National
Pornographic
Stoner rock is not
something that we listen usual here in Greece. NATIONAL PORNOGRAPHIC are
one of the few bands that play this kind of music in their own way though.
You see their sound has a lot of atmospheric parts that brings to your
mind THE GATHERING. Chrysa, the frontwoman of the band tries to tell us
few more things about the musical visions of her band...
1.HELLO CHRYSA, SINCE I DON'T KNOW MANY THINGS
FOR
YOUR BAND, EXCEPT FOR YOUR MUSIC, CAN YOU
GIVE ME SOME INFORMATION ABOUT THE BAND'S HISTORY AND LINE UP?
-
Hello Nick, the band exists from the beginning
of 2001 with this line-up : Sakis(ex-Animocity,ex-Lauriel Path,now Agnes
Vein) guitars,Foivos(Circle of mushrooms,Sicks daze)drums, Elias (ex -
Almost heaven,Sicks Daze) bass and me on vocals.
2.NATIONAL PORNOGRAPHIC IS A VERY STRANGE NAME.
HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH IT?
-
Not that strange after all concidering that there
are at least 3 bands with the same name! The whole “name” thing started
when we had to print the posters for our first gig and we still didn’t
have a name! Sakis came up with the idea and we agreed to change it after
a while,but we liked it after all so we kept it this way.
3.YOUR MUSIC HAS A STRONG 70S HARD ROCK/ROCK FEELING,
BUT I'VE ALSO NOTICED SOME ATMOSPHERIC PARTS. HOW DO YOU DESCRIBE THE MUSIC
YOU CREATE AND WHICH BANDS AND ARTISTS IN GENERAL HAVE INFLUENCED YOU?
-
Each one of us listens to many different kinds
of music although we all have some common influences. For example,we all
listen to bands like Kyuss,Queens of The Stone Age,Isis,Porcupine
Tree,Neurosis but this doesn’t mean that we all have the exact same preferences.
So,I can’t really describe our music…I guess it’s a mixture of many different
elements.
4.CHRYSA I DON'T KNOW IF OTHERS HAVE TOLD YOU,
BUT IN SOME MOMENTS YOUR VOICE BRINGS TO MIND ANNEKE FROM THE GATHERING.
DO YOU AGREE? HAVE YOU TAKEN ANY LESSONS TO IMPROVE YOUR VOCALS OR IS THIS
A NATURAL TALENT YOU HAVE?
-
Anneke(together with Elisabeth Frazer, Lisa Gerard,
Skin, Beth Gibbons, Bjork, Loreena McKennit) is one of my very favourite
female vocalists.She’s one of the most talented and emotional frontwomen
I know.All mentioned above,have influenced me one way or another…This whole
thing is very important for me that’s why I’ve been taking lessons for
4 years now.
5.I THINK THAT ONE OF THE DREAMS EVERY BAND HAS
IS TO PLAY LIVE. SO, DO YOU HAVE ANY PLANS FOR LIVE SHOWS? DO YOU PLAY
ANY COVER SONGS, DURING YOUR LIVES? IF YES, WHICH BANDS DO YOU PREFER TO
COVER?
-
We try to play live whenever we have the opportunity.One
of our latest performances was with The Gathering at Mylos Club and with
Sicks Daze+Agnes Vein a couple of days later.We like to cover some songs
during gigs.We always do!We’ve covered Queens of The Stone Age,Smashing
Pumpkins,Black Sabbath,Massive Attack among others.
6.IF I AM NOT MISTAKEN, YOU HAVE SUPPORTED ANTIMATTER,
WHEN THEY CAME TO GREECE FOR LIVE SHOWS. SHARE THIS EXPERIENCE WITH US...
-
We supported Antimatter about a year ago.Being
on the same stage with Duncan Patterson was a honour for us and a beautiful
experience although our music differs a lot from Antimatter’s.
7.HAVE YOU SENT THE DEMO TO ANY MAGAZINES AND
LABELS? IF YES, WHAT KIND OF FEEDBACK DID YOU RECEIVE? HOW DID THE FANS
OF THIS MUSIC, ACCEPT YOUR DEMO?
-
We’ve sent the demo to some magazines,e-zines
and gave free copies (almost 400)to people that asked for it.Almost everybody
liked it (so they said at least!) and considered this as something new
for the greek underground scene, especially because it’s not into metal.
And that made us very happy of course…!
8.WHICH IS, ACCORDING TO YOU, THE BEST AND WHICH
THE
WORST PART IN YOUR MUSIC? WHICH IS YOUR TRADEMARK?
-
That’s a difficult one! It’s up to people’s judgement
if we have good and bad parts in our music and which are these.The only
thing that we can do is trying to improve ourselves in what we do.As for
our trademark…I don’t know if I can justify it. We try to make ourselves
recognizable to people. I hope we’ll manage that!
9.THE SONG "SOUND VERSE" IS REPRESENTED ON YOUR
DEMO IN 2 VERSION, A MIX AND A REMIX. WHICH ARE THE MAIN DIFFERENCES BETWEEN
THEM? WHY DID YOU DO THAT AND WHY DID YOU SELECT THIS SONG IN PARTICULAR?
-
The only difference between them is that at the
remix,the drums have a slight distortion.There wasn’t a purpose for this.We
wanted our drummer to hear this specific sound cause we like the experiments
with sounds. So we’ve put it together with the other 3 tracks and it automatically
became a part of the demo.
10.DO YOU THINK THAT THE USE OF A FEMALE VOCALIST
IN A HARD ROCK BAND, CAN EARN SOME MORE ATTENTION EASIER? ESPECIALLY MEN'S
ATTENTION... DID YOU FACE ANY PROBLEMS FROM NARROW MINDED PEOPLE WHO DON'T
EASILY ACCEPT WOMEN IN THIS BRANCH? SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS WITH US...
-
Lots have been said about this. To be honest,
people may pay more attention to a band with a female vocalist because
it’s not something that happens very often and it’s always nice to see
a female presence on stage. But in the end music is what matters. Personally
I didn’t have any problems so far and I hope it stays this way!
11.IF YOUR MUSIC WERE AN EMOTION, WHAT WOULD IT
BE? IF IT WERE A PAINTING, WHAT WOULD IT SHOW?
-
I don’t know what emotion could describe our music
better.Some times it’s sad music and some others it’s quite happy.But I’d
like it to be intense.If it was a painting,it would be something abstract,
that’s for sure!
12.WHICH FAMOUS PERSONALITY (DEAD OR ALIVE) WOULD
YOU LIKE TO HAVE MET AND WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO ASK HIM?
-
I’d like to have met Janis Joplin for many reasons…Don’t
know exactly what would I ask.I’d try to figure out some parts of her personality
as I think that she was really mysterious.
13.IF WE LIVED IN A WORLD WITHOUT MUSIC, WHAT
WOULD
YOU DO? WHERE WOULD YOU CHANNEL YOUR CREATIVITY?
-
A world without music?? That would be terrible!
Maybe I’d become a painter or something…!
14.WHICH WORDS DO YOU THINK COULD BEST DESCRIBE
NATIONAL PORNOGRAPHIC AND YOUR MUSIC?
-
4 close friends making music and having fun! Our
music? When stoner,experimental,fusion,rock and other parts of music collide!
15.THANK YOU! HAVE I FORGOTTEN TO ASK YOU ANYTHING
AND YOU'D LIKE TO MENTION?
-
Mmm,I think we’ve said it all! Thank you very
much for your nice questions.Keep on supporting the greek scene because
really good things are happening here too…!
Nikos "William_Kidd" Parastatidis
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