Surprised I didn't see anything here yet. Two members gone, including Clem:
(all sources from facebook, three posts total and thank you Glenn for letting us see them at 13!
Clémentine Delauney shared Serenity's photo.
18 hrs ·
To all of you out there, here are some news from Serenity....
After 3 great years together, a record and 3 tours, SERENITY and I have decided to end our collaboration as the band wishes to go back to their roots not having a female singer in their ranks. On my side, though I regret such an ending, I would be honest to say that I welcomed it with a sort of relief as I was no longer feeling comfortable in the position that became mine after I joined the band.
This said I invite you to read the entire post as there is more to know about the line-up and SERENITY's projects for the future!
They know I will still support them and as mentioned below, though it's not planned yet, we are both willing the share the stage again all together!
On my side, 2015 will be a busy year, as a new record with Visions of Atlantis Official is being written and I will be exploring totally new musical directions creating a new project...
Once again I would like to thank all the SERENITY fans for the intense support you showed me during this time and I hope to meet you again in the future!
******************************************************
Serenity
TIMES OF CHANGES back to the roots
As a new year beggins we took the time to look back on the past year and came up with new ideas, new inspiration and a fresher look over what SERENITY is and should be.
Since this common thinking lead us to some decisions, we have to share them with you.
First of all, as you noticed, SERENITY doesnt have a permanent keyboard player and wont have. However, as we enjoy playing live more than over samples, we have the chance that from time to time, Mario is still willing to join us on tour. When he is not available, we can rely on a great friend of our band, Franz-Josef who will step in with the incredible talent that is his own. So there will be gigs in 2015 either with one or the other but both matter to us and we appreciate their decication very much.
You must also have noticed that Tom officially said he was not going to perform any gig in 2014. He had to focus on his family and his job and for a time we would be honest to say that he had left the band. However, recently we heard from him that, if joining back on stage is yet not to be considered, he would still be willing to take part of the bands life behind the scenes and this means a lot to us.
When all was still uncertain regarding the guitar player position, we were very lucky to have Cris with us on all gigs that were and are scheduled. His energy and will to take part of the bands history is something we are very grateful for and we are looking forward to keeping sharing the stage with him as he is meant to remain our live guitar player still for a quite while.
Although all of this stated no real change but made clear announcements to let you know what is going on, the major aspect we have decided to review concerns the feminine side of SERENITY. Though we have worked with female voices since our second album, we think that we have pushed this aspect far enough with our latest album «War Of Ages». Though we love to add different voices to Georgs one, we no longer think these moments will be significant enough to justifiy to have a female singer within our ranks. Once this said, it has the direct consequence to unbind Clementines musical fate to SERENITYs. With a lot of regrets from both sides, we need to say that it has been a very intense and colorful chapter in SERENITYs history to have welcomed such a great and nice singer and front-woman on a record and the concerts for the 2 years that followed. As hard as such a decision is to take, there is no hard feelings and we are happy to say that if, for practical reasons, we will welcome other guest singers for the live aspect, there is a common will to share the stage together again one day.
Clementine wishes to tell you this: «Serenity and I are parting ways almost in the same manner that we decided to start working together. You should not search for big plans behind all this or a big machinery, there is none. We acted upon our will and we are ending our collaboration here because ideas and circumstances have changed. SERENITY was before me and will be. All what matters is that we stay true to ourselves and that we continue our ways being happy and proud of what we do. I am proud of my time with SERENITY and Im happy to go on as I have other projects to commit myself to. I wish SERNITY all the best for the future! I wish to thank SERENITYs fans who are part of the nicest and most loyal people Ive met, thank your all for your support during those 3 years!»
This is no simple news and we are aware that some might be disapointed and worried for the bands future so we would like to tell you all that we are more motivated than ever and that we have started working on new material which we are already very excited about. We are also aware of the fact that without your support throughout the years, we wouldnt have faced this times of questioning with the same strength and motivation.
We hope that you will remain our soldiers, wearing are colors for even more years to come.
With all our love and gratitude,
SERENITY
***************************************
Yes... I left SERENITY!
