“Untied” by Serotonen

Hello Friends:

”Untied” by Serotonen is the 22^nd song to be featured on my Blog as part of my mission to provide you with inspiration through songs that have been performed by musicians on Alive with Clive in the past couple of years.

Serotonen’s lead vocalist, Jenna Handler, and pianist, Alex Gold, performed “Untied,” the first song from Serotonen’s debut album, when they appeared on Alive with Clive on February 20, 2009.

This is what you’ll discover about Serotonen from the band’s Bio on their Web site at www.serotonen.com:

What emerges upon listening to the New Jersey based five-piece rock band, Serotonen, is the sheer pleasure of their sound. Combining pop leaning, radio friendly melodies with the resonance and power of great modern rock, the band soars with an effortless sounding strength that is becoming their calling card in the New York music scene. Their new, self-titled debut album, serotonen, is the indisputable evidence of their skill, and should create a wide-open future for the band.

Serotonen comprises Jenna Handler on vocals, Alex Gold on piano and keyboards, Darren Darling on drums, Andrew Reyes on bass guitar, and Rich Wronski on guitar. The band was born out of an encounter in 2006 between Jenna and Alex, when Jenna was interviewing at a modeling agency where Alex worked.

Jenna’s vocal style is a blend of rock and pop, finding the spot where melody and brashness intersect. It’s fitting that Steven Tyler and Christina Aguilera are two of her greatest influences. Alex’s style emerged from a classic rock oriented background, a mixture of the song form of 60’s acts and the wild and free musical principles of artists unafraid of taking musical risks.

The songwriting process for the band is a simple one: Get together and just let it happen. Jenna elaborates, “Alex and I complement each other well. He has incredible musical intuition and an ability to channel unbelievable musical parts, and I’m really good at finding catchy, radio friendly melodies to lay over them. Then we write the lyrics together.”

Indeed, from the first notes of “Untied,” the opening track, it’s clear that this is a band in possession of a gift for songwriting, combining the dark hues of Alex’s piano, with a driving rhythm section and gritty guitar that leads into a hook filled chorus featuring Jenna’s soaring vocals.

With the release of serotonen, the band is now concentrating on developing a live following. Alex says, “Before, it was all about writing and readying to record. Now it’s about putting it out there. We’re ready to promote the album big time.” Jenna adds, “All we want is to spend our lives working on the music.” If the quality of the songs and performances on serotonen are any indication, that possibility is well within this band’s grasp.

The song, “Untied,” depicts one of the main themes of the album – losing one’s illusions about people, seeing them for who they really are and making it clear their acts of deceit will not be tolerated.

With “Untied,” more specifically, albeit indirectly, the song serves as a reminder that if you’ve been senselessly hoping and trusting that a person who has repeatedly let you down in a relationship will live up to your expectations next time around, you may be staying in the relationship to satisfy a desire to be liked, take comfort from what is familiar, or feel a sense of belonging. The song inspires you to have the courage and sense of self worth to break loose from the relationship to find another that is more fulfilling.

Here is the chorus from “Untied”:

Why climb so high

To over and over unendingly

Collide with deceit

Well that’s over, move over

Untied, I’m free

Notwithstanding a late start as a contender for a slot in The Alive with Clive Top 20, Serotonen has accomplished what many thought was impossible to overtake all the other contenders and claim the top spot in The Alive with Clive Top 20 after only a few months, and lately has been extending its lead.

To see a recent Press Release about Serotonen’s rise to the top of The Alive with Clive Top 20, click here.

Serotonen was also one of the bands to perform at the first Alive with Clive Top 20 concert, after Jessica Labus and before Anthony Melillo and The Melillo Brothers, at Waltz-Astoria in Queens, New York, on May 30, 2009.

Here’s the video clip for you to enjoy of Serotonen performing “Untied” on Alive with Clive: