Ελληνικά
Last Updated on 07:18 PM by Lilliana Tseka
We have enjoyed Warcode many times on stage. We decided that it was time to talk with them in person about their future plans and more. So, we visited them in the studio and, among laughing and taunting each other, we finally managed to complete the following interview…
Tell us how the band was formed…
Vassilis: The band was formed in 2007. In 2008 the final line-up was consisted of Victor, Lefteris handling the bass and Pete the vocals. In fact I had some ideas and wanted to write music, I found Miltos who knew some amateur things about sound recording, etc, while the rest of us knew each other either from school or elsewhere; just like that, the band was formed…
How much have your musical experiences changed since the first day you were formed?
Miltos: A good deal… How have yours changed? As a man grows, he changes.
Vassilis: Mine, not at all.
How much of your music preferences have been passed on to the band?
Miltos: I would say a great deal has passed on, because, you’re influenced by something else every time you choose to work on something. You’re affected both as a musician and as an artist. The musician is influenced by something that is musical. Now that we have reached a certain age, some of us have grown past the metal genre, others haven’t yet. Vassilis as a matter of fact, now listens to more punk stuff than before. I listen to some more progressive stuff, even post-rock.
Have you any new material on hands, and if yes, what’s the deal? Have you found a formula with which you set your game?
Miltos: We are a fresh band to have a formula such as this. In “Vortex of Chaos” there were long compositions, which kinda spoiled our appetite, although I’m responsible for that (laughs).
If a label asked you to change some things in order to release the “Vortex of Chaos”, would you do it?
Vassilis: We wouldn’t consider it. We would refuse. This thing is ours, we may have made mistakes, but it is still ours, coming from within.
If you could go back in time, what would you change?
Vassilis: I guess we would change the duration of some tracks and the pauses we have.
Miltos: We started working on that at some point, we cut loose a big part, but it didn’t fit us.
Vassilis: To think, we had written one track and in the record you listen to them as two. The two main riffs were in one song. We are talking about “Betray your Prophets” and “To Predict a Retribution”.
What were the commercial and the press’ reception?
Vassilis: The reception was fine!
Miltos: The distribution was handled only by us. We sold some records during our gigs. Both our records and the t – shirts we made were gone.
Why is the cover art of the record so simple?
Vassilis: It was a suggestion from a friend. We tested some ideas at first but they didn’t work for us.
Miltos: Our friend is not an actual artist. He just handles Photoshop for his work, and while talking, we decided he could do it. He had also handled the demo artwork, and because we were short of money, we asked him to help us out. I personally like the simplicity in some things.
“Vortex of Chaos” is not a concept record, but one could say that it has a clear sociopolitical orientation. Who is responsible for your lyrics and how important it is for the band?
Vassilis: Most of the lyrics are written by Mao, who we consider the sixth member of the band.
Miltos: Mao has passed his own aesthetics through the lyrics. He writes lyrics in general as a hobby, but he has understood who will use his lyrics, so he doesn’t write for love and affection…
Vassilis: One of the songs he has written is talking about the relationship between media and power; in “Beauty of Extinction” the concept is a bit more death metal, as it elaborates on a mental patient / killer. It was the first song written after the demo and that’s probably why the subject was that. In “Vile Truth” something personal is at hand. For “State of Narrow Minds” Miltos wrote the lyrics, so let’s let him talk…
Miltos: While I was the army, there was a situation with a lieutenant who acted as captain, and while some guy’s mother was dying, he didn’t let him go see her, so I went nuts. Music gave me the opportunity to curse him.
Vassilis: If you listen to the lyrics, you’ll think they may refer to you or to me who work our asses off while others are getting richer.
Miltos: In a sentence, while you’re sitting we are running around.
How do you compose the songs? Does Mao listens to the music you compose and then write the fitting lyrics, or is it the other way around?
Miltos: Generally, we’re constantly composing music… I come with some idea, Vasilis comes with another and then we write the riffs. We build on that; without lyrics, without anything.
Vassilis: Or Miltos may come with a whole song and then we polish it a little or add a new riff or Miltos writes something and so on…
Miltos: The lyrics… at least in the album were written and then were brought to add them in our music.
Doesn’t this procedure make it hard for you to write a memorable refrain?
Vassilis: I understand what you’re saying… The only song that was written like that is “Molotov”. I mean, the track was built on top of the lyrics. In the rest of the tracks lyrics came in second and we tried to see how they’ll fit in, thinking “You’ll sing from here to here”. However that’s something that will change in the new record.
Miltos: That’s very difficult, especially when you cannot write lyrics. I personally cannot do that, it feels way too difficult. I’ll try to write some lyrics in the new album. We always write music without having the lyrics, something I did with Ab-sense from Patras, too. We are not a hard-rock band, however, to be so eager to do that.
Vassilis: The new album will have some choruses that people can sing along with. I don’t agree with Miltos on this matter. For me, choruses must exist in a track. Slayer have a chorus in “Bloodline”, as Kreator in “People of the Lie”, there’s a chorus you can sing along with. I don’t think that since we’re playing thrash we’re obliged to conform to the no – chorus rule.
Will you deal with the lyrics this time yourselves?
Miltos: As far as the new album goes, it would be better to handle the lyrics ourselves. Of course, any help is accepted as writing lyrics is not our top game. Even now, because of the way I compose, it seems hard to firstly write the lyrics and then make music.
How many songs are ready for the new album?
Vassilis: We got 7 ideas so far. Two are complete with lyrics and 5 only have music.
