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Where do you get your inspirations from?

Everything we’ve encountered with really. We are rather sensitive and consulting, and bouncing ideas on each other helps us having that grounding we all need. We have developed what I want to believe are strong, eeliable filters and don’t get influenced easily, instead we are trying to comprehend things, process those, transcribe them and are feeding them back to whoever wants to listen. Without of course, letting our output lose its polysemic potential and sterilise it as a tool by exposing too much of our own subjectivity. You see I’ve been going on and on about things for a while this evening trying to pick carefully my vocabulary in my attempts to communicate my thoughts clearly;  perhaps unsuccessfully to a certain extend. Even the most prolific communicators lose their cohesion. While with songs you get the poetry with which you can speak simultaneously of many things without getting it wrong; no risks of committing fallacies of division or composition are involved, and plus you have the musical background to create the accompanying emotions. if I played my guitar whilst talking to you it would be just mental.

Who are some of your influences?

As explains earlier, everything we have ever encountered is an influence. You see, we identify our selves as artists and not just as imitators and that’s the central idea behind the statement of this sarcastic cover of ours in your magazine. You have to rely on using previously established platforms to be accepted, just like a Trojan Horse because in the Oedipal universe we operate, we tend to like things we’ve been exposed to, by default. There is however leeway for one to build on from any baseline they set off from. That’s evolution; you keep the link with tradition so you know which direction is backwards and then make the leap forward. Tradition isn’t a dead, static thing! It’s alive and dynamic. In primitive societies they used to eat people or perform incest but they soon realised through trial and error that it wasn’t good, We then inherited this knowledge in the form of morality. We humans are in the position to channel our needs and most definitely our desires which are artificial in essence anyway. That’s what ethics is all about as a concept, which is a Greek word deriving from the verb etho (Έθω) which means I am growing into, I am accustomed to, or I am used to. The Greek word for custom as in consuetude (Έθιμο) derives from the same root. And then we have tradition (Παράδοση) which literally translates to “what’s been delivered to us (i.e., from the previous generations)”. To return to the question, of course we are borrowing stuff from what’s been before us, and we do step on shoulders of giants in that sense. We have a message to pass on, but the words or even sentences some times are not original, but we use them so that we can communicate effectively our thoughts using commonly known references. We’d have a hard time trying to speak about any concept by screaming or waiving our hands awkwardly. None of us two invented the words used in this interview, but the way they are arranged and what they intent to say is really, us. The question was about influences right? (Laughter)… Write down The Stones! (More intense laughter).

Two weeks ago you were In Sofia for a gig with Yuvigi. Did you enjoy the concert? How was the night?

It was really intense, like it’s every-time with Phase‘s concerts. Your country has embraced us from the very first time. The audience shared each moment with us being very receptive, and it all felt so connected. It was one of the nights that it actually works. You see you need to gain the audiences trust for them to open up and let the energy flow. I’d really like to think we are doing a goof job in being a useful tool by providing food for thought, and can be like that resourceful friend that always has these food recommendations for books and films, that people busy living a busy life don’t always have the luxury to find the time and gather for themselves. Soon enough we are launching our new website where we will be able to engage in conversations on various matters with our audience. Sofia‘s audience is really something and we’ve developed a special bond with them over the years. In places where people are going through hardship like Greece or Bulgaria, they just don’t find reassurance in an iPhone, designer clothes, alcohol, drugs, casual sex, and I don’t know what else to trick themselves into distracting from their predicament. They’re not full on in entertaining their misery so to speak. So they reach out for healthy outlets to express their concerns, discuss, have fun and celebrate their existence. Rock concerts are called to replace that communal feeling churches were supposed to provide without deteriorating simply to comparing clothing conventions. That’s what happened for the most of them and us in there, that night. I feel we really touched them. And in terms of feedback I’ll simply mention that it was really a great honour having parents bringing their little ones to take pictures with us and have sign posters signed  for them, we felt that we’re doing something really important.

January 2013
Emanuela Vasileva