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Greek Directors Guild presents:
Portraits Of Tomorrow
Episode title : Gravitysays_I
Opening Credits Director : Kyriakos Antonopoulos
Opening Credits Music : Vassilis Vlahakos
Production Sound : Dimitris Yiagouridis
Picture Sound Editor : Harris Mavroforakis
Director of Photography : Nikos Kanellos
Written and Directed : P. D. Simopoulos
How did you start?
The Finger of Blame, Director : Christos Chouliaras, Producer : Restless Wind
We started playing with Manos when we had an alternative pop band in the early ‘00s
and at some point he joined to play the guitar. We didn’t have a guitar player and he joined to play the guitar.
Their name wasn’t “Gravity” at the time, he used to play with Nikos, their band name was “cloudscape”
and we were meeting often to discuss about where each other had live appearances,
what we were working on at the time…
we would meet at Manos' house and talk about demos we had sent all around.
While working with that pre- existing band, since we had plenty of time and we enjoyed working together,
the new band was formed as a parallel project,
which was adding up little by little the material that eventually led to “Gravitysays_i”.
We were sharing thoughts and anxieties and within that context,
Nikos at some point asked me to help with the band.
This is how we stuck together, everything else was just chemistry,
we saw that we were connected by common things.
In the beginning we were two,
now we are twelve…with the choir and the rest of the musicians
that have joined in order to perform live.
“Gravity”
...is a strict criterion that works in a liberating way.
Ιt’s liberating because you get to a result that redeems you.
In strict limits,
when you have to categorize something in order to describe it to a friend,
I usually mention the different instruments in the band and beyond that I suggest that he has a listen,
because I can’t, in whatever term, describe what this band plays.
Post, Mediterranean… something like that has been mentioned at some point
but I’d rather just describe what usually happens and then I suggest one to have a listen.
“Gravity” play rock,
you could also say progressive, you could say it’s post…
it has elements of many genres. It’s “Gravity” either way…
it belongs to the broad rock spectrum but it stands out, the band has an identity.
I don’t have a clue what kind of music we play…
how it can be described.
I’d say it’s melodic.
- Yes, melody is something that we are very interested in having.
A melody that someone can be drawn to and that can have an emotional impact perhaps.
The base of “Gravity” is rock for sure. It couldn’t be any other way,
because we belong to a generation that was raised up with rock etc.
The musical experiences that someone has at the time that we were teenagers and later on
resulted in the sound we are creating, which are the influences of someone that lives in Athens...
during that era.
The way in which we usually work
is that there’s a guitar riff or a melody and then we add up to that,
rhythm comes in, the bass guitar, drums…
that initial idea might be recanted and be replaced by another one later on.
It’s all very fluid. There is no way…
rather, the way is that there is no way in which we write music.
- I believe that everyone functions that way.
Someone has an idea, it might be a lyric. It could be a melody as Manos says,
it could be a rhythm, it can be anything.
- It can be just a sound.
- Yes, it can be just a notion
“Patterns”.
One day Manos came by and said to me:
“ I’ve got the idea for the next album”.
That’s how it happened, that’s how it started.
“Patterns”
talks about the depression we eventually experience…
we are born in a world that is de facto enslaved.
You are a slave on birth.
And you find that out as you go…
and you end up as a grey figure.
We try to survive and be ethical...
and accepted...
by others,
but at the same time...
we impose ourselves upon others.
- I am really proud that I was part of that album to be honest.
The whole experience was very intense because there was a general quest at that time,
lyrics-wise from Manos,
but also musically it was something new for the guys as well.
And it was very intense for me to experience all that and broaden my horizons
to different directions as well, because before that, I was playing another kind of music.
When I first read the lyrics I congratulated the guys for for being able
to encapsulate things that not just one person feels,
there’s an entire generation,more or less, that feels trapped this way and he (Manos)
he (Manos) described it in such a skilful way,
just a few words but exactly those that
make a difference.
It was a new perspective that intrigued me very much to want to be a part of it
and just because I liked it so much
I found myself deeply into it.
...you know...The creative process,
everything that happened was magical,
this is how I recall it.
- …Within that concept
of the patterns of fraud, as was the original idea,
music of course couldn’t be something that
wouldn’t point out the decay and the blackness we experience
psychologically and socially…
thus the music should fit in
with the vibe we wanted to embed to the concept.
It’s pretty quaint to express anger
just by noise and shredding guitars and drums…
It’s a bit frivolous, it’s like a frivolous rage.
There is a Dorian grief, sort of ,
because there is the darkness on one hand but there’s also a grief to the whole thing…
to which we gave a Dorian shape if I might say…
with the vocals as well, the choir which we used
to give the impression of the crowd…
it’s the crowd that sings, that sings battle cries and not songs.
What we do stands on a philosophical level primarily,
a verbal level
and a philosophical context,
and then it gets transformed into music.
“Patterns” was at this stage back then…
We knew what we wanted to say…
that’s why I started telling you that we were getting along with Nikos on a social level and our beliefs,
because that was the most significant point.
What “Patterns” describes, not the music.
Music came later on.
Live at the Athina 984 Amphitheater, Archive footage by Restless Wind (7/5/2011)
Right now “Gravitysays_i” are preparing ,
within the process of creating the third album,
as a parenthesis,
a ten- inch record which will come out in the following months.
