Biography

Mark is a native of Central New Jersey, growing up in Scotch Plains. Mark is not the first musician in his family. His father’s uncle, Jerry Serly, was an accomplished musician and member of NY Local 802. Jerry held various positions within the union during his lengthy tenure after joining in 1927.  His wife, Elaine, was also a musician. His father, Lajos Serly, was a highly esteemed symphony and opera conductor in Europe. Tibor Serly, his brother, was an accomplished violinist-violist and music theorist who composed major theatrical pieces and was commissioned to complete two of Béla Bartók’s unfinished works after Bartók’s death.

Mark took his first guitar lesson in 1971 when he was ten years old. His teacher was Tom Ragusa at the Scotch Plains Music Center in NJ. Lessons went on until he graduated High School in 1979. During that time he was a member of two rock bands as well as a member of the Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School jazz band “Moonglowers”, the oldest High School jazz band in the state of New Jersey.

While attending Old Dominion University, Mark played in that school’s jazz ensemble. Afterwards, around 1982, Mark was involved in his first metal band. Named PARTHENON, this band did covers by Def Leppard, Judas Priest, AC/DC, Rush, Zeppelin, and even Cheech and Chong. This band was the first to perform Mark’s metal originals,  three songs that Mark had written and the band learned. Also, it was about this time when Mark's friends began referring to him by his initials, "M.E.".

1984 saw Mark purchase his trademark white Flying V, and meet John Bunucci. John  would not only go on to form OVERLORDE with Mark, but also become a lifelong friend. And in Mark’s opinion, the world’s best power/true/classic metal bassist.

OVERLORDE performed its first show in November 1985 after drummer David L. Wrenn joined the band. The group added vocalist Pat O’Donnell in 1986 and played numerous NJ/NY area shows. The band then recorded and self released a 5-song EP on its own Strike Zone Records label. What was supposed to be a stepping stone to a bigger label deal instead led to the band's eventual demise in late 1988. Or did it? More on that later.

M.E. started his first solo project shortly thereafter. Titled BREAKER M.E. (a nickname variation inspired by his affinity for Australian bush hats of the type worn in the movie Breaker Morant), it went from being a solo project to a band and released a self-titled 4-song cassette demo before disbanding in 1992.             

After this, M.E. became disillusioned with participating in bands and went truly solo. Thus began a period of recording and performing instrumentals in the style of Joe Satriani. Bass and drum parts were provided by a Roland R-70 which he had learned to program to great effect. His Fostex 250 4-track cassette deck saw a great deal of use as he recorded numerous songs beginning in 1992. The first official demo coming from these sessions being a 30-minute casstte titled. G.W.A.(Guitar With Attitude) . This was followed by a live-to-DAT, in-studio session in 1995 that was released as a 30 minute demo titled What You Hear Is What You Get. By this time, Mark was mainly utilizing a Fender Stratocaster in place of his Flying V.

The late 90's saw M.E. begin utilizing his voice on various recordings, including an eclectic 3-song demo titled Demo 1999.He had also moved up from his 4-track multi-track cassette recorder to a digital 16-track Roland VS-1680. But it was December 1999 when everything old became new again, and the call of the Flying V began to harken once more.

This is when Overlorde drummer Dave Wrenn contacted M.E. about some interest in Overlorde, mainly from fans in Europe. This news came as quite a surprise, since the 1987 EP had basically only been sold in NJ/NY area shops. It had been assumed that Overlorde was a  NJ area metal footnote and nothing more.            

Upon additional investigating, it became apparent that the 1987 EP had garnered the band a cult following in both the USA and Europe. John, Dave and Mark decided to look into the possibility of a reunion in early 2000. The official website,  www.overlorde.com, was launched in February 2000 and the reunion became a reality in July 2000.

In the fall of 2000, the band announced that vocalist Bobby "Leather Lungs" Lucas (SEVEN WITCHES/Massacre Records and EXHIBITION/LMP Records) had joined the band to round out the reunion lineup. A 4-song demo, Overlorde 2000, was recorded and released  in December 2000. The demo received tremendous repsonse from fans and critics alike. This included a perfect 12 rating from Germany's HEAVY, ODER WAS?! magazine. The band seemed sure to obtain a record deal and release its long delayed full length CD. While it  took longer for this to happen than originally hoped, the band signed with SONIC AGE RECORDS (read Press Release) in April 2004  and its debut CD RETURN OF THE SNOW GIANT will be released December 17,2004.

Having devoted 100% of his music-related efforts to Overlorde from 2000 to 2003, M.E. decided to take some time and make his 1994 demo G.W.A.(Guitar With Attitude) available on CD-R. This demo re-release,with an additional 5 songs, occurred in the fall of 2003 along with the launching of this M.E. Flying V website. 2003 also saw M.E. start his own ASCAP*  affiliated publishing company, ARMORED FORCE PUBLISHING (M.E.  is also writer member of ASCAP). Armored Force holds the publishing rights for the songs on Overlorde's RETURN OF THE SNOW GIANT.

Besides Overlorde, M.E. plans to also promote his instrumental material for use in movies, TV shows, etc.  He plans to re-release What You Hear Is What You Get on CD-R as well as license his recordings to record labels. And having written or co-written  approximately 100 songs over a range of hard & heavy music styles, M.E. hopes to eventually record and release other material utilizing his home studio.

*American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers

 

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