Olivia Serafini-Sauli Talks ‘Endless Calls For Fame’ And “Brutally Honest” Story of ‘The New Rising Sons’

“Endless Calls For Fame: The Story of The New Rising Sons” centers on the meteoric rise and fall of the band The New Rising Sons. Directed by Olivia Serafini-Sauli, the documentary features archives from the filmmakers own personal collection as well as integral footage from audio engineer Carl Glanville. Serafini-Sauli talked to Deepest Dream about her five years in the making documentary which hits Digital and Cable VOD on March 14, 2025.

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The New Rising Sons consisted of vocalist Garrett Klahn, guitarist Kevin McGinnis, and drummer Drew Thomas. Zero bass players ever stuck it out with the band, and during the recording of their album “Set It Right” producer Ted Niceley helped out with the bass playing!

Filmmaker Olivia Serafini-Sauli was a good friend of the group’s, leading to the obvious personal and immersive touch of the documentary.

“The timing was that they were actually literally the bridge from that kind of post-grunge Nirvana era of music into what ultimately became The Strokes, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Interpol and that kind of early aughts Williamsburg scene that really exploded,” said Serafini-Sauli. “In fact, there’s a crazy story that Kevin, the guitar player, told me that there was a point where they were in the same rehearsal studio as The Strokes. (They) were in the door next to them. I do think there is an argument that they could have been the beginning of what ultimately they missed, if that makes sense. Because sonically that’s kind of where they were going. It would have been really interesting to see how they would have developed musically.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I’ve listened to “Set It Off” several times and was impressed with pure energy and musical dexterity of the album. The version I’m listening to is the “Carl Glanville Mix,” and since it’s coming straight from the audio engineer, the sound is as crisp as can be:

Aside from the music and the investigation of why the band broke up, the documentary is also not your average rock and roll cliche. Sex and Drugs were not part of the split. “It was much more nuanced. It was much more complex,” said Serafini-Sauli. “And I wanted to try to give the audience as much of a sense of that, but also not being like, ‘This is the bad guy, (or) this is the good guy.'”

“It’s not the label’s fault. It’s not the mp3s’ fault. It’s not the (band’s) dynamics fault. It’s an absolutely perfect storm of elements that come together. I wanted to make sure that as a filmmaker, I was talking the mosaic of the pieces of the puzzle that led to what happened to them.”

For more info on “Endless Calls For Fame: The Story of The New Rising Sons,” check out my interview with Olivia Serafini-Sauli:

“Endless Calls For Fame: The Story of the New Rising Sons” hits Digital and Cable VOD on March 14. Let us know your thoughts on the documentary! Bruce Purkey and I review the film on the latest CinemAddicts.

Purchase/rent Endless Calls For Fame: The Story of the New Rising Sons on Amazon and support Deepest Dream (we receive a slight commission)!