The July 13 show at Cobra in Nashville marked Serotonin’s first performance in 20 years. 

Murfreesboro local Jason Dietz, the band’s bassist, plays alongside Nashville residents Andrew Walker, guitarist and vocalist, and drummer Jim Valosik. The band originally played as a four-piece that included Ryan Snyder on guitar and vocals, but following Snyder’s move to Chicago, Serotonin would work as a three-piece.

The post-emotional hardcore band’s last album, Future Anterior, was released back in 2003 by Bifocal Media. Serotonin’s first 45, While I Breathe I Hope, was released in 1996 by Double Agent & Concurrent Records. The 7-inch record included three songs: “How Many Months,” “Healed Wounds,” and “Mica.”

Serotonin formed shortly after Dietz relocated to Murfreesboro from Washington, D.C., in August 1995. He met Valosik during his first week of orientation at MTSU, after noticing Valosik’s T-shirt from Dischord Records, an independent punk-rock record label from the D.C. area.

The band performed its early shows at Murfreesboro venues like Faces and the Boro Bar and Grill, also playing area house venues. As it grew, the band established connections with Nashville’s Lucy’s Record Shop and later began touring to Atlanta. During this time, they built relationships with well-known bands such as Converge and Piebald from Massachusetts.

With plenty of new material, including 12 new songs, the band says it plans to play more before the end of the year, but doesn’t have anything official lined up as of now.

Dietz says some of those songs might be released in the future and a four-LP Serotonin box set is also in the works of being released next year. The box set will include their three albums along with a fourth album of unreleased Serotonin material, recorded at Dietz’s Twin Oak Recording.

Check out Serotonin at serotonintn.bandcamp.com.

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Photos Courtesy of Aaron Swisher