- I consider this to be a transitional period between
between the sound of “Patterns” and the new sound.
The English- speaking music scene of Greece hasn’t shaken off...
the hang up...
that it has to be characterized as “the English-speaking music scene of Greece”.
Most people, especially above a certain age,
completely ignore the existence of that scene.
They ignore thousands of bands
they ignore various musical approaches
which mainstream media don’t present
and they ignore something that,
if embraced, it could probably make them proud,
in my opinion. The fact that in their country
there is such a production that if it gets noticed from abroad…
I’m not saying it’s the best in the world
but it’s really worth to track.
I believe that playing abroad is a one-way road
if you want to evolve in what we are doing…
if we stay here the things we will be able to do are limited as will be the amount of people we can approach eventually.
- Playing abroad is a great challenge for sure…
and I stand very much in favor of that.
You are singing something, you are saying something in your songs…
you have chosen to do that in English…
this means that you are addressing a universal audience…
whoever understands that language can listen to what you’re saying
and whoever listens to music can listen to what you’re playing.
I can’t imagine a reason not to try to be heard outside the borders of any country,
not only Greece, but any country at all.
There are people that support us,
they feel us...
and they want to do whatever they can…from England and elsewhere…
…let’s see.
It’s an opportunity for everyone
to listen to one another
and point out his positive assets…
in anything he listens to…to be able to say
“That’s nice and that one too”
…not to seek out immediately what annoyed him
or what he would have done better…
I think that’s what we messed up as a culture
along with our music and it doesn’t get us to some place that we should be reaching a bit faster.
We messed up the criticism, the “not all together” , to help each other out,
to listen to stuff…we are all together in this….we don’t do this as a people...
...unfortunately
Live at the Athens Planetarium, Archive footage by Eugenides Foundation (21/12/2012)
– Challenge is all there is in the scene…
I think that if you want to play something with your friends,
there’s no point in thinking about the difficulties of the scene,
or how difficult it is to get a gig, all that comes in the process.
I can’t point out something, the problems you may encounter
doing anything in Greece are the ones that you may encounter in music as well,
when you don’t follow a trodden path.
- You can’t do it alone.
It’s impossible to carry all that burden by yourself and do everything that is required.
Consider that if you do something like that in Greece, you have to be a sound engineer, producer,
musician, composer, lyricist…
later on a director, graphics designer, lighting technician…all there is.
So…one alone can’t manage.
Rehearsing in this place…
I would say it has been consorted with our needs, If I may say that,
but that’s the way it is….We wouldn’t be able to…
yes it’s adjusted
we wouldn’t be able to play elsewhere with the setup we have and
and with the comforts we have here, in any other studio.
Not every band out there has the convenience to rent a certain place
in which they will be able to play constantly, not having to deal with the stress that the clock is ticking
and someone has to pay for the studio…and they won’t look after you…
they’ll throw you in there, they’ll tell you to play and get on with it, your time is up, go.
There are many difficulties down the road we are on,
first of all the physical pain from carrying stuff when you have a gig…
Very often and until something big happens you will have to put your own money in it, in gear…
you will have to rehearse a lot. Consider that for me it takes forty five minutes to get here and forty five minutes to drive back home…
and from time to time I will have to do it four times a week. The sacrifices you have to undertake are infinite…
but if there is a great outcome and you see the things that you love come true, there is no actual sacrifice.
I don’t break free playing music…nevertheless
I feel like sinking deeper and deeper in what I am going through when I play music….
because when I compose something or when we play something in here that touches me in a certain way
and then I bolster it playing something else on top of it that I like and the final outcome sounds right in my ears
and touches me in those “sensitive strings” or whatever…I think I am sinking deeper into what I am going through…
and that I guess is my purpose personally when it comes to playing music…
to describe what I feel the best possible way…I don’t feel like running away from a certain situation…
nevertheless I am entering more into that and I see it in front of me.
Music has no limits. And when you like music, you don’t set a limitation and only listen to certain things…
every day you listen to things that influence you. You may have listened to just one band,
or a specific artist, or even a specific music genre and enjoy it for many years….that can also change…
it’s very fluid. You might listen to something today and be so influenced by it that the next day you can see a certain impact on your songs.
- I can’t tell you in one word what music is for me…
but, for me personally, it’s the easiest way to express myself…
the most direct….
and at the same time it’s a getaway.
- For me, music is waves…and that’s what we come from…
and let’s realize that we live with it and we are born with it and die with it…
that’s my humble opinion.
Life itself is music for us.
It’s weird…because you mentioned sacrifices…
and there are times in your life that you face difficulties and think that it would be much easier
if you didn’t have to do so many things that otherwise you do for your fun and your well-being…
and when you make that thought, you then think how you would be without all that…
and you end up realizing that you just couldn’t be….you wouldn’t be unhappy…
you just wouldn’t be able to be.
You know all of it is a game of... perspectives…
in the process of writing something you might come up with a word and then come across
something on the internet that helps you get deeper into what you want to point out…or even in the sound…
it’s a….how may I put it…
something limitless.
- It’s a game and a quest that’s fun
- …and fortunately it’s fun -Yes
…’Cause it wouldn’t be fun otherwise.
In the patterns of Fraud...
The world…
the stars and...
everything between us…
Thank you all for coming…
Coming up, “Misuse”, a great band.
Thank you, very much.