Interview: Searching Serenity
Searching Serenity is a Christian melodic deathcore solo-project from Jacksonville, Florida. Here’s the interview we did with the man behind the project, Robert Manzone.
Hey, I hope you’re doing well. Let’s start this interview by telling us your name and role in the band?
With everything crazy going on right now, I am thankful to say I am doing well, thank you! My name is Robert Manzone, and at this moment I am the sole member of Searching Serenity.
What is your musical background and how long have you been a musician?
My primary background is that I am a guitarist. I started taking beginner lessons back when I was 9 years old and just continued pursuing it growing up. When I graduated high school I went to the University of North Florida to pursue a bachelor’s degree in Music Performance (With a concentration in technology). I graduated in 2018 with that degree and have been able to apply a lot of what I learned (Music Theory, Orchestration, Music production, mixing, live sound, etc…) towards my music in different ways.
Could you share the history behind Searching Serenity and the meaning behind the name?
You bet! So initially, the band was more or less formed at the tail end of 2013 by myself and my good friend Robert Kiser. Initially, I was the guitarist and he was the vocalist. Over the next few months into the spring and summer of 2014, we managed to get a bassist, second guitarist, and drummer. For the name “Searching Serenity” it’s a bit of a funny story. We were trying to figure out a name, and our primary goal was that our music and band as a whole be Christian, and our bassist at the time (Who ironically, was not a Christian) came up with the name “Seeking Serenity” which I thought was super awesome and fitting. I looked the name up and saw that it was unfortunately already taken by another band, so for the sake of not straight-up copying them we decided on “Searching Serenity”. It’s interesting wording and I know it doesn’t always totally make sense to people which I get, but I’m thankful to still have some personal meaning behind it!
How was the transition from being a full band, touring and everything, to becoming a solo-project? Were there times you considering just laying the project to rest?
It was an interesting transition, to be honest. We played our debut live show in September of 2014 in Jacksonville, Florida opening for Alesana, and continued playing shows every few weeks all the way up to our final show in February of 2018. We had gotten to a point where, by the end, the band just consisted of myself, our vocalist Marcus DeLoach, and our drummer Douglas Manzone (My super talented younger brother), and due to the paths we were each going with school/careers, the timing to just call it quits (playing live shows) made sense. We played our last show, and Marcus and Douglas mutually decided to step away from the band from there on out.
For me, having been a “Co-Founder” of the band, I still had a strong connection and desire to continue working through it even in a different format, and honestly, I would say that I have not at any point considered laying it to rest, at least not yet. Though I did enjoy playing live shows, I do also enjoy the freedom of getting to continue to write and put out music for people to check out and hopefully enjoy!
What genre do you consider your music? Who are your major influences?
It’s changed here and there over the years. I would say ultimately I would define it as straight-up Deathcore (At least that would be my primary definition), but with that being said, I really try to make an effort to make a diverse group of songs on each album, just so that they don’t all sound waaaaay too similar. I usually like to do at least one really melodic song (The Road Most Traveled, Escape, The Journey, Lost Yet Found, Never Alone) on each album, as well as a variety with the others as well.
Definitely have a lot of influences, but I would say some of the top influences would be Slipknot, Chelsea Grin, Lorna Shore, Oceano, and Memphis May Fire, if I had to pick 5 ahahah
Where do you draw your lyrical inspiration from and what are the central themes in your lyrics?
For the most part, I would straight up say the bible. As I do strive to continue keeping this a Christian based project, I do my best to write songs that are applicable not only to living a Christian life, but also songs that tell stories straight from the bible.
Many songs (especially on the more recent albums) have many quotes that are straight up verses which I really enjoy. Many central themes I’ve written about focus on the power of Satan’s temptation, followed by the even stronger power of God’s mercy, grace, and forgiveness.
I noticed a significant improvement in production and overall music quality, if that makes sense, from the Self Entitled EP(2015) to Mortifier: Bearer of Death(2016). How were you guys able to pull it off so quickly?
I really appreciate that!! Great point and great catch. So when I mixed the 2015 album, I had not even been studying music production for a full year yet, so that was really a leap of faith that we took in doing that, and I’m so thankful for the grace my band members had on me for working with me on it and not totally judging me for how bad it sounds, realistically (I’ve gone back and remixed that album because I recognize, that 2015 version sounds horrible LOL).
With that being said, by later 2015/2016 we had been playing more shows and saved up more money and were at a point where we could make it work to spend some money on someone more experienced to mix our music, and that’s what we did for the 2016 album. We recorded the 6 songs ourselves but then sent the files to be mixed and mastered by Kyle Hoffer, and he did an awesome job. Definitely a few steps up from the prior album.
Could you briefly share how you came to faith in Jesus Christ?
