KINETIC
As I wrote and in my review
for the compilation of GREECE ATTACKS I believe that KINETIC belong to
the leaders of the Greek Metal scene, not only cause of the experience
that the members of this group have, but also cause their music is quiet
unique and very clever played. Yes, my friends you won't listen to their
new album a repetition of the cliches of death metal music, but compositions
with variety. Savvas, bass player and vocalist of the band replied
to our answers, which will help you to find out few thingd more about KINETIC...
1.HELLO SAVVAS! MY CONGRATULATIONS
FOR YOUR DEBUT ALBUM, WHICH IS VERY GOOD! TELL US A FEW THINGS ABOUT IT:
ARE YOU SATISFIED WITH THE FINAL RESULT? PERHAPS ANYTHING YOU'D LIKE TO
CHANGE? WHICH ARE YOUR EXPECTATIONS FROM IT?
Thank you, hello everyone! Yes,
our “The Chains that Bind Us” is finally out. It took about 8 months in
the studio, many hours, a lot of patience and our best temper for having
this result. It includes 11 songs and a video clip for “Never Ending Winter”,
a song which was featured in our demo in 2003 and now it is re-recorded.
Our style remains between Swedish and American Death Metal, including some
Power Metal influences. We gave our 100% on everything and I don`t think
there is something important we`d like to change. As for our expectations…we
want to be loved by every Death/Power fan.
2.SINCE YOU ARE A NEW BAND CAN YOU
TELL US A FEW THINGS ABOUT YOUR HISTORY AND HOW YOU'VE DECIDED TO FORM
KINETIC? ALSO YOU HAVE PLAYED TO SOME QUIET KNOWN BANDS IN THE GREEK UNDERGROUND
SCENE. CAN YOU NAME THEM?
Our story begun two years ago.
As you mention we`re a brand new band but as personalities we`re not new
in the scene. I was in ACID DEATH on bass and vocals for 12 years, this
was a Progressive Death Metal band, Manolis Mamas and Stavros Bonikos,
our guitarists, were in BRAIN FADE, a Power Metal band and Costas Alexakis,
our drummer used to play drums in WISDOM a typical Heavy Metal band. Since
we were friends over the past years, when our bands stopped we met each
other with the thought of making a new beginning. So KINETIC were born.
Having enough material and creating a respectable number of songs in just
one year, we recorded a demo-CD back in 2003. With this demo we managed
to find a deal with the ascended SLEASZY RIDER RECs and in November of
2004 our 1st full length was out…
3.I CAN'T CATEGORIZE YOUR MUSIC EASILY,
CAUSE YOU HAVE MANAGED TO MIX MELODIC DEATH METAL WITH POWER AND THRASH
METAL. HOW DID YOU ACHIEVE THAT? HAVE YOU PLANNED TO DO A BAND AND PLAY
THIS KIND OF MUSIC OR WAS IT SOMETHING SPONTANEOUS?
In fact everyone from us just brought
his influences in the band. You know, back in 2003 when the line up was
complete and we were speaking to friends about the members the comment
was…”there is a bassist-vocalist from Death Metal, two guitarists from
Power Metal and a drummer from Heavy Metal…what the hell they want to do
with this band???” I think it isn`t so difficult for someone to give a
category to our music. It is fast, melodic Death/Thrash. The influences
from Power Metal, or even some Industrial are existing but not sovereign.
I think this is our secret…how we could put together so many different
musical branches with enough harmony…
4.AS I WROTE IN MY REVIEW YOU REMINDED
ME OF BANDS LIKE KREATOR, CONTROL DENIED AND RAGE. ARE THESE BANDS AMONGST
YOUR INFLUENCES? WHICH ARE YOUR FAVORITE ARTISTS AND NAME 5 OF YOUR ALL
TIME FAVORITE METAL ALBUMS.
It is an honour for us to be in
someone`s mind near these megatherions!! Yes, I dare saying these bands
are some of our favourite ones but not only. I can number numerous bands
and artists who constitute our influences… but if I try to find 5 all time
favourite Metal albums… here are:
1. DEATH “Human”
2. ARCH ENEMY “Wages Of Sin”
3. WASP “The Last Command”
4. ACCEPT “Balls To The Wall”
5. DREAM THEATRE “Images And Words”
But these are not enough…….
