Here it is at last – our earnest effort! Ironically becoming available digitally on Record Store Day, making a point about the recent shift in the world of music mediums. From Edison‘s wax cylinders to Spotify, the essence remains surprisingly unchanged. The song remains the same…

Don’t be mistaken though; we hold a deep love for music presented in traditional formats. I vividly remember saving up pocket money for weeks to buy a record and looking forward to getting home and listening to it more times than the artist had done whilst making it. I also remember fondly copying copious amounts of cassette tapes from listening buddies, to sample records in order to decide which ones I’d invest in next. It was a big thing to have those on my collection for completeness and to be able to browse the liner notes and artwork whilst listening, to fully be immersed in the experience.

It is that we just felt it was prime time for us, for several reasons, to comment on the ‘music industry’ and to release in a manner that would be as immediate and DIY as possible – as well as quick as possible (right after we finished on this occasion), as the time it took for this record to be made nearly ‘killed’ us.

It indeed took a while for this record to be put together, further validating the matching title ‘the Wait’ or ‘W8’ with the (lazy) 8 being presented sideways to resemble a lemniscate, and refer to an infinite wait, on the phenomenal Alexis Marcou’s album cover, that is boldly omitting any information, like a Hipgnosis cover for Pink Floyd or Led Zeppelin would do.

When we released ‘In Consequence’, 4 years ago we received copious amounts of attention we never expected to get, as we were solely focused on creating a record with songs we would enjoy listening to ourselves, and we always thought those would have been much of an acquired taste. So we also ended up being courted by a number of managers who took interest in our output, some of whom extended unsolicited advice about how we should make music with more of a feel good vibe, to be writing more choruses (neither of which we were very keen of supposedly doing*) stating we were not Tool to be able to pull that off, and even advice on how to wear our hair.

It’s worth mentioning that we became disillusioned with the industry quite early on, and we could not comprehend how art (herein music), can be used in the same sentence as business. It would be helpful to examine what has drawn us into music as an expressive outlet and the romanticised view we had of our musical heroes.

We are all Products of our Environment

Without getting into too much detail, I will give some background on events in the later history of Greece where the band originated from that could have an impact on us. The Cold War greatly polarised Greeks for decades, who previously fought united against the Axis in WWII (immediately followed by a Civil War), until a military coup and a subsequent military Junta rose to power.

In the lead-up to the coup, Rolling Stones had a botched gig in Athens (4 days before they took over) that was stopped by the Police. Symbols of Western youth culture were banned including rock music, and long hair as it is not uncommon for totalitarian regimes to be doing rock and metal music as they are viewed as promoting independent thinking and an overall rebellious disposition (like Ceaușescu did in Romania, Tito in Yugoslavia and so on).

We were born and raised in the aftermath of this irreconcilable tension and come from a place where music is not considered a vocation that is taken seriously unless you want to become a music teacher. And even then…

Music What?

We had that idealised view of what being rock musicians meant (Nonconformists or revolutionaries) and quickly made the distinction between what arts are, as opposed to crafts, valuing thought-provoking expression over creating a product of entertainment the aim of which would be widespread acceptance and success. We were equally as quick to turn down opportunities when they came in, where those did not align with our ethos.

When the Music Industry was particularly struggling (EMI having just collapsed is also telling), Warner Music Greece approached us through MySpace and asked us to release a single with them, to have the privilege to say we are affiliated with them, as we would not be paid any advance nor royalties, something we responded to with a ‘thank you, but no thank you’. Not surprisingly, a band from a little neighbouring town released something with them, likely with the same deal, and they have since disbanded without leaving any mark.

Similar deals were offered by several labels, but we were not interested in paying for vanity pressing albums to hand the majority to the labels to take advantage of. We similarly showed no interest in paying for festival or tour slots. What we have achieved we have achieved ourselves with no coin spent (not even for renting a single venue) and recently decided to reinvest anything made from the band, back Into the band.

We are under no illusion here and we understand that music was commodified way before the player piano and the phonograph, with composers much like painters had to live off commission work, for the church and their more fortunate affluent patrons.

We struggle to accept however that starting a rock band is akin to starting a corner shop (or launching a product aiming to strike deals for that to be stocked in a few shops), in hopes that with the right investment and management, it would go on to become a TESCO or the likes. Unfortunately, this appears to be the case.

Not in a million years when I was listening to Black Sabbath as a teenager idealising/idolising them, I would think that it wasn’t a health problem that kept him out of their reunion, but he was handed a contract with an offer that he didn’t see as favourable. I could not think Jimmy Page is a businessman in reality, and that most articles in a magazine, bar the very limited few that drive the magazine sales are advertorials.

Thankfully, there are bright exceptions, where music can be truly revolutionary, and offer psycho-social commentary, not being simply abject entertainment/commodity, like blues howlers that were created in and for the fields, for which it is safe to be assumed that their creation and performance never had economic motives, nor the vanity of the songwriters to turn those to their commercial advantage. Almost certainly those were created to help alleviate pain and keep people going, and similarly, in most cases, rebetiko can be assumed to have the same attributes and function. It feels that the punk scene, and underground (mainly extreme) metal scenes are somewhat maintaining that spirit, but still need to be entrepreneurial and invest in printing merchandise to be sold at gigs for a profit in order to survive.

For Digital Publishing

When it comes to releasing the album, we found some encouraging examples including Radiohead‘s ‘In Rainbows’ paradigm, Nick Cave uploading his latest album on YouTube during its first week, David Bowie being a pioneer of a digital-only release, The Pixies generously offered their new EP for download through their website, and bands like NIN helping shape streaming services akin to Spotify.

The problem with the above is that those artists have already sold 10s of millions of records each, which means that they do not have an issue with reaching an audience, and their releases will not get lost in the multitude of releases the ease of producing music at home for aspiring musicians or DJ’s gives birth to. Also, Pledge Music and other fan fundraising services seem like a good idea at first glance, but they’re unlikely to work unless you’re one of the aforementioned acts or an enterpeneurial and highly skilled salesman. It’s the Big Fish that always finds the way.

If you’ve survived this ramble up to this line, we suggest you invest some time digging into our new record; it’s genuinely made with love and passion for sincere expression. If you happen to like it, consider donating and/or suggesting it to your friends; and come to any of our concerts near you if you can, as we hope to be in a position to share our output with you in person.

Thank you for your precious time.

Thanos

*A repeated chorus is an ultimate sin when it comes to songwriting, as it is a prominent feature of our equivalent of ‘Turbo Folk’ as per a favourite Greek musical comedian Tzimis Panousis. Chorus (‘Χορός’ Literally translating to dance referring to a band of singers and dancers who were taking the form of a mob, or other elements of the play – think of them as a group similar to the backup dancers on a Bollywood production) in Greek drama the Chorus was a device that most commonly had the purpose of informing the audience of key details e.g., about the psychological state of the characters, or raised other points about the narrative. Gradually the gravity shifted and heavily fell upon the actors, and Choruses were reduced to having decorative purposes, whilst their function changed to performing interspersed songs.

In ‘pop’ music a Chorus is adopted as a polyphonic hook (hence choral, as usually sung by a choir), that repeats, and resolves the tension previously built with the back story provided on the verses, which comparatively is more monotonous for the purpose of providing contrast as a repeated Chorus’ aim is to be memorable.

We feel the traditional pop song structures not to be appealing, and that Blues and Rebetiko have a better offer to that effect, with more focus on the storytelling and the verses with a preference for musical hooks. We also enjoy ending songs on newly introduced themes (Codas).