Hi guys, tell us when you formed your group?
The band was formed back in 1995 by me (Tasos the drummer) and Elias (guitarist) after a jam in a studio. It was immediately clear that we had a lot to share, as we had the same taste in music and same attitude. We enjoyed very much playing music together, so we started recording our first album, on our own expenses, without wondering where this could lead. The other two guys who came in the band couldn’t last too long because the circumstances were too difficult and they couldn’t dedicate the time that was needed for the band after a while, when the whole thing demanded a more professional approach. You see, we all have to work for living. This is not our profession.
Your album contains scents of Classic Rock and metal, are the sounds that most previligiate?
This is the music that we grew up with, so it was obvious that we would go to that direction, but we like to involve other elements too, which may not be so easily recognized, but we know where we stole them from… hehe!
What is the source for inspiration for the lyrics? Who writes them?
Tasos has done most of the writing for this album along with Elias who wrote two songs and Angello who wrote three. There are of course two songs written by Mr Di’anno. All the lyrics are inspired from personal life’s experiences or feelings (mostly ugly feelings) that can’t be described in a conversation. We also have songs that criticize what happens to the world nowadays.
How you met and involved in the project, the great singer Paul Di anno?
This was and still is beyond our wildest dreams. There is a promoter here in Greece, a good friend of mine that wanted to book Di anno for a mini Greek tour in 2008. This guy knew that Di anno likes to give a chance and to cooperate with new musicians and bands so he goes like “hey, I got a great band here in Greece would you like to check them out?” Paul says “why not!” So we made a demo with a couple of old Maiden songs, sent it to him and here is Mr Di anno himself in the studio with us rehearsing. It was a fantastic experience and he liked us not only as musicians but as guys he could hang out and have a couple of beers with. We had some good laughs when we were touring. The tour went pretty well so he says, let’s do this again in the future. So the second time we did a bigger tour and right before the last gig I came up with the big question. I gave him the demos, he heard them and says “I like them, I’m in”. This is the biggest moment in our musical career.
I mean this is the guy that we grew up listening to and now we get to make music with him? Unbelievable!!! That teaches us a very good lesson too. Keep our feet on the ground, do our job well, have the proper attitude and good things will come.
pic courtesy by Prassein _Aloga facebook
Do you think that English is the universal language now?
We think that every kind of music has its own language. Rock music in general has to be in English as latin music sounds better with Spanish lyrics in my opinion. Byzantine music needs Greek. We made five albums with Greek lyrics ‘cause we thought our music will never pass the borders and we could maybe communicate better with the Greek audience. So given this tremendous opportunity to have the great Di anno featured in our album, we thought there might be people that are curious to see what this band is all about.
What are the reasons by which you decide to give your band the name “Prassein Aloga”?
Prassein Aloga is an ancient Greek expression that means “to act irrationally” to do things that seem stupid to the common sense, but to your self is the most logical thing you can do. If I can give an example, most people feel nice and popular having 2000 digital friends on facebook and many are competing each other. To them it seems natural. We as a band have a “profile” feeling this is the only way we can promote our music. But beside that we’ve built a whole bar in the loft of my store just to meet with our friends and meet with people who really want to know us face to face and the drinks are on us. That may seem irrational. But to us is the best thing to do. I am sure that the name is hard to pronounce but we had that name from the beginning and we wanted Greek audience to know that this is the same band. It represents us very well.
Your album will be promoted in international media, what are your expectations?
We feel that we have done wonderful things already and we are very happy at the point we are now. If there are more to come we will celebrate, if not that’s ok. We will still gather, play our music and have fun in our bar. We don’t believe that we will conquer the world with our music. If we can communicate through our music with people outside Greece, that’s a great deal for us. If there are 10 people, or 100, or 1000, it would be great. We don’t think that we will make a living out of music. But performing live outside Greece is still a dream for us.
How did you decide to sign the record deal with Mirco DeFox’s HEART OF STEEL RECORDS?
Well, we thought we got Di anno, we got the proper language, why don’t we try sending demos out of the borders and see what happens. Mirco was the guy who seem so sincere to us from the beginning by saying “listen guys…I’m not going to make you the new Metallica, but I’m gonna put my love and passion to the project”, and that’s exactly what we need. A dude that likes our work and willing to support it. Plus he’s a musician himself and understands things better. He also liked our name too hehe!!! We did our research on the internet first, but we decided immediately when Mirco responded to us.