You bet. I don’t have a crazy transformation story, I was born and raised in a Christian household and was always brought up to learn about Jesus Christ. With that being said, I had experiences growing up where I got to see God work in me and my family’s lives, bringing us out of hard times and providing for us in different ways.
I’ve constantly seen that by placing faith in Him and trusting in Him throughout difficulties, even if I don’t know why He does what He does, He has reasoning and things ultimately work out for His glory, and that’s something I can always trust on and be thankful for.
You clearly take the message of Searching Serenity seriously, so out of curiosity, what’s your take on the whole “Christian band” vs “Christians in a band” debate that comes up quite often in the metal scene?
Dude, I love that question. First and foremost, I wouldn’t judge anyone either way as I do my best to leave any and all judgment to God and God alone. With that being said, I personally believe that professing faith in Christ is something to be taken seriously and wholeheartedly. I think sometimes people that say they aren’t a “Christian Band” but are just “Christians in a band” may sometimes use that as a way to justify doing things that aren’t always Christian (Such as bands who will maybe say they love Jesus in an interview, but then be up on stage brutally cussing or something of that nature). People need to understand that if you are going to proclaim to basically be an ambassador of Christ, your unchristian actions reflect poorly on Jesus as well as those who are more sincerely trying to proclaim His name. The bible says that God spits out those who are lukewarm and would prefer people either to be on fire for Him or not believe in Him at all. I think if people are led to act in non-christian ways in a band, they should also just simply not profess to have their faith, at least until they can find their way to understanding what it means to have faith and truly profess that. I understand that may sound harsh and that’s truly not my intention at all, but as much as I am a people pleaser, I strive to be truthful to my faith above anything and anyone.
What is Searching Serenity’s discography for those who aren’t familiar with your music?
So the first album is the self-titled “Searching Serenity” album from 2015, followed by “Mortifer: Bearer of Death” in 2016, a single called “Violent Oppression” in 2016 (Which may be making a re-recorded appearance on a future album FYI ), “Genesis (The Beginning)” in 2018, “Revelation (The End)” in 2019, the re-recorded/remixed version of the self-titled “Searching Serenity (Remix)” 2019, and then finally “Isolation” (2020).
“Genesis(The Beginning)” and “Revelation(The End)”, are a two-part concept album right? What are the stories behind the two albums and how are the concepts linked to each other?
Yes, they are! So the story is that right after we stopped playing live shows and the others stepped away from the band, at that time I had A LOT of material I had written for basically two albums worth of music even just at that time. I knew I wanted to put it all out but I didn’t want to just throw it all into one album and rush through writing a bunch of shallow quick lyrics, so I decided to do the two-part concept album and made the point of writing about a whole bunch of highlights from the bible, with the first album being about old testament stuff and the second album being more new testament (With a focus on Jesus, especially, of course.) With that being said, the last song on “Genesis (The Beginning)” was actually about Jesus. The song “Bloody Memories” is a sort of narration about the brutality of how Jesus was treated when He was beaten and crucified. I did that because I wanted that to really lead into the second album which would focus more on His life and purpose.
You recently put out an EP entitled “Isolation”, how was the writing and recording process, and what’s the story behind it? By the title, does it have anything to do with the current global crisis?
Absolutely, I definitely had this crisis in mind when writing the lyrics especially. I had already been writing new music for a year or so, and originally intended to wait and put out a longer album much later in 2020, but when everything came about, I’d already had three songs written and they were all somewhat relevant to what was going on already, so that is why I decided to finish writing the album and specifically make the focus of it focused on how Satan uses things to scare us but God is bigger than that (Fallen Angel and Fear Factor), and how God is always with us even If we may feel alone and isolated (Never Alone). To be honest, the other two songs “The Possession” and “Nephilim” stand out a bit, as they aren’t as much focused on the isolation aspect, but they are still biblically focused and interesting topics to me, so I decided to include them even so.
How can followers of Beyond the Grave support your project?
As mentioned, I definitely have a lot of music out. I have it all on Spotify, Apple Music, and more streaming services, as well as iTunes (for the cheapest option I could choose!) and other platforms for purchase as well. I’d love nothing more than just for people to give it a chance and check it out to see if they find anything they like. I do this because I enjoy it and I want to provide clean, biblically-based music for people that enjoy heavy music. I’m not trying to get rich and famous or anything like that, I just enjoy writing and producing it, and love when others enjoy it as well.
We’ve come to the end of the interview, thanks for your time. Any final thoughts you’d like to share?
I’d ultimately just like to say thank you so much for even interviewing me and giving me your time! I am extremely thankful to God for the inspiration He continuously gives me when it comes to writing music and love getting to use the gifts He has given me for His glory. Thank you again so much and God bless you and your family during these crazy times, He is still here and will never abandon us!
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