5.YOUR MUSIC IS VERY INTERESTING! SO
DID YOU SEND YOUR DEMO TO LABELS ABROAD OR JUST HERE IN GREECE? DID YOU
HAVE ANY PROPOSALS FROM LABELS ABROAD AND FINALLY WHY DID YOU CHOOSE TO
SIGN WITH SLEASZY RIDER?
Well, having a good demo - as everyone
said – helps. We tried our best. We spread it all over the world, to labels,
zines, radio stations…the typical work that a new band has to do. Of course
we gave enough copies to many labels. Everyone has a good word to say and
this gave us a lot of courage and hope to continue. You know, the most
laborious thing for a new band is to spread its name and to make the fans
give enough attention to it. Having some offers from some labels we finally
chose Sleaszy Rider. Of course it isn`t a big label but the main person
behind the label has the patience and the power to fight for the band’s
in its roster. We hope everything goes well…
6.YOU HAVE ALSO DONE A VIDEOCLIP FOR
THE SONG "NEVERENDING WINTER". CAN YOU TELL US WHY YOU CHOSE THIS SONG?
WHICH IS THE STORY OF THE VIDEO CLIP AND WHO DIRECTED IT? DO YOU HAVE PLANS
TO DO VIDEOCLIPS FOR OTHER SONGS INCLUDED IN YOUR ALBUM AS WELL?
Making a video-clip was a new experience
for us… No one from us had done it in the past. I`ll never forget the 5
hours we played “Never Ending Winter” again and again the director`s anger
we created by laughing all the time with everything happening around… and
many other things. We just chose this song having the thought it was one
of the most interesting songs of the album. The video-story is very simple.
A person who is disappointed from everything in his life, living in his
own “dark” place being into madness. We tried to attribute the song`s idea
in this video and I think we made it. There is a thought of making another
video, maybe for “Heed These Words”.
7.MY FAVORITE SONGS FROM YOUR ALBUM
ARE "NEVERENDING WINTER" AND "LAST CALL FOR REACTION". WHICH ARE YOUR FAVORITE
COMPOSITIONS INCLUDED HERE? WHICH SONG WOULD YOU PLAY TO SOMEONE THAT DOESN'T
KNOW YOU AS THE MOST REPRESENTATIVE OF YOUR SOUND?
Ehhh….Well…this is a very difficult
question for someone who creates something like that…I dare to say we like
all the songs on this album without any special preferences, but we think
“Never Ending Winter” is the song that we would play to someone who doesn`t
know some things for us. Just a small preference…
8.RECENTLY YOU HAVE PARTICIPATED IN
THE COMPILATION GREECE ATTACKS. HOW DID YOU DECIDE TO DO THAT? WHAT DO
YOU THINK ABOUT SUCH EFFORTS? WHICH OTHER BANDS THAT PARTICIPATED IN GREECE
ATTACKS DID YOU LIKE AND WHY?
We just sent our “Soul Emotion
Flesh” demo to the label which had this compilation idea. They chose “Realms
Of Nightmare”. We liked the idea of being included in this compilation…The
man who had “Greece Attacks” idea had the best temper and knowledge of
how this will be a good release, that`s the way it was out in digipack
version, with a good advertising….The problem was that many of the bands
had the thought that this was just a game, not a professional CD released
on a professional label. Most of the songs have a impossibly BAD production
for nowadays standards and this has nothing to do with the label which
released this CD. I didn`t understand this reason… If you have something
good just use it, if you don`t just stay at home!!! I think it would be
better for some bands not to be featured in this CD at all than to be featured
with a bad or bad-produced song, just because everyone will remember them
from this bad attendance. Anyway there are some very good bands in this
comp I liked very much SHADOWS DANCE, CROSSOVER, ACID BABY, W.E.B. and
EMERALD. Five different bands, five different songs from one to the other…
9.HAVE YOU SEEN THE OLIVER STONE'S
MOVIE "ALEXANDER"? WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT IT? HOW DO YOU COMMENT ALL THE
PROBLEMS THAT THE CHANNELS TRIED TO CREATE BEFORE WE'VE EVEN SEEN THE MOVIE?