Will you join a label or will you self-release once again?
Vassilis: The record will be self-released again.
Miltos: Okay, firstly we’ll work more seriously on the new material and then we will see what we can do about its release…
So, should we expect something in 2016?
Basil: I don’t think we’ll make it in 2015… The first quarter of 2016 seems more likely. Until next summer we will have something new. The first record has run its course a long time now, even to us. Imagine that the first song of the album was written in 2009 and the last in 2011, despite the fact that the album came out in 2014.
Lately, you’ve performed in many DIY festivals. What’s your opinion about that?
Vassilis: Well, DIY is in my culture, in general, e.g. with the studio, which we set ourselves; it’s important first of all for ourselves and then for everyone else. I think high about the DIY and as long as there are people who run and support this thing, as long as there are 10 people who gather and ask bands to participate, making room for bands that cannot play in towns apart from Athens and Thessaloniki or to show their work, this is the best way to promote their work. We played at Zvenfest both last and this year. This year was much better. Not that last year wasn’t good, but this year even more people attended. The 150 people become 300 this year. And we’re talking about Karditsa, whose population is limited. The guys have been running this for five years now…
Do you have any live gigs in store for us?
Vassilis: There’s nothing in our plans for the time being.
Miltos: The best for us would be to find time and work on our new material.
Do you feel that you belong in a certain scene? Is the underground scene strong and united or are there false friendships in the name of personal relations?
Miltos: Living in Trikala is the first obstacle we stumble across in feeling we belong somewhere. We feel really cut off from many things. First and foremost, we cannot perform in Athens-Thessaloniki (for example) easily, because in order to play in Athens, I need my transport fees and a beer… I will lose at least something if I go to perform there. The other side will certainly say: “ok Miltos, I will choose another band from Athens.”
Vassilis: There’s a need for essential assistance… If you know someone, whether they like your music or not, they might help you. We, living in Trikala, are cut off from Athens. There are hundreds of groups in Greece who release records and that’s good.
Miltos: …and we turn on each other for each one’s “interests”. For example, I see the whole thing through a professional spectrum as well; if a band doesn’t choose me to handle their recordings, they will choose another engineer. They’ll release their record and I’ll be thinking “if they had chosen me, their sound wouldn’t be so “plastic”. Do you get me?
So as far as concerts go, the quality of your music is not the only thing that matters, but having people to come and watch you perform, counts as well.
Miltos: From what I hear, there are clicks which gather their friends and perform in a venue they’ve already paid.
Refer to two or three bands in Greece that you think are worth.
Vassilis: Rafferty Rules, although I don’t think they are active any more. From the crust genre, Sarabante stands out. Incredible band, it’s art! Stheno is nice band, as well.
Miltos: I like Tardive Dyskinesia very much.
Vassilis have you considered adding some crust elements in your music or it’s the case of you like listening to it but not actually playing it?
Vassilis: If there is a riff, which has a crust feeling or a crust moment, I’ll have no problem with that. To join the crust genre, now that’s unlikely.
Miltos: As I said, since the influences are always there, you know, you’ll listen to crust, pop / rock (laughs)… We have a bit more punk elements, I would say…
Vassilis: In general, if there is anything we like, either a moments or riff etc., we’ll keep it… If it belongs to the extreme sound, it will do the trick.
Pete (vocals / bass) who lives abroad, will he return to Greece? How has that fact affected the band?
Vassilis: He’ll stay there for the time being, he’s found a job too.
Miltos: The way things are in Greece, I wouldn’t come back either. This drags the band behind. First of all we cannot think seriously as a band.
Vassilis: Collectively as a band we cannot work all together. Essentialy, three members are only working.
Can this situation bring a definitive schism in the band?
Basil: Okay, as things are now, Pete found work abroad, his family is there too… we don’t know what will happen. There is no plan B!
Miltos: No!
Vassilis: Actually I don’t even want to think that there is! We’ve managed to stick together. He came here for twenty hours, we played a gig in Karditsa, we didn’t rehearse at all and we had to perform since we went abroad. Everything happened in the nick of time!
What are your impressions of the concerts you did abroad?
Vassilis: We went out for ten days and we did three gigs. We did one in Austria, in Graz, one in Bratislava in Slovakia and one in Hungary in Budapest. We played in clubs. It was the second time because we had toured abroad once again in 2011. This time it was even better. Every venue was crowded and the people there appreciate such gigs. We played with other bands, with no headliner, as all the bands had the same set duration.
Miltos: Firstly we played in Graz, a small venue.
Vassilis: First Warcult hit the stage, then we did and in the end, Tulsadoom. Τhe atmosphere was very nice there and the vibes we got from the crowd were fantastic, to the point of asking us to “play more” when we finished!
Miltos: And we kept telling them: “but the next band has to play”. They didn’t let as leave! Finally we asked the band that followed if we coud play some more. We kept looking at each other and thinking that it was unimaginable! Same thing happened in Bratislava, too…
How come you didn’t perform in any festival abroad?
Vassilis: We chased it, to tell the truth, this year, but we were late. I imagine that next year we will manage to join a festival.
Why didn’t you follow the example of Suicidal Angels, to go abroad to follow your dream?
Vassilis: It’s hard to do this.
Miltos: Furthermore we got a small taste of these places we visited; we don’t know how life is in Graz or in Slovakia… We don’t know much about the scene there, if one supports the other, etc…
The closing is yours…
Miltos: Whenever you see us again, but both our CD and our t-shirt (laughs)!
