4 minute read
Serpent Moon. Interview with Peter Morsellino
Interview by Andrew Stanton
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Hello and welcome to Inside the Darkness.
“Hi there, thanks for having me.”
- Can you tell our readers a bit about your history, please?
“The Serpent Moon project started in the summer of 2020 after a long period of musical inactivity. I’ve been a huge Metal fan since I was a kid and had worked with a lot of different genres, but this was the first Metal project that seemed to make it off the ground for me and express what I needed to express.”
- What bands did you like growing up?
“The first band I ever loved was the Beach Boys, haha. At some point in my youth I heard Black Sabbath for the first time and it struck a chord and heavier music became sort of a home base for me. I’m a product of my times, Nu Metal was huge in middle school, so that dominated a lot of my early interest in Metal. Eventually I’d branch out to things with a bit more bleak of a tone, which has become something of an addiction at this point.”
- Your covers and imagery seem very weird and interesting. What inspires it?
“I try to give an abstract idea of what the albums sound like with the artwork, but I admit that my exact inspirations for the particular images probably only make sense to me. I usually gravitate to artwork that conveys some level of fragility.”
- What can you tell us about the Metal scene in New York?
“I have been very out of touch for a long time, to be honest. For a while I was lucky enough to witness the phenomenon of hardcore bands crossing over into crust and eventually taking on blackened and sludgey elements in the Albany/Capital region area, but unfortunately I’ve become a little bit of a shut in over the past several years so can’t speak much on how that worked out. HUSH is an amazing sludge band from the area, Dirt Church (RIP) were fantastic as well.”
- Is Serpent Moon just you only?
“Yes, just me. For a while I entertained the idea of putting together a live band, but the logistics of getting people together for practices and shows as a working single dad in my thirties… it just feels insurmountable at this point.”
- What are your lyrics about?
“I guess I’d sum my lyrical content up as being about mental health. I touch on relationships and worldview and addiction, but it all boils down to mental health in the end. Sometimes you feel something and just know it isn’t healthy, so screaming myself sick about it takes some of the pressure off.”
- What do you say to Nu-Metal fans who say DSBM isn't Metal?
“I think Metal is a fairly interpretive genre of music. There are a lot of things that are inarguably set into Metal lore and culture that could get flaky if you break them down, depending on your definition of Metal. I mean, shit, maybe it isn’t Metal. That wouldn’t change anything in terms of my enjoyment. In the end I think there's something personal that brought us all into metal culture. It's a broad genre and it won't all be for everyone, and that's ok.”
- Do you think bands like Marilyn Manson and Limp Bizkit have made it very hard for American Metal bands to be taken seriously?
“I’m not much of a nationalist, so I don’t really know. I don’t think there’s a particular country that I could turn this question around to that would make it make any sense to me. There’s something great going on everywhere, you just have to find it. But if someone doesn’t take American music seriously based on past examples then I’d just like to think that there are plenty of great American bands to choose from. For every Limp Bizkit we’ve got a Cannibal Corpse. I’ll also go on record saying that while Marilyn Manson is a scumbag, Antichrist Superstar is 100% gold. Geordie White is a criminally underrated songwriter.”
- Do you have a message for our readers?
“To anyone that is new to my music I’d like to say welcome and I hope you can connect with the sounds I’m making. And to anyone who’s been with me at any point in these last two years, thank you for your support and I love you to death.”
Thank you for your time.
“Thanks again, Pete.”
