Serial Joe Signs With Korn's Label
October 4, 1999

By Karen Bliss
-- Jam! Music

NEWMARKET, ONT. -- Teenage rock-rap band Serial Joe will be joining Korn and Rage Against The Machine on the Epic Records roster for the world outside Canada.

The announcement was made at a surprise party for Serial Joe, Sept. 29, at Toronto's Rivoli club, at which its Canadian record label, Aquarius, presented the boys with a gold album award for Face Down, signifying sales of 50,000 units.

Epic Records senior vice-president of artist development Vince Bannon came in for the occasion and was also given a plaque because, as Aquarius chairman Donald Tarlton explained, "Now he owes us one." In the U.S., gold certification is 500,000 units.

Bannon wanted to sign Serial Joe from the moment he heard the song "Mistake" and saw its companion video.

"Beside that, the song was such a hit -- because everyone I played it to at Epic loved it -- it was a great pleasure to see them play at (Parc des Iles) in Montreal in front of 50,000 kids (with Live and Moist, Aug. 21)," Bannon says.

Epic was, in fact, Serial Joe's dream label. "They have Silverchair, Korn, Rage Against The Machine, so they've got lots of good bands on their label. It was just natural for us to want to go with them," says lead vocalist/guitarist Ryan Dennis, 15, who says he has checked the label logo printed on the back of CDs as far back as he can remember.

The deal is reportedly for a large advance, but Dennis says he's not going to celebrate with a spending spree. "I'll probably keep it in the bank because I don't want to end up losing all my money. I'll get small things here and there, but I don't need anything right now."

Serial Joe -- Dennis; guitarist Ryan Stever, 15; drummer Dan Stadnicki, 14, and bassist Jon Davidson, 14 -- will all be pulled out of school to promote Face Down in the new year. (They'll require tutors on the road.)

In fact, Dennis, who's in grade 10, just left his second year at Unionville (Ont.) High School, to be home-schooled.

"It was just a little tough to deal with that school," explains Dennis, who was being asked for autographs in the hallways. "It's cool now how it is. I'm liking it. I can get up whenever, as long as I do my work."

Serial Joe has been writing more songs and will likely record several more to add to the Epic version of Face Down, due out in the first quarter of 2000.

"Music is cyclical and right now we're going through an enormous pop phase," says Bannon. "Epic has a really strong rock roster -- Pearl Jam, Rage Against The Machine, Korn, Silverchair, Ozzy Osbourne, Oasis -- and we really feel we can deal with rock bands. This is one, I thought, is great, when the kids see how superficial the pop stuff is they're listening to and they graduate to a rock band. What a perfect thing, a rock band their age. (Serial Joe) can have an enormous career."