Serianna’s James Milbrandt Owns His Own Hair Salon
While the use of flat irons and inky eyeliner is not as prevalent as it was in, say, 2003, it's still part and parcel of the hard rock scene.
Wisconsin band Serianna features two brothers - James and Lee Milbrandt- who also own a salon and spa with their sisters. They've been cutting hair for years and even serve as the hair stylists for a lot of other bands in their local scene.
"I never knew when I first started doing hair that there was a big connection between music and hair," James told Noisecreep about the collision between the two worlds he traffics in. "Today's rock stars take time creating an image. I started out creating styles on mannequin heads before I was actually able to perform them on clients. As I furthered my education, I was trying different styles on myself and received compliments and positive feedback from my clients, friends and family as well as strangers. As my music career expanded, I was receiving interest from other bands and band mates in doing their hair. As a band, creating an image was something we felt was essential to setting us apart from our counterparts. Having an image for your fans to relate to helped us leave a lasting impression."
Signed to Bullet Tooth, Serianna released 'Inheritors,' their debut album, earlier this year. Since James is either on tour or working on hair, he's always ahead of the fashion trends, sort of like someone who has their ears to the underground of the music scene. See, it's really not that different.
"My prediction for the hair styles for 2012 is a complete change from what it has been in prior years," James said. "For one, hairstyles always change. Keeping ahead of the next person or trend is the key. I predict shorter hair styles for 2012."
Watch 'Inheritors' From Serianna
The reason he thinks short, clean will rule in 2012? Necessity and utility. Life on the road does not leave musicians, especially those on the grassroots trail, much time or space to cultivate their hair! "I think bands especially being on the road realize the up keep of long hair especially if they are straightening it," James said. "The long bangs will probably be around still, but the styles are combining a couple different styles together. Lots of clean cut hairstyles and super short areas or sides of the head of both guys and girls. The 'scene hair' has been pretty popular for a while, but a new clean and short look will be in for this year." Who wouldn't want a stylish dude in a band cutting their hair? Sign us up!
Now that we've gotten the hair "stuff" out of the way, James shed a little light on the song 'Fragments,' from their 'Inheritors' album. The song was written and recorded back in June of 2010 and took over a month to write. James revealed, "The writing process for this song was one of the first that we tried writing in MIDI. We write all of our parts on the computer and then email our ideas to each other. Kris Meyer-Ruef and I write a guitar riff, translate it on the computer and then send it to Chris Ferraro, who will write his drum parts to it. Once the music is solidified, we send the song to Chris Nutting (vocals) and he screams into a microphone connected to his computer and forwards his ideas to us. It works out because we don't have to be in the same room to write music.
"When we recorded 'Fragments,' we initially had about four different intros to the song. One of the intros was an acoustic melody that would go into the first initial riff. When we hit the studio we eventually changed the beginning of the song to the intro you hear now with the breakdown and the orchestration over the top. We all did the gang vocals at the end of the song for the 'We are the foundation...' part. I think we were all really blown away with how it turned out."
Check out the Milbrandt's business, Indira Spa and Salon, at this link. Serianna's 'Inheritors' is out now via Bullet Toot and they're also out on the Rock Yourself to Sleep Tour with Alesana, A Skylit Drive, Sleeping With Sirens, Memphis May Fire, and Attila:
10/19 Cleveland, OH @ Peabody's
10/20 Pontiac, MI @ The Crofoot
10/21 Chicago, IL @ Metro
10/22 Sauget, IL @ Pop's
10/24 Denver, CO @ The Summit Music Hall
10/25 Salt Lake City, UT @ Complex
10/27 Seattle, WA @ El Corazon
10/28 Portland, OR @ Hawthorne Theatre
10/29 Sacramento, CA @ The Ace of Spades
10/30 San Francisco, CA @ The Regency Grand Ballroom
11/1 Lancaster, CA @ Allied Arts Cedar Centre
11/3 West Hollywood, CA @ House of Blues Sunset Strip
11/4 Pomona, CA @ The Glass House
11/5 San Diego, CA @ Soma
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