·
How did you go about creating Get Well Soon?
Did you have a defined vision of how you were going to express yourself? Has it
changed at all? Do you see it as an evolutionary process and if so what are the
triggers to change?
I can’t say I actually “created” GWS. The sound and imagery assemble
all the musical and artistic influences on me and my life, I guess. So I think
it was an actual vision, more like something that came naturally and therefore
it has definitely been changing and it still is, constantly. I’m only partly in
control of that. It’s my private little universe of topics and sounds. I try to
be open to any influence and everything can be such an influence. But I guess
that only a few work in the GWS context. That is very subjective – well, it’s
basically just my personal feeling and taste. So GWS is not a project that
always incorporates the latest fashion. I just keep on building my own private “theme-park”,
metaphorically speaking of course (unlike Michael Jackson).
·
How possible is it for Get Well Soon to
present a work that will be totally different from what we’re used to?
I sure hope that I will do something different with every record and
even every song. That’s definitely my aim. So far, I think it all makes sense
in the “GWS Universe”, but as I said, that is constantly expanding. So to
answer you question: I’d say it’s very possible and at some point I will try to
do something completely different. Repeating myself is one of my worst fears.
But I guess I’m not the one to tell if I succeed.
·
Going back in time. What was your musical
background? What or who do you see as your main influences and inspirations,
both musically and personally?
I grew up in a musical
family. My father’s a music teacher and therefore there was always music ever
since I can think. It was always the main thing at home. And that was only classical
music. So that’s the one major influence: Classical music. Of course as a
teenager I listened to punk and grunge music, but ever since then I try to have
an open ear for all kinds of music. From electronic to folk, from rock to
avantgarde. I even did my share of hip-hop. Therefore artists that incorporate
many different styles and constantly reinvent themselves are those, that I
respect the most. Like Bowie or Björk for example. Eclecticism is the word. I
think it’s Greek.
·
What motivates you at the moment? What have
you been listening to lately?
I was really busy
finishing my third album. In that period I hardly listen to current music,
because that always confuses me. But I do a lot of musical research until a
sound idea forms in my head. In that case it was a lot of 70s and 80s B-Movie
Soundtracks.
At the moment I’m working on an opera adaptation of Bulgakow’s “The Master And Margarita”,
so I’m trying to work my way into Russian culture and folklore.
·
What is your compositional process when you
write a song? Music or lyrics come first (you are strong bonded to both of
them)?
I can’t really say. I
always say that “an idea” comes first. Musical or lyrical. But I guess in most
cases it is musical. On “Vexations” I spent way more time writing the lyrics
than writing the music. On the latest album the lyrics came along pretty fast.
But that doesn’t mean they’re less important. On the contrary. Most of the
time, the “fast lyrics” are my favorites. The ones on “Vexations” were just
really heavy and complex. I think a song only works, if the lyrics do too. A
lot of people don’t care about lyrics at all. But I’m at least bothered by very
stupid lyrics. They don’t have to be deep, intellectual and meaningful. But a
lot of pop lyrics are just plain stupid and a bunch of clichés. I’m putting at
least that much effort into it to avoid that.
·
Both your full length albums have been very
well received garnering much critical acclaim. Do you now feel the swell of
expectation and public consciousness rising as your audience grows ever bigger?
I would be lying, if I
said that there was absolutely no pressure. I just hope and I already feel it’s
getting less. Because it’s a growth of experience, too. I’m not thinking about
enlarging my audience when I’m writing songs. And even if I did, I wouldn’t
know how to do it. I don’t know what to expect from myself, let alone what
people expect from me.
·
What do you think about the media that
promote music (websites, magazines) and to what extent can they have an
influence on a band’s sound?
I know that the media
coverage was very important for GWS. But I think it’s a big mistake to think
about what would please the critics while making music.
On the other hand, music magazines were a major influence to me as a teenager.
I grew up in a very rural area, so magazines were the only way to know what’s
going on in the musical world. And today with the internet, I think that’s
happening even more and even faster. The hype of this week is so over in the
next week. It’s simply too much work to keep track. So I guess, I just have to
be fine with the fact, that some people call my music “old-fashioned”. And I
hardly read music magazines today. I find other fields of art more
inspirational.
·
Were you ever tempted to sing in German and
why you haven’t done it till now?
When I started to write music and lyrics I was mostly influenced by
American bands and wnated to sound like them. Since then, it just became my
«routine». Everytime I try to writ ein German it feels very weird. The language
is very rough and edgy and doesn’t really work with my rather melodic musical
approach.
·
Your last album ‘Vexations’ had many
references to writers (Seneca, Sartre, Marx) and philosophical questions. Are
you considering this to be the basis of your next or a future album as well?
Since I just finished the
next album, I can assure you, it is not a topic. It’s “philosophical” on a much
rather personal level. But I can’t assure you that it won’t be a topic in the
future. It’s just what I’m interested in. It’s kind of a hobby. Again, it’s not
the most fashionable one. But I don’t care.
·
In ‘Vexations’, you are talking about fear,
sadness and negative energy in people’s lives. Since then, things have gotten
worse, because of the financial crisis and the climate change. What could save
humanity today?
I have no idea. I was so
tempted, and I guess every artist at the moment is, to make an album about the
apocalypse. And in some way I did, I’m sure.
Maybe it seems strange for me to say that, but: Humor helps a lot. I’m trying
very hard to take myself and things less serious. I didn’t make a “haha-funny”
album, but there is definitely way more irony and self-irony to it than to
“vexations”. Maybe Humor’s the last resort. But I’m not the first one to come
up with that.
·
You have studied Philosophy. Do you think
there could be new Enlightenment that would wake people up and maybe guide them
back to all the things they’ve lost (and this is something useful for Greeks
and for Germans too)? Could that happen through music?
I don’t think a very
theoretical and academic thing like the historical Enlightenment is what we
need at the moment. We need action. And there is action. Things are moving. If
it’s in Greece, in North Africa, in the whole damn financial world, even in
spoiled Germany. Things have gotten into motion, that can be abstracted to one
topic: people are no more willing to accept every bullshit that “those in
charge” decide over their heads. This is a fantastic thing. It is a state of
public awareness and disobedience. That is real enlightenment. Of course it is
very dramatic in some cases, but the tendency is very welcome, I think. And of
course music can be an organ and a voice for that. It has been in the past. I’m
not a political songwriter, but I strongly believe that music has a power that
shouldn’t be underestimated.
·
You
have a close relationship with cinema. Your songs for Wim
Wender’s ‘Palermo Shooting’, ‘Music For and From Films’ in ‘Vexations’ , Xanadu
and more. What initially inspired you foray into film music? Any favorite
directors you would love to work with?
I always loved movies and
soundtracks. “Once Upon A Time In The West” by Ennio Morricone was one of my
first records as a kid and it still is one of my favorites. So I always wanted
to do music for films. And after the release of the first GWS Album several
directors came to me and asked me to write music. It was like a dream come true:
I didn’t even have to ask. The list of directors I’d like to work with is very
long. My favorites (Kubrick and Hitchcock) are dead. Alive ones: Paul Thomas
Anderson or Wes Anderson or Polanski or… I could go on forever.
·
You
are cover lover. Do you choose favorite artists or songs? Or both?
Any song that you would love to ‘transform’?
Some sort of
“transformation” is important. If I choose a song, I would like to add
something to it or take a different approach on it. It doesn’t necessarily have
to be a favorite song or artist, that makes it even harder to transform. It
just has to feel like it’s going to work and that it means something to me. I
played a lot of Beach Boys songs lately. But they’re very hard to play. I’ll
have to find something simpler.
You’ll be in Switzerland
this summer with Sigur Ros. How do you feel about that?
I always admired Sigur
Ros for being so Avantgarde. What I mean by that is that they’re one of the
very few bands in the last 10 or 15 years that created a truly original sound.
They’re very unique and the music is just plain beautiful at the same time.
They’re the proof that original music can be harmonic and “easy” (in a positive
sense). I remember, I took my mother to a Sigur Ros Show 12 years ago.
Although I have to admit that I lost track of their work a little bit after
their first three albums. But I remember them as one of the best live-bands
ever. So I’m very curious and nervous. It will be tough to keep up.
Give us some hints about
the upcoming Get Well Soon album.
Well, I think, I already
did. It is definitely my most summerly-feeling Album and it is definitely my
Cinema-Album. That means mostly B-Movies and a lot of Italian ones. It is less
serious than “Vexations”, which I would describe as the most Classical
influenced one.
I tried to establish a sort of “classy trash aesthetic” on this third one. And
it is very vintage sounding. I hope that’s enough to get you curious and I am
looking forward to an extra Interview on the album.
·
You are back in Greece again and we are
really looking forward to see you in Athens and Thessaloniki. Any teaser for
your audience?
We are very exciting to
be back. We’ll be playing some new songs, but also the smash-hits of our
back-catalogue, of course. We welcome spontaneous song-wishes as long as
they’re out of the common-knowledge-karaoke-catalogue and we also welcome guest
performances on stage. Those that show up dressed as the German Minister of
Finances Schäuble will get free admission.
Get Well Soon @ 8ball Thessaloniki (26.04.2012)
Get Well Soon @ Passport Athens (27.04.2012)
