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Where do you get your inspirations from?

Everything we’ve encountered with… We are really over-sensitive and talking to each other a lot helps us having that reality check we all need… We have developed our strong filters and don’t get dragged but the flow easily, instead we are trying to comprehend things, translate them, transcribe them and offer our views or a ride on our shoes to whoever wants to… Without of course, letting our output lose its subjectivity as a tool by saying too much. You see I’ve been going on and on about things for a while this evening trying to pick carefully the vocabulary in an attempt to pass my thoughts clearly through and not get you lost inside my train of though, or bore you enough and make you wanna take a nap in one of its cars. Perhaps unsuccessfully to a big extend. Even the most prolific philosophers lose their cohesion in their speech, written or spoken. While with songs you get the poetry with which you can speak simultaneously of many things without getting it wrong; no fallacy of division or composition are involved, and plus you have the musical background to create the accompanying emotions…

Who are some of your influences?

Like I told you everything we have encountered is an influence… But then again this could really take further analysis! 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 step on previously set platforms to be accepted, because in the Oedipal universe we are living, we tend to like things we’ve been exposed to, by default. And there’s nothing wrong with it if it’s not sterile, and the need to make the break though is present… that’s evolution; you keep the link with tradition so you know which direction is backwards and then make the leap forward… “Adam‘s” father was an ape but the need to question things and to evolve was created in him! Tradition isn’t a dead, static thing! It’s alive and dynamic. In primitive societies they used to eat people or perform incest but as causality works with trial and error they realized it wasn’t good, and we inherited this knowledge as 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 clearly 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 (from the previous generations)” … To return to the question, of course we are borrowing stuff from what’s been given to us, or the collective subconscious’ pool, but we are not simply acting unconsciously… 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, honestly us… You find that hardly often around…
In popular culture they take people with personality disorders and make gods out of them… Simply setting, some sick role models. By projecting mental illness as the desired condition or the norm, and you get lost people, that don’t have any healthy reference point, and dying for acceptance conforming to it. In this way, suggestible opinionated individuals with lay opinions that just make good consumers are being bred, and that’s so very sad…
The thing is you can only do so much to drag attention to the counter-culture when there aren’t huge budgets involved. So we are setting up an intriguing image to interest people who buy it, and offer them our demystification at first chance and a shiny new mirror for themselves… Of course a big part of the audience thankfully, is of the same mentality with us, but then again we shouldn’t only be discussing with people of the same views… It wouldn’t better anything… We are literally giving a helping hand to those who really need it, while at the same time we extend ours to those who possibly can help us further with our struggle… that’s what alleviates the human condition… Being the change you need to see in the world is the best policy ever conceived, from the ancient Greek philosophers, to the very empathetic golden rule present in so many religions’ “One should treat others in a way one would want others to treat himself”, to Kant‘s categorical imperative! The question was about influences right? (Laughter)… Say 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 moment… People were every single moment with us and let them selves go carried away to our output and we elevated altogether as a result… You know in a show people trust ourselves and give us the authority to be in power position… I could use the microphone like another Wizard of Oz and cast pure suggestion on them… So basically if I am way that fucked in the head I can manipulate them or use them for narcissistic supply, like simply enjoying having them worshipping us… But this is not the case with Phase at all and I want to believe it really shows… I’d really like to think we are doing a great job in being a useful tool by providing food for thought, that people busy surviving the cruel social reality don’t have the time to gather for themselves. Soon enough we are launching our new website where we can engage in conversations on big matters with our audience and people who are walking with us… Sofia’s audience is really something and we’ve developed a special bond with it over the years… In places where people are going through hardship they just don’t find reassurance in an iPod, a Luis Vuiton, alcohol, drugs, casual sex, and I don’t know what else to trick themselves into forgetting their, and their fellow being’s struggle and pain… 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 for instance, like how it happens nowadays in there. That’s what happened for the most of them and us in there, that night… We touched them and they touched us as well… And in terms of feedback I’ll simply mention that it was really a great honour having parents bringing their daughters to take pictures with us and sign posters for them, we felt that we’re doing something really important.

January 2013
Emanuela Vasileva