Ελληνικά
Last Updated on 07:13 PM by Giorgos Tsekas
“No I don’t feel Invictus. But i’ll tell you that, i am a tough motherfucker”. An interview with George Kollias about his latest solo album entitled Invictus! Reeeeeaaaad!
Good evening George! In which corner of the earth are you now? Is everything going well?
In Brazil at the moment on a short Nile tour, having a great time as usual, the fans here are out of control! Everything is going great, there are 4 more shows to go and then back home for the summer.
Before we start the interview, I just want to congratulate you on Invictus! It’s a truly one-of-a-kind album with killer riffs and extraterrestrial drumming that is targeted on the songs and not just speeding or soloing purposeless. Since 2009, when I first heard the “Aeons of Burning Galaxies” (everyone should see the videoclip), I was waiting for this release! A hell of an appetizer! Now, the studio version is even better I must say. How are fans responding to the album so far?
Thank you for the great words!
Support from the fans? Like i would never expect… Seriously the amount of support i got from everyone about this album (fans and label) is amazing! I couldn’t ask for more, things are going just better every single day. I saw some great reviews and i am very happy about it, but i see the fans responding with the best comments, everyone seems to enjoy this album a lot so that is the best for me anyways.
How many years have you been writing and composing “Invictus”? How different is this material from what you have been playing with your regular bands throughout the years (Nile, Nightfall, Sickening Horror…)?
It’s been many years, but there was no goal to release an album, i was just writing songs for my DVDs and after each DVD was out i posted some Drum-Cam videos on my YouTube, fans got into the songs a lot and then they started asking me to release a full album. This is how the whole project started actually, i decided to make an album for the fans, they were the ones they have been asking for it anyways. But when i finally decided to release “Invictus”, i had to sit down and complete it by writing another 5-6 songs which most of them is included in there.
The material is way different than anything I did with my bands, or even session bands i recorded with. I think actually that all my “official”4 bands are way different to each other anyways, but this album is also another one with its own character. Since i am an active drummer in Nile now some people might think it sounds like Nile, I mean it’s a fast and technical album and features the same drummer, but that’s not the case. “Invictus” is more simple to understand, guitar riffing is more dark and melodic, i think the whole album goes on the Black Metal side a bit too. It would be very stupid to do something similar to my bands anyways, Ι mean what’s the reason to do something like that? Maybe money but this album is a free give away too, so money is not…
“Buried under the Flames” begins with a Christian Orthodox psalm. Which one is it? Are you religious? In the album there are 2 more songs (“Apocalypse”, “Epitaph”) that could be related to religion. Actually, is there a specific concept?
That is funny, i never thought about this till you said it, hahaha… Well, no, that is not the case. Each song is talking about different things and they don’t connect to each other…For “Buried Under the Flames” intro i wanted to use a piece of the culture of Greece, the music of Greece, such is Byzantine Music. I think it’s just beautiful…That is what i celebrate there and i wanted to introduce it to the people outside Greece. It’s a part of an orthodox psalm and i’m willing to use more of these in the near future, i have many friends who are into it and helped me with this as well.
Correct me if I am wrong, but is this the first time a metal drummer goes solo and stays away from the mic?
I think you mean “close” to the mic, cause i am singing the whole album too, hahaha. It’s been a while since the last time i did vocals and that was in Nightfall where i had the backing vocals for our shows. For Extremity Obsession i was the drummer and lead vocalist but that is just a long time ago.
The whole idea about this project was to do it all alone, play every instrument and sing in there too, as well as write every little part or lyric. So it is 100% a one-man-band, and i had a lot of fun doing that. I mean this is the way i will be going with this anyways, there were no plans to create a band, i just do this cause i love writing, that’s all. Having said that, i had a few guests in the album (mostly guitar players) doing a solo for me, just cause my guitar solo skills are not that good, hahaha. I do a couple solos in there but i wanted some more for the songs and i invited Rusty Cooley, Theodore Ziras, Yiannis Papadopoulos, George Emmanuel, Mike Papadopoulos and Dallas and Karl from Nile. There are also 2 more guests, Bob Katsionis who did a synth solo on Apocalypse, and Andreas Trapalis who did a violin solo on the Bonus Version of Apocalypse. Last, i have Mike Breazeale doing the speech on the intro of the album as well as Efthimis Karadimas, my bandmate in Nightfall, do a full song on vocals on the Bonus Version of the song “Voices”. It was damn fun to have these guys play on the album!
Do you feel Invictus? Do you feel that you have climbed your mountains? Or are there a few more peaks to step on? By the way, the cover art is amazing! Manster did a very good job…again!
Hahaha, no i don’t feel Invictus. But i’ll tell you that, i am a tough motherfucker and i never compromise with anything, whatever i did in my life so far was things i wanted to do and many times i had to go against to what people advised me to. For example, i remember when i was 12-13 and all i wanted was to play Thrash-Death and a few people would make fun of me telling me that with this style i wouldn’t go anywhere, but now i tour the world by doing the same thing. There is only a few people who supported what i wanted to do, and they are all still a part of my close “brotherhood”circle.
I think I have climbed enough mountains already, most of them with my motorcycle hahaha. Seriously, I have gone through many difficult situations in my life but i always believe that if you want something that much you have to go to that direction no matter how difficult will get sometimes. And it never ends, there are so many things i want to do and i am going on that direction full throttle! I never stop! I think having dreams and targets in your life is what keeps you going, if you loose your direction you are basically fucked…That’s what i always say to whoever ask me any advice, always follow your dream and never forget your roots, never forget when you started from.
