Having heard how much the three chic divas love their food, I caught up with the girls of Serese in a nice eatery full of desserts, dreams and a lot of laughter
BY HARMEET VIRDI | NOV 25, 2008
Q. Firstly I?ll begin by asking you how Serese came about?
ANITA: There are three of us that makes Serese and the three of us have been together for four years now. It all began when I and Anu met at an audition 7 years ago, and Mandee joined a year later.
Q. Why did u pick the name Serese?
ANU: It?s a colour as in Cerise, so when we heard the name we thought it quite a nice name. So we Google checked it and found that it was a Marvel Comic Super heroine. We saw her picture on the internet and thought ?Oh ok, she?s fly and cool?, so decided ?Yeah we want her and that name".
Q. What were you girls doing before Serese?
ANU: Well we do Serese full time. I went to University and did my first year in an English degree. Then I just thought I want to just go full time with the music. You just have one chance at it.
ANITA: Same with me, I deferred my placement at University and I didn?t want to go back just yet. I thought do we want to do this full time, and so I spoke with the girls and we decided to do it.
MANDEE: Same again with me, I?d just finished college and decided this is what I wanted to do.
Q. Where are you girls from?
MANDEE: Southall!
ANU: Southall!
ANITA: Southall! (At this point all the girls had exclaimed that they are all from Southall in unity.)
Q. How have your family and friends taken to your choice of career?
MANDEE: They?re very supportive, Anu?s Dad has made us a studio at the back of her house and we do it full-time.
ANITA: We work in a garage and rehearse and record.
ANU: We use to end up in my family?s living room rehearsing and my Dad just thought, ?You know what let?s build you girls a studio!?
Q. Where did you start your first gig?
ANITA: We started doing Acoustic venues; we were still figuring it all out. We would go to these venues and wear random clothes, bright colours everything and perform in these venues. We would think, what the hell is going in this club because there would be 30-40 year olds and we were like ?oh my god?. So by doing gigs is where it all started for us, anywhere and everywhere.
Q. What are your opinions on talent shows such as the X-Factor?
ANU: We always watch it. It?s great for people who want to make it in the mainstream music industry.
ANITA: Last year?s talent was really good; but my favourite has to be Leona Lewis so far.
Q. Had you ever contemplated auditioning for the X-Factor or any other talent shows?
ANU: I think we?re too set in our sound and music, we know the way that we want it.
MANDEE: We know the direction that we want to go in and we wouldn?t be able to do that with X-Factor. But it?s great for people who are trying to make it into the music industry.
Q. Who are your main influences and what musical tastes do you have?
MANDEE: We listen to all different types of music. Our main influence is Michael Jackson, Alicia Keys, Mariah Carey and India Arie. Not many people know about her, she?s very organic and acoustic. We listen to everything and a lot of old songs, classics as well.
Q. What do you girls think about the whole UK Asian Music scene?
ANITA: It?s not that happening!
ANU: People, who are trying to come through, need to be helped immensely.
ANITA: New talents need to come out.
MANDEE: Definitely something new and fresh.
Q. Now that you girls are up and rising, where do you want to go?
ANU: We want to open up our audience now to an international level. We want to release our album and hopefully that is what is going to happen to help the rise of Serese.
Q. What?s the vibe on your forthcoming album?
ANITA: Well, we write all of our own music, but for this album we have opened it up a bit more. We wanted to stretch ourselves to the next level. With this album we?re going to be a lot more fun and deeper.
MANDEE: We?ve been listening to so many different styles recently, funky house, everything for inspiration.
ANU: I would like to think we?re a bit more Rock compared to others. We have an edge to us and we?re a bit more harder.
Q. How would you girls like to be remembered?
ANITA: As the Serese Girls. Well, the first Asian Girl Band that made a future mark for others. With amazing music, number one albums as well as bringing something new to the table and shaking up the Asian music industry. There is just nobody representing Asian music out there. It would be nice to be remembered as Serese, the girls that represented a generation. Not just British Asian?s who have grown up listening to Asian music but have grown up within the British culture as well. Ultimately we are British Asians as well.
Q. Are any of you dating anyone?
MANDEE: We are all single at the moment. We haven?t found the right person yet.
Q. Any blind dates recently?
ANU: We don?t go on dates because it?s not safe.
MANDEE: We always say if one of us goes on a date the other two of us will follow them.
ANITA: We?re very protective.
Q. What attracts you the most about a guy?
MANDEE: Personality. Someone confident and who knows who he is.
ANU: He?s got to be really really funny.
ANITA: Somebody everyone will get along with and has a fantastic personality and very ambitious. People who know what they want are really appealing.
Q. What are your views on marriage?
MANDEE: Not yet! (All the girls laugh in a fit. Looks like marriage is NOT on the cards for sometime.)
ANU: Good for everyone who gets married. Right now it?s a long long away.
ANITA: After we?ve achieved everything we want to achieve then maybe. We love weddings. We all recently attended a family wedding, although we?re not related. Though at every family event we get pulled aside and told to sing. (More laughter from the girls.)
Q. Your debut video is titled It?s The Way, tell us more about it?
ANU: It?s very eclectic.
ANITA: We shot it last April and released it in June 2008. It will probably be on the debut album. We just wanted to go for a completely different look.
MANDEE: We just wanted people to know that we?re here from our video and this is our debut.
Q. Being in an all girl band is there any rivalry between the three of you?
ANU: There is none.
ANITA: We?ve known each other for too long.
MANDEE: We?re like sisters.
Q. What do you girls do to chill out?
ANITA: We love everything, dancing, clubbing, and going out, everything.
MANDEE: It?s not like that every night though ?oh we wanna go out?.
ANU: When we do go out we all have a really good time. From the minute we get there until the end we are on the dance floor. Oh and we love eating. Mmmm food!
Q. What's your favourite food?
ANU: We love Indian food and Chinese.
MANDEE: I love pizza and I love my desserts. We?re all vegetarians too.
ANITA: We love chocolate.
Q. How would you describe Serese?s style and image?
MANDEE: Extravagant! Bargains!
ANU: Definitely extravagant. We?re sponsored by Swarovski so we get a lot from them. (I wonder if I should start a girl band too, not a bad perk to be sponsored by Swarovski.)
ANITA: Yes extravagant. We like our bargains. We refuse to spend loads of money on clothes where not needed.
Q. Where you see yourselves heading now?
MANDEE: We don?t want to reveal too much as of yet. We don?t want to rush into anything and just finalise our album.
ANITA: We just want to represent Indians across the globe. We?ve got tours coming up and shows in Dubai and Holland. We?ve got Tour Asia coming up along with other artists like Raghav and Zeekay. We?ve had some offers in India for record deals and touring as well, which is exciting.
Q. Any message to our readers?
ANITA: We have a group thing Eye of the Tiger...wherever we are, we go by it. If you haven?t got that then you haven?t got anything and there is no tomorrow.
I can?t remember the last time I?d spoken to any artists who were as down to earth, fun-loving and as dedicated as these three young ladies from Southall. Definitely keep an eye out for the fresh ?n? funky sounds of Serese, I know I will be.
