From Nashville to Miami, the relentless alternative rock duo The Serpenteens highlight the hazy outro track, "Ode to Neptune," from their conceptual and sweltering debut record, 'Revolution.'
Comprised of Marco Argiro and Tracy Jean, the two have been creating music together for just over two years, but their chemistry is undeniable. On the debut album, 'Revolution,' both Argiro and Jean showcase their wandering punk attitudes on their journey to the dark heart of rock n' roll. They hope the album will help listeners focus on the "revolution of the mind and choosing to live within love consciousness."
To give our readers a taste of the new record, we've deiced to highlight the gritty and powerful outro track, "Ode to Neptune." While melting our speakers with a melancholy and mysterious alternative rock tone, both Argiro and Jean demonstrate their mastered knowledge and musical chemistry to keep our attention locked in.
Expanding on "Ode to Neptune," the track kicks into gear with a melodic and mysterious electric guitar melody while Jean's airy drums begin to tap in from the background. As The Serpenteens jump into their first and flaming hot verse, they douse us in this anthemic and powerful sonic atmosphere that's impossible to ignore.
Listening to Argiro's hazy and breathy vocals, he continues to sing of illusions and dreams, feeling someone's presence but wondering if they're really there. We adore this powerful alt-rock "Ode to Neptune," the planet of fantasy, dreams, but also deceit, and we highly encourage our readers to listen to The Serpenteens' album, 'Revolution,' to get the complete experience.
Get lost in the otherwordly feel of The Serpenteens' single, "Ode to Neptune," off their debut album, 'Revolution,' now available on all digital streaming platforms.
Welcome to BuzzMusic, The Serpenteens. First, we'd like to say how impressed we were with the grit and passion within your single, "Ode to Neptune." What inspired your band to create such an elusive and gripping track like this?
Thank you, we're delighted to be here. Happy to be anywhere, really. This song came about while we were digging deep into the whole crop of songs that would eventually become the album. We made sure to not adhere to any guidelines or structural rules during this time and this song, in particular, was one where we really let ourselves explore and play around with a whole new sound that was very different than the others we were writing. It felt completely different but somehow it still seemed to make sense with this collection. We wanted this one to obviously feel spacey and otherworldly but still feel grounded and heavy, like you're not quite there but looking at the stars thinking about being there.
Could you give us a quick rundown on what your band's creative process looked like for "Ode to Neptune?" What vibe or feeling did you want the song's instrumentation to emit?
It started out as a guitar loop that was constantly building like a giant crescendoing volcano that had been bubbling, primed, and was about to be ready for eruption. The song was definitely wanting a giant riff-rock section that was borderline heavy metal, however, this section of music (the chorus if you will) was to be played out like a Baroque dance exchange. To us, it seems like something from the Elizabethan era but put through modern alternative rock sounds. Big, fat, and fuzzy guitar and bass tones like that of Royal Blood or Queens Of The Stone Age. The verse structure and lyrics came to use pretty quickly one morning after practice. We had been doing a fair amount of meditation and also at the time had been watching plenty of documentaries dealing with this type of subject matter so we had plenty of inspiration to pull from. One interesting anecdote from the recording session was that up until we were down in Miami tracking the song in the studio there was no vocal chorus with words whatsoever. Just the verses. However, at the moment while laying down vocals the title of the song “Ode to Neptune” along with a new melodic idea popped into Marco's head almost as if a lightning rod was struck and this last bit of sonic detail was needed to complete the song. Such an epic tune was deserving of a big cathedral-sounding chorus chanting in exclamation, “Ode To Neptune.”
What was the significance of the dreamy and hazy lyrical content within "Ode to Neptune?' What images did you want to paint in the listener's mind?
We wrote this song during the initial lockdown of 2020, a time when we were all locked away, the whole world sentenced to home imprisonment. After some time, it seems safe to say, that we all got a bit stir crazy and uncomfortable with the repetition of our daily routines that happened to include the absence of human interaction. With this isolation came an opportunity to look around and observe reality with a little more attention and patience. Once you begin seeing and questioning and shifting your awareness the whole world seems miraculous. This planet seems miraculous. The birds, the trees, the seasons. It's absolutely amazing. When we slow down we can tune in to this earthly connection and appreciate our existence even more. It's so easy to get lost in the mysteries still to be solved on this planet, let alone the entire universe. This curiosity, this wonder, and a sense of imagination are what fuel this song. Ode to Neptune is about looking into the night sky and asking, “what if”? It's not necessarily about knowing and although there seems to be a journey that takes place, it's more abstract, dreamy, and open to interpretation. Maybe in your mind, you see the planet, Neptune, with all its creatures and beings, maybe for you it's an astral projection, maybe for another they are in the spaceship headed that way. Let your imagination run wild.
Why did you choose to put "Ode to Neptune" as the outro track for your album 'Revolution?' How does the track close the album and the entire experience at hand? In our opinion, there was no other place for that song to live. It had to be the album's closer. Especially with that long psychedelic outro that basically hits restart and leads to the opening track. Thematically, the beginning of the album touches on more pressing themes and topics of this day and age while also looking to the past for answers, with Ode to Neptune we wanted to leave the listener with an opportunity for expansion and wonder. By looking beyond this reality, whether that's within or to the cosmos, we are able to see things from a “bird's eye perspective” and gather the big picture of it all. It's like zooming out on google earth. Seeing thing's with a wide lens. It's not just about anyone's own unique existence anymore. Rather the sum of all us coexisting and working connectively. We honestly don't think it's at all likely that we here on Earth are the only life forms in the entire galaxy.
Could you expand on the concept of "the revolution of the mind and consciousness" for your album, 'Revolution?' What did you want to make your audience think and feel?
Well, we believe this Revolution has been ongoing and will most likely continue beyond our years. Those in tune can draw parallels between current events and that of the '60s when a shift began with the great awakening. The Dawning of the Age of Aquarius and all that hullabaloo. So in an effort to keep this momentum going, and the dream of peace and love alive, we decided to write our way through 2020 when things seemed to be incredibly uncertain and at an all-time low. We ended with an album that feels dark at times (angry, frustrated, hopeless) and then bright in others (empowered, enlightened, inspired). We knew we wanted to have this idea of “Revolution” motivating the album but we let the songs have their own identity as well, not feeling the need to check off a list of topics we were trying to address, but instead letting the songs develop naturally. Because of this, the album doesn't feel like a “call to arms” nor does it completely carry an overtly strong political message (Game Show Host was the necessary exception) but rather the album shares different ways in which the Revolution is already occurring. Through the self-awakening anthem of Love Sick Hotel to the sex-positive inclusivity of Strut and the return rise of female leadership in Underworld, we aren't trying to force any type of ideology or way of being on anyone, but instead showing a world in which they already exist.
