Coming to America as a refugee, Los Angeles-based alternative pop artist Serg EF released his first single “Transgressions” on August 26, 2022. “Transgressions” is the first single off of Serg EF’s upcoming album Killing a Coward. Serg has been an avid traveler his entire life, immigrating to the United States at age 12, and moving between states every year of his childhood. His debut album focuses on his journey to let go of his past self, and embrace his lifestyle as a recording artist.
“Transgressions” focuses on Serg’s experience tackling the struggles of long-distance relationships. When Serg was living in North Carolina, he was dating a girl living in Philadelphia. For 2 years, Serg would make the long drives to see his girlfriend, only to eventually find out she had been cheating on him. Serg says, “It was a song that was about how hard it's to be in a long-distance relationship. Basically, the transgression was having thoughts of infidelity while being in a long-distance relationship.” The track is focused on his self-discovery, as he tries to battle his past self, the coward, and accept the dreams he has focused on for many years.
As the track begins, gentle acoustic guitar chords are strummed, before the melody of the lead riff subtly fades into the first verse. The opening lyrics, “I loathe the miles and miles of concrete silence between you and I,” describe Serg’s journeys driving north on I-95 through the night to visit his long-distance girlfriend. Serg states, “It's like when you go through Virginia, it's like straight-up, there are trees on both sides and you're just driving on that road for hours driving at night. It really kind of gets you stuck in your head sometimes.” As we move on through the chorus, Serg is stuck in his thoughts of self-doubt about the relationship. He sings “Oh, baby, oh. Accompany me to. Where to? Wherever I see, baby, ain’t she precious? See, all I see is my transgression.” As the song progresses, we hear more aspects of angsty rock in the production. Throughout it all, we can hear the emotion in Serg’s voice, showing how much love he had for his girlfriend. After a brief moment, we hear a call and response between him and his girlfriend, and the song ends with a somber recollection of the chorus.
As a DIY artist, Serg is testing out various tactics to promote his music. When Serg was living back in his New York, he spent time working in artist management for upcoming artists. Whenever promoting a new single, he would focus on blog and playlist promotion. “Transgressions” has been featured on Beyond The Stage’s New Music Friday blog, stating “If you want a song about love and rebellion, then this song is the one for you.” Serg is quickly realizing this is not enough for the constantly changing world of music promotion.
As he adapts to TikTok and Instagram Reels, he is learning about various promotion techniques and utilizing paid advertising for the first time. “What I'm doing is basically learning. Like that's my motto is that part of the promo for me is the education,” says Serg EF.
As Serg is continuing to learn new promotion techniques, and the single is less than a month old, the track is slowly gaining traction on streaming platforms. Serg’s goal is to secure a solid income from the release of his debut album, so he can quit his day job and focus solely on music.
Serg has been extremely active on his TikTok and Instagram, posting teasers for upcoming music videos created for “Transgressions. Serg understands timing is everything and that he must take the time to promote these music videos before publishing. When discussing the official music video, Serg says, “It has this interesting concept, where the concept of
the music video was a long distance relationship. But instead of being separated by distance, we were separated by time. It was a relationship where the partner of the protagonist and the story was dead, and this person was going back to their partner's grave to visit.” Serg also took some time after his first show in Los Angeles to record an Unplugged version of “Transgressions”. He has always admired artists like Justin Vernon and Ben Howard, and their ability to utilize raw instrumentation in acoustic videos to portray different emotions through their music.
With any great song, it is difficult to provide a critique. However, there are aspects that we can provide some constructive criticism towards. Through the production of the track, the rock feel finds its groove in the percussion and heavy guitar. The master of the track should utilize quantization of the drums, to make them sound more full and hollow. This would make the percussion sound more like a live drum kit and further enhance the rock genre, creating more complexity and contrast from the softer portions of the song.
As Serg EF continues his journey, he is continuing to contemplate all aspects of himself as an artist and as a human in general. More than anything, he wants his music to relate to others and allow for genuine connection. In conclusion, Serg states, “There was a lot of trying to learn about myself while pushing myself at the same time. I had to figure out what was important and what was not important. It was just a journey of self-discovery, as I was pushing my vocal limits. It was also pushing my emotional limits of figuring out how to put a song together in a studio. It was really stimulating and fulfilling, and it was very educational. It's just talking, talking a lot about myself and about how to make a song.”
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