I was surprised by the official SERENITY statement regarding the band's future including my departure (YOU COULD HAVE TOLD ME ;-)) - just joking..., I want everyone out there to know some things and maybe understand my reasons a bit better.
When??? I was thinking about it for some time, the last 2-3 years exactly. And I decided to quit SERENITY permanently in 2014.
Why part 1 - family: Some may know that I became father of 2 lovely kids in 2007 and 2010. I married my long year girlfriend Sonja in 2013. I wanted to be at home for them (or at least not thousands of km away from them) as it got clear that they needed me the more the kids grew up. I loved the gigs we played, the tours, the cities we've seen,...
Why part 2 - time & job: As SERENITY is and is likely to stay a pure hobby (disappointingly) all of us needed their full time jobs. And me too... It got almost impossible to find the time SERENITY needed from me. I was able to do the productions, but live got a lot trickier for me over the years. I took most of my holidays just for being on tour. And didn't have the time for family, for myself or something else. So Chris came into the game and I am very thankful for his dedication!!! I created a whole lot of the music you all know. I did the biggest part of all preproductions. I edited, recorded, programmed, created,... many parts and pretty much all records were at least co-produced, co-mixed,... by me. And this took a lot of time - but it was/is my passion and so was very natural to me. The same goes for the websites, the flyers, the work on artworks or t-shirts,... To come to an end... It got very hard for me to keep deadlines, to work every weekend, nights,... next to my full time job and my family. Next to that we had coverbands and stuff. And now I have a full time job, family, my own small business,... Hard to combine with a band producing albums and touring the universe (well - at least Europe ;-))
Why part 2 - music and missing success: As years passed by we or at least I knew that SERENITY was missing momentum. We just couldn't get enough people on our side. As the music got more and more orchestrated, more and more symphonic (a direction I decided to go too) I thought for some time now how to change the overall sound of the band. And with that the whole image. And unfortunately some didn't want to change the one or the other. Somehow it just didn't work anymore. And as I was the one who was working on a lot of the material, I just didn't want to spend my whole time with something I didn't believe in anymore. This does not mean that I don't like our old songs. Definitely not... I am proud of every song, of every album we've created. We did it with passion. And so did I! It was my first child somehow, my baby... I didn't leave easily!
There are many more reasons that I don't want to explain in detail. Just know that everything got trickier with the lineup changes, with Mario leaving the band, with us growing older, having more obligations,...
The future with SERENITY: I told the guys, that if they need me and I am able to manage it, I will be there. Be it for a gig (like Innsbruck last year), or be it for future recordings. But for the moment being, I will not participate in the upcoming songwriting nor preproduction recordings. That's what would take too much time for me currently. I will and still am helping with online stuff too... And again: I don't rule out that one day I have more time left, or some fitting songs on my computer, I could still give those to them or participate a bit more on upcoming albums. If they want me/allow me to of course! But not now...
The future without SERENITY: For years I am thinking about doing something next to SERENITY. As it seems now, this will be my new passion in music. I have a lot of material ready for vocalists/keyboardists to participate. Guitars, blass, drums, melody lines,... a lot is there already! Just needs a bit more time... The songs so far are diverse. Some sound like my typical SERENITY stuff, some are heavier, some are solely acoustic, some are more rock/pop, alternative. I currently don't want to go into any specific direction. This way I hope to get all my love for different kinds of music into this studio project. More on this in the near future...
Last but not least: Thank YOU!!! All our fans who bought our albums, who visited our concerts, who helped us with everything they did for us. Thanks to all fanclubs, all those "extreme" SERENITY fans -- you know who I mean wink emoticon We all need people like you!!! THANKS!!!
And of course thanks to Mario, Georg, Andi, Fabsi, Chris, Clemi, Siml, Jan, Oli,.... Everyone of the SERENITY team for all those great experiences and the great time on tour, in the studio, in our freetime,... Wish you all the best and I am looking forward seeing some of you soon!
And again: I am not angry, not mad, nothing at all... Just needed to change some things in my life. And as stated above... Although I left SERENITY, I am still there for certain things whenever I have time to do so.