To promote the record are you planning a live tour?
Yes, we are already making plans for a Greek tour as we did many times before. We’ve done many cities in Greece from 1997 and we will go through this again. Unfortunately, Greece is the only country we will be touring, since we have neither the connections nor the budget to support a tour out of the borders.
How big is the satisfaction of playing in concert with Scorpions, Dokken, Di anno?
I guess it would be a great deal for any band to be able to play in a concert with these monsters. How much more for us? To be able to perform on that stage in an open arena with that sound system is something else! We played really well and the audience was very supportive. I mean they knew who we are, but they were expecting from us to be able to stand up for this challenge. We believe we’ve done well, considering their reaction. But this is not the big thing. To get to be in one of the best hotels in Crete and have drinks and laughs by the pool with Dokken, James Kottak , Pawel Maciwoda, Mick Brown and all these guys is too much for us to believe. As we were sitting and laughing we look at each other and say “hey, are we really living this?” And if you get to hear flattering words from these guys seeming like they really mean it, that’s the great satisfaction. We felt like we were rock stars for 4 days.
I would like to have your own point of view about the poor sales of the CD’s, it’s caused by the internet? Technological development? Or it’s changed the mentality of the fans?
Well, when we were searching out for good music back in the 80’s we didn’t have the internet, we couldn’t download anything, we didn’t even have radio stations to hear what is new. There were magazines that kept us updated but still we had to order an album from a record store in order to listen to a new band. There was a kind of piracy with the famous “tape trading” those days but if an album was good we would still go and buy it or order it. This scene got bigger by its own fans, and there wasn’t a serious damage for the record companies. Nowadays things are different. Anyone can download anything at anytime and this is a big problem for the record companies and music stores. It’s much better for the bands now to reach people as there are many web radios from all over the world you can listen to and it’s very easy for someone who wants to search the current underground scene in any country to do so. I mean we wouldn’t have done this interview now if it wasn’t for the technological development. The mentality of the fans has changed a bit. When we were hearing something good, back in the 80’s, we wanted to buy the album just to have the best audio quality of the music and we all were collectors. We spent our money in hi fi audio systems and big speakers and so. Today if you download an album it’s the same quality with the actual cd and there’s no need to buy it. Most of the people are listening music through their computers now. Very few bother to buy a cd for their collection. It’s all in the USB stick. We’ve lost the romance. Another bad thing that happens today is that any band can sound great with the help from a “pro tools” or all these plug ins that exist. But many times we have witnessed bands that were not what we expected. The old days it was like, what you hear is what you get.
You’re certainly not an international mainstream band, how do you judge the underground music scene?
There are many good bands and even more talented musicians. We always believed that underground scene should be more innovative and not afraid to touch things. It’s seems like there is a lack of innovation the last years in the metal scene but then again who the hell are we to judge other people’s music. But truly we believe there are wonderful new musicians that keep the scene alive after all these years and this is great.
You are a cult group in Greece, you tell us a few funny anecdotes, in the past?
Are we? We don’t think so. There were many funny moments though, but here is the best. We were performing in Kefallonia island at an event that was organized by the municipality of the city, but the weird thing was that it was an open air festival in the middle of the winter to celebrate new years eve and the temperature was 2 degrees below zero and raining. There was no tent above the stage. Despite all this, there was crowd gathered for the event. We started playing when the rain stopped but after half an hour it starts again, so people start to run and hide under the sheds and tents of nearby stores, watching the show, singing and headbanging from there. When the rain was stopping they were gathering again in front of the stage. That happened three or four times until we are all wet and static electricity starts to strike our singer every time he touches the microphone with his lips. Every once in a while you were hearing a big “ouch!!!” in the lyrics. It was ridiculous!!! Then suddenly a crazy guy steps on the stage and starts dancing and “moonwalking” like Michael Jackson for a couple of songs. That was it. The crowd gathered and never left again until the end when we were all wet and freezing.
interview by Ivan Dragomilov
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