be and why?

This answer would be drastically different depending on who you ask. Kenny would love to tour with Coheed and Cambria or Thrice being that’s his reason he started writing music. Criss would love to tour with Uh Huh Baby Yeah because after he saw them rock a warped tour stage I knew I wanted to be in a band with energy and talent like that. A bill with both of us on it would be a killer tour. Tim would love to tour with Citizen or even Deftones being those inspire him. Rich would want to tour with Coheed and Cambria if only just to see that flyer. To have Serious Matters alongside his favorite band, that’s the dream. That would be a very treasured milestone. Jeremy wants to tour with The Used and Circa Survive, mostly because they're both great bands that made it big.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

Right now we have a demo CD out that we give away for free at shows and we have those songs streaming on Bandcamp at seriousmatters.bandcamp.com. We’re going to be recording a full EP for the early Autumn so you should definitely keep up with us via social media. You can follow us on Twitter @SMBand. Like us on Facebook @https://facebook.com/SeriousMattersNJ/ .

We also have a bunch of shows coming up shows for the summer:
May 13th- East Brunswick, NJ | The Purple Tea Room
May 15th- Union Beach, NJ | The Union Vault
May 22nd- Long Branch, NJ | The Brighton Bar
May 29th- Prospect Park, NJ | BASEMENT SHOW
June 5th- Long Branch, NJ | The Brighton Bar
June 8th- Montclair, NJ | The Meatlocker
June 24th- Cape May, NJ | Chalk Zone
June 26th- Norfolk, VA | Sushi Fest
July 12th- Nyack, NY | Nyack Village Theatre
July 31st- Columbus, OH | Tatoheads