Tom
(all sources from facebook, three posts total and thank you Glenn for letting us see them at 13!
Clémentine Delauney shared Serenity's photo.
18 hrs ·
To all of you out there, here are some news from Serenity....
After 3 great years together, a record and 3 tours, SERENITY and I have decided to end our collaboration as the band wishes to go back to their roots not having a female singer in their ranks. On my side, though I regret such an ending, I would be honest to say that I welcomed it with a sort of relief as I was no longer feeling comfortable in the position that became mine after I joined the band.
This said I invite you to read the entire post as there is more to know about the line-up and SERENITY's projects for the future!
They know I will still support them and as mentioned below, though it's not planned yet, we are both willing the share the stage again all together!
On my side, 2015 will be a busy year, as a new record with Visions of Atlantis Official is being written and I will be exploring totally new musical directions creating a new project...
Once again I would like to thank all the SERENITY fans for the intense support you showed me during this time and I hope to meet you again in the future!
******************************************************
Serenity
TIMES OF CHANGES back to the roots
As a new year beggins we took the time to look back on the past year and came up with new ideas, new inspiration and a fresher look over what SERENITY is and should be.
Since this common thinking lead us to some decisions, we have to share them with you.
First of all, as you noticed, SERENITY doesnt have a permanent keyboard player and wont have. However, as we enjoy playing live more than over samples, we have the chance that from time to time, Mario is still willing to join us on tour. When he is not available, we can rely on a great friend of our band, Franz-Josef who will step in with the incredible talent that is his own. So there will be gigs in 2015 either with one or the other but both matter to us and we appreciate their decication very much.
You must also have noticed that Tom officially said he was not going to perform any gig in 2014. He had to focus on his family and his job and for a time we would be honest to say that he had left the band. However, recently we heard from him that, if joining back on stage is yet not to be considered, he would still be willing to take part of the bands life behind the scenes and this means a lot to us.
When all was still uncertain regarding the guitar player position, we were very lucky to have Cris with us on all gigs that were and are scheduled. His energy and will to take part of the bands history is something we are very grateful for and we are looking forward to keeping sharing the stage with him as he is meant to remain our live guitar player still for a quite while.
Although all of this stated no real change but made clear announcements to let you know what is going on, the major aspect we have decided to review concerns the feminine side of SERENITY. Though we have worked with female voices since our second album, we think that we have pushed this aspect far enough with our latest album «War Of Ages». Though we love to add different voices to Georgs one, we no longer think these moments will be significant enough to justifiy to have a female singer within our ranks. Once this said, it has the direct consequence to unbind Clementines musical fate to SERENITYs. With a lot of regrets from both sides, we need to say that it has been a very intense and colorful chapter in SERENITYs history to have welcomed such a great and nice singer and front-woman on a record and the concerts for the 2 years that followed. As hard as such a decision is to take, there is no hard feelings and we are happy to say that if, for practical reasons, we will welcome other guest singers for the live aspect, there is a common will to share the stage together again one day.
Clementine wishes to tell you this: «Serenity and I are parting ways almost in the same manner that we decided to start working together. You should not search for big plans behind all this or a big machinery, there is none. We acted upon our will and we are ending our collaboration here because ideas and circumstances have changed. SERENITY was before me and will be. All what matters is that we stay true to ourselves and that we continue our ways being happy and proud of what we do. I am proud of my time with SERENITY and Im happy to go on as I have other projects to commit myself to. I wish SERNITY all the best for the future! I wish to thank SERENITYs fans who are part of the nicest and most loyal people Ive met, thank your all for your support during those 3 years!»
This is no simple news and we are aware that some might be disapointed and worried for the bands future so we would like to tell you all that we are more motivated than ever and that we have started working on new material which we are already very excited about. We are also aware of the fact that without your support throughout the years, we wouldnt have faced this times of questioning with the same strength and motivation.
We hope that you will remain our soldiers, wearing are colors for even more years to come.
With all our love and gratitude,
SERENITY
***************************************
Yes... I left SERENITY!
I was surprised by the official SERENITY statement regarding the band's future including my departure (YOU COULD HAVE TOLD ME ;-)) - just joking..., I want everyone out there to know some things and maybe understand my reasons a bit better.
When??? I was thinking about it for some time, the last 2-3 years exactly. And I decided to quit SERENITY permanently in 2014.
Why part 1 - family: Some may know that I became father of 2 lovely kids in 2007 and 2010. I married my long year girlfriend Sonja in 2013. I wanted to be at home for them (or at least not thousands of km away from them) as it got clear that they needed me the more the kids grew up. I loved the gigs we played, the tours, the cities we've seen,...
Why part 2 - time & job: As SERENITY is and is likely to stay a pure hobby (disappointingly) all of us needed their full time jobs. And me too... It got almost impossible to find the time SERENITY needed from me. I was able to do the productions, but live got a lot trickier for me over the years. I took most of my holidays just for being on tour. And didn't have the time for family, for myself or something else. So Chris came into the game and I am very thankful for his dedication!!! I created a whole lot of the music you all know. I did the biggest part of all preproductions. I edited, recorded, programmed, created,... many parts and pretty much all records were at least co-produced, co-mixed,... by me. And this took a lot of time - but it was/is my passion and so was very natural to me. The same goes for the websites, the flyers, the work on artworks or t-shirts,... To come to an end... It got very hard for me to keep deadlines, to work every weekend, nights,... next to my full time job and my family. Next to that we had coverbands and stuff. And now I have a full time job, family, my own small business,... Hard to combine with a band producing albums and touring the universe (well - at least Europe ;-))
Why part 2 - music and missing success: As years passed by we or at least I knew that SERENITY was missing momentum. We just couldn't get enough people on our side. As the music got more and more orchestrated, more and more symphonic (a direction I decided to go too) I thought for some time now how to change the overall sound of the band. And with that the whole image. And unfortunately some didn't want to change the one or the other. Somehow it just didn't work anymore. And as I was the one who was working on a lot of the material, I just didn't want to spend my whole time with something I didn't believe in anymore. This does not mean that I don't like our old songs. Definitely not... I am proud of every song, of every album we've created. We did it with passion. And so did I! It was my first child somehow, my baby... I didn't leave easily!
There are many more reasons that I don't want to explain in detail. Just know that everything got trickier with the lineup changes, with Mario leaving the band, with us growing older, having more obligations,...
The future with SERENITY: I told the guys, that if they need me and I am able to manage it, I will be there. Be it for a gig (like Innsbruck last year), or be it for future recordings. But for the moment being, I will not participate in the upcoming songwriting nor preproduction recordings. That's what would take too much time for me currently. I will and still am helping with online stuff too... And again: I don't rule out that one day I have more time left, or some fitting songs on my computer, I could still give those to them or participate a bit more on upcoming albums. If they want me/allow me to of course! But not now...
The future without SERENITY: For years I am thinking about doing something next to SERENITY. As it seems now, this will be my new passion in music. I have a lot of material ready for vocalists/keyboardists to participate. Guitars, blass, drums, melody lines,... a lot is there already! Just needs a bit more time... The songs so far are diverse. Some sound like my typical SERENITY stuff, some are heavier, some are solely acoustic, some are more rock/pop, alternative. I currently don't want to go into any specific direction. This way I hope to get all my love for different kinds of music into this studio project. More on this in the near future...
Last but not least: Thank YOU!!! All our fans who bought our albums, who visited our concerts, who helped us with everything they did for us. Thanks to all fanclubs, all those "extreme" SERENITY fans -- you know who I mean wink emoticon We all need people like you!!! THANKS!!!
And of course thanks to Mario, Georg, Andi, Fabsi, Chris, Clemi, Siml, Jan, Oli,.... Everyone of the SERENITY team for all those great experiences and the great time on tour, in the studio, in our freetime,... Wish you all the best and I am looking forward seeing some of you soon!
And again: I am not angry, not mad, nothing at all... Just needed to change some things in my life. And as stated above... Although I left SERENITY, I am still there for certain things whenever I have time to do so.
Tom