The cover is out of control, i agree with you of course! Manster is just amazing, as soon as i saw the cover i said “that’s the one”! And he is not only an incredible talented guy but a very professional one and super cool too, we are good friends with Manster and we will definitely keep working together for the near future!
You have started your career in Corinth with Extremity Obsession and now you play at the heavy metal premier league with Nile and teach drumming techniques around the world. What force keeps you going on?
I’m very proud for everything i have done so far, well not everything, but i don’t feel i have done much yet. There are so many thing i want to do and so many things i will work very hard to achieve, and that’s only for personal reasons, personal satisfaction. What drives me is definitely my love for music and for the instrument, simply.
I still remember every moment from my early years with Extremity Obsession, those were the best actually, i miss them like crazy. I remember how much we had to work in order to get on stage and do what we wanted to do, and now everything is easy. Like i said earlier, not forgetting your roots is the most important thing in life and the key to never loose your direction. This is how we appreciate things in life.
Should we expect to see Invictus being played live at some point, or this is not gonna happen due to your extended touring with Nile?
Nile’s schedule is not that crazy, thankfully, cause even i love played shows around the world i don’t like to be away from home 9 months a year. We tour a lot, but not like some other bands who tour non stop, and i mean non stop! The problem with me though is my drum activities such is my drum clinics, drum camps, festivals, my DVDs/Books and everything i do aside from Nile that takes my free time and then get me busy as hell. But it is a choice, it’s me that makes this! I love being busy with music, that’s all.
There are already plans to get Invictus live on a clinic tour, so it will be again a one-man project but still the fans will have the chance to see it live and chat/hang out with me too. There are also some other thoughts about getting a band together for a couple tours, just to go out there and have some fun you know? Still not sure about that so i can’t tell you much, but if this happens i guarantee you will be something super special otherwise we won’t do it at all.
Being a drummer is a hard work, not just mentally, but also physically. Not to mention being a death metal hyper fast one! I saw some photos with your blood spilt all over your drumkit…How do you survive long tours?
Hahaha, yeah sometimes you might hit your fingers to the snare rim for example and since you can’t stop the show the whole drum kit gets covered in blood, i had this accident a few times. Yes drumming is difficult but not as much as it looks from the outside, for us who do it for years and -most important- loving it, it is a lifestyle. And if get back to chose an instrument again i would definitely choose drums again.
The thing about tours is just taking care of yourself as much as possible; it’s not easy being away from home and especially when you have a motorhome for over a month. It’s difficult and can be very unhealthy if you have the bad luck to have some dirty motherfuckers on your band/crew, hahaha. I have seen everything though and i just try to watch myself as much as possible. I have huge problems with food when we tour outside Europe cause i am a fan of European cuisine only but I manage to make it through, I love drinking but i never drink heavy alcohol which helps too, i also drink lots of water which is number one important thing on the road and let’s not forget that drumming keeps you more fit than anything else on stage. So all the above helps me to survive…
Since you are living in-between countries for long periods of time, where do you feel is your home (apart from being on stage)?
Of course in Greece, i never moved to any other place with the exception being in the US for long periods of time to work, such is rehearsals/recordings etc. I like many places i visit but i think nothing feels like home, that’s the way i see it. Europe in general is what i feel home compared to the rest of the world though, it’s just closer to our culture here, many similar things. But there are so many beautiful places around the world and i feel so blessed i have been there to see most of them, and it’s not going to stop cause right now i also arrange some shows in places i never been before, that will be very interesting! It’s so great when you visit a country for the first time!
Which drummers do you admire, and which drummers have influenced your style?
There are thousands of drummers that inspire me every single day, drummers from any genre, if i start name them we will need 3 more pages on this interview, hahaha. There are drummers who really inspired me and helped my drumming to get a new direction, metal drummers like Derek Roddy, Richard Christy, Dave Lombardo, Ventor, Lars Ulrich etc but also not metal drummers like Dave Weckl, Vinnie Colaiuta, Steve Gadd, Tony Williams, Billy Cobham etc. So many to mention…
Today the level is so fucking high it gets ridiculous, so many great players out there…I am into so many and on different genres and i really enjoy the level of drumming today. Also, i have the privilege to be good friends with most of the top drummers worldwide, so being close some of the best drummers who’s work inspire me a lot if another great thing of course! The drumming community in general was always very healthy and it still is, everyone is super simple and supportive no matter which style you are on and how famous you are. Exactly the opposite than the guitar players, hahahaha…
There are times that I put on the Lyssa album you did with Nightfall, I become a bit nostalgic and I wonder what magnificent things would happen if this line-up continued on for a little longer…and then I hear Apocalypse with Bob Katsionis and the vox version of Voices with Karadimas and I smile alone in front of the speakers.
Hahaha, yeah, i ended up having the whole Nightfall line up right? Efthimis, Bob and of course George Bokos who did the mastering of the album! Listen, like i said earlier for me it was very important to have some of my best friends being a part of my first album. Having these 3 guys putting their talent on this album was one thing, but the true support i got from them was the other side which makes me double happy. I know many people and i know who’s happy with what i did and who’s not. George, Efthimis and Bob were very happy and supported me so much, that is VERY important for me.
Thank you very much for this interview! The final words are yours.
I would like to remind everyone that Invictus just got released and they can purchase it through the Season of Mist website and stores, as well as on iTunes. The album is also available on Spotify and as a free download on my website as a basic MP3 version without the Bonus Tracks. Wanted to give everyone the opportunity to get into it so please check it out, i promise it will not disappoint you!