I think this movie is a big shame
for the person he created it. You know, there are some things in every
nation which can be characterized as SACRED!!! Who is this person who knows
the Hellenic History so good that he presents Alexander like a gay or anything
else??? Or even who gave him the right to use such historical personalities
to create an “epic” movie? Can you imagine what would happen if there was
a Greek director who would present John Kennedy or Abraham Lincoln like
that in a movie? Furthermore I don`t like the idea of making movies for
historical persons. Who can say that he knows History so good that he can
attribute certainties in a 2 or 3 hours movie?
10.DO YOU THINK THAT ART MUST BE FREE
EVEN IF IT IS PROVOCATIVE? CAN YOU IMAGINE WHAT WILL HAPPEN IF ARTISTS
BEFORE CREATING SOMETHING, HAVE TO ASK THE PEOPLE IF THEIR WORK WILL OFFEND
THEM OR NOT?
Of course art must be free! It
must be free and the people will decide if something is good or bad. Provocation
is a general meaning, which everyone interprets it with many ways. Something
that is provocative for someone is not provocative for someone else.
11.NOW BACK TO THE ALBUM AND PLEASE
TELL ME WHICH ARE THOSE "CHAINS THAT BIND US"? WHAT DO YOU THINK PEOPLE
HAVE TO DO, IF THEY WANT TO BREAK THEM?
“The Chains” are all the Human
feelings good or bad. These feelings bind the Humans and make them think
positive or negative. By breaking these chains, by sweeping away the meaning
of feeling, we have a “Human Dispersal”. We’re made by flesh and spirit.
If spirit gets lower, flesh gets unscrupulous…
12.THE LYRICS ALSO ARE VERY DARK, REALISTIC
AND AT THE SAME TIME ESOTERICAL. WHO WRITES THEM? WHICH IS IN A FEW WORDS
THE THEME OF EACH SONG INCLUDED IN YOUR ALBUM?
“Lyrics” is a part which interests
us. This is the 50% of one song. I have written enough lyrics in the album,
Manolis Mamas and Costas Aleakis enough too. With a few words, all the
songs describe these Human feelings, like Horror, Annihilation, Isolation
through true or imaginary stories. There is enough allegory in all the
lyrics and I have the idea that everyone will give a different meaning
to every song…
13.IF YOU HAD THE CHANCE TO COOPERATE
WITH FAMOUS MUSICIANS WHO WOULD YOU CHOOSE AND WHY?
Hehehe!! That`s another difficult
question! OK, I`ll just share my dreams with you… It would be honour for
me to cooperate with Chuck Schuldiner, if he was in life, he was the man
who made me get in touch with Death Metal, with Eddie Van Hallen just because
of the new ways he devised on guitar sounds and performing and with Mike
Portnoy just because he`s a fucking Great drummer and a great personality!
14.HOW DID THE ZINES AND FANS RECEIVE
YOUR ALBUM TILL NOW? WHICH WAS THE MEANEST REVIEW YOU'VE EVER READ? DID
YOU GET ANY GOOD COMMENTS FROM METAL FANS FROM ABROAD?
Generally there is enough positive
feedback for our album and this makes us happy. There are even fans out
of Death/Thrash who have a good word to say for it. The same happens with
zines. I hope these good comments continue!!!
15.THANK YOU SAVVAS FOR THIS INTERVIEW.
NOW IT'S TIME FOR ME TO STOP THE QUESTIONS AND LET YOU WRITE WHATEVER YOU
WANT! ALSO MAKE A WISH ABOUT CHRISTMAS AND THE NEW YEAR...
Thanks as well for this presentation.
We`re waiting your comments at www.kinetic-band.gr.
Best wishes for the new year for everyone. Take care!
Nick “William_Kidd”
Parastatidis
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