515 Crew

elliot wrote:Why are you not an actual member, just "live?"

kurtis wrote:sure you wanna be linked with these guys??

Darrin wrote:It isn't even a record label right? They hired management hahah.

Beaver wrote:Congrats on getting a bunch of compilations that will either wind up in a garbage can or on the festival grounds of a warped tour.

tylerjames515 wrote:I was wondering about that live members thing, seems pretty lame.

Shawn & Alex,

Both Dusty and I thought it was necessary to formally notify you of our
leaving Serpents. While I'm not speaking on Dusty's behalf, we have discussed many of these issues at length and I believe us to be of like mind on the majority of them. I've not spoken with Alex since our meeting at the HOB so I don't know how this e-mail will be received or if anyone really cares. I'm just going to basically lay everything out on the table and be honest because that's what I would want. I've been wanting to send Alex an e-mail for the past few weeks but was extremely hesitant because I felt I would be reprimanded for it. I always felt in the dark regarding our partnership with Artery because our only contact with Artery was through andrew. The more I thought about it, the more I wondered if it was the same for you. If you were being included in all the goings-on of Serpents or just some things. We were only informed of what andrew told us and for some reason I had the benefit of being clued in on some matters that only he and I were privy to and to which I was told by him not to tell other members of the band. Communication, or the lack thereof, is this bands Achilles' Heel.

I know Alex a little and respect him and appreciate everything that he has
done for Serpents thus far. That's why I want to make sure he knows
everything that this band has struggled with and continues to struggle with.
I've tried to be as unbiased as possible and only include matters that are of
greater importance, while leaving out any petty squabbles.
Time after time the band wanted (and needed) to sit down and discuss concerns together as a group, while andrew not only refused to take part, but condemned anyone for participating in these group discussions. He deemed this "talking behind [his] back"- even when informed (and encouraged to join) when and where we would be airing our concerns. These were legitimate concerns that needed to be addressed and dealt with immediately. Most notably- the recent "Northern Discomfort Tour". I don't know if you're aware of the bands current financial and "tour-ready" situation, which is why I'm mentioning this. I led the discussion on this roughly two/three weeks ago and laid the facts out: 1) We have no trailer. 2) IF we rent a U-haul for 30 days it will cost over $600 at which point we might as well be discussing buying one. 3) Nobody has money to buy a trailer or rent one for a month. 4) Half the tour dates were not booked and the promoter was skeptical of the dates being filled. The promoter further informed me "Nobody in Florida will take the tour." while five of the dates were scheduled for Florida. 5) Our guarantees were going to be eaten up
by gas and other band expenses- which normally wouldn't be a problem if: A) We sold enough merch. (which recent performances would indicate we do not) and B) If we saved up enough money individually to support and feed ourselves during this tour. Therein was the biggest problem- nobody really had any money saved and nobody really worked (or worked enough to be able to save anything.) Beyond that 6)Marc didn't want to use his van for the tour and 7) Dusty said he wasn't going to do the tour. When discussing it with the group we seemed to be in agreement that although we were ready to do the tour, we weren't really financially capable of doing the tour (and we weren't going to have a drummer, a van, or a trailer for it too.)

I tried discussing the situation with andrew the following day and all
concerns fell on deaf ears. He was upset we discussed this without him and
accused of us of going behind his back/plotting against him- even though he
knew we were going to discuss it and chose not to participate. He stated that if anybody didn't do the tour they were "done" and offered no viable solutions to any of the problems. I again explained that we weren't going to have a drummer and we should try to save some face by letting the promoter know as soon as we could that we wouldn't be able to do it. As of this e-mail the tour starts in 8 days and none of the above issues have been resolved (save most of the tour dates being filled) and even more issues have arisen. My decision to leave came late last night after Dusty informed me that andrew had intended on finding a replacement for me for reasons still unknown. I have spent nearly $2,000 on travel expenses to be a part of this band and lost almost twice as much income due to having to cancel lessons (my job) over the past couple months. Everyone had their own personal sacrifice- and that was mine. I could not justify spending another dime on this band after being told andrew's intentions. While Dusty was honest with me, I felt it was only fair to be honest with him and informed him that andrew had already been speaking with other drummers to replace him. I also informed him of what I was told about the Atery EP offer which he knew nothing about because andrew didn't want him to know about it. Dusty was a member of the band (apparently even more so than me; ref: "live member") and I felt he had every right to know about it. According to andrew that was "grounds to be thrown the fuck out."

Serpents is not a functional band. There are no group discussions or
decisions- andrew controls, decides, and plans without consent. I understand and accept that it is andrew's band at the core, but with no sense of camaraderie or compromise in conjunction with his unbearable hypocrisy it will be a revolving door of band members. We could not go one week without someone threatening to leave or threatening to be replaced. Everyone aside from andrew at this point has discussed leaving for another band/going back to their old band. That on top of the constant arguing, bickering, ignoring, silent-treatment jr. high mentality made for an incredibly uncomfortable environment for everyone and was emotionally draining. His self-proclaimed ''my way or the highway'' attitude will inevitably lead to what happened yesterday with Dusty and myself leaving. I hesitate to call it "giving up" because I know we both wanted to stick it out and we really thought it would work out in the end and it was just a rough point in the bands life, but ultimately we saw that it will never change- just as we were warned by many people what we were in store for when dealing with andrew mikhail.

Again I tried to remain as unbiased as possible even though it seems
impossible at times. More than anything I wanted to make sure you were aware of the perpetual inner-conflict in Serpents. It would absolutely be something I would've want to have been informed of. After the last month of being physically depressed I can honestly say walking away from the band with Dusty has been a huge relief. I genuinely feel happy now and I apologize for the lack of briefness in this e-mail.

Shane wrote:So what are you going to do now?

Varg wrote:

Shane wrote:So what are you going to do now?

Go on vacation. I have some things in the works, but temporarily being in no band is way better than being in that band.

and lol @ bullet tooth de-friending me on fb and still posting on the serpents fb page. haha wtf dude?