-Thank you very much for your time…
-Its ok…I charge fifty Euros per hour… (Laughs)
-Fifty euros per hour (laughs)??
-It seems that the title of your latest album “Life is Moving” signifies your personal position towards life… I mean you are always doing new things…you are always moving on… now you have formed a new group…
-Yea…
- How did you come up with the idea of the group? And how is the project going? Are you satisfied?
-Hmm…how did I come up with the idea of the group? I didn’t …I did not start out to make a group…it’s
something that happened.When I came two years ago to Greece, I did three shows in December 2009.
It was like a Greek tour… we didLarisa,Thessaloniki, Athens and I came…it was Pugs, me and Sabira
Jade, the three of us, and we were touring to support my album that came up that year, 2009 called “U Can't
LurnImaginashun”and we did many many shows all over the world and while I was doing that tour we became
really really good friends and we wrote the album “Life is Moving” and I guess the title life is moving is also…
its a track title on the album but also its quite suitable because we wrote the album really on the road, just writing
it backstage, on the bus, on the plane, on the train station, in the taxis, and that’s why life is moving.
Life is moving also it’s because if life isn’t moving that means you are dead. You know life has to move…
otherwise things die… everything has to move…from the nature, to the animals, to society… you know you
can’t be stagnant…you have to always move forward either creatively or socially, or with philosophy, with
everything… economically so that’s why we have the title…are we satisfied with the response? I make music
because I love music, that’s the most important thing for me first and foremost like I don’t do music necessarily
to earn lots and lots of money because if I was doing it just for money I would make pop music, I would make
techno music or electro music, or something like that …or rock…I don’t know …something else…so I don’t do
it for money…yea. I wish the album sells more because I release the album…you know…and a lot of people
download it for free and blablabla and also I release the album in maybe at the worst time, in a sense that we
have this financial crisis and you know like…you know it is like here there is a big depression over Greece and
stuff …yea…you know life is fucked up right now…who knows what tomorrow is going to bring but you know
I’m still here…I’m still working, I still have my health and its ok… you knowI’m still smiling..
- So you are happy…
- Happiness is relative. It’s relative to the things that go around in your life. I can be very easily pleased.
You understand? Because in this world there is no true happiness … you are happy because you meet
a boy, you meet a girl, or you are happy because you achieve something, but then at the same time you
have a phone bill that you can’t pay or you break your foot or some sheet happens so…there is a depression
now in Greece because of the crisis…does that mean there is no happiness?No! You can still be happy
without a job;it’s not easyto just find happiness in other things… am I happy? Yea I’m quite happy…
-I have read a lot of things about you...that you have done a lot of things, that you have achieved a lot of things,
you travel a lot, you are very creative...so that’s why I assumed that you should be happy.
- Yea...I’m a quite happy person...
- You have been described as an underground artist. It was your purpose from the beginning
not to be part of the mainstream culture?
- Well Idon’t think of it like that. I do know some people see me as that. Idon’t see myself as that. I see
myself just as a creative person, a musician, a producer who makes music...
- Youdon’t like labels?
- No, I think labels it’s a terrible thing… to put something in a box. It’s like when you put animals in
the zoo...you know they are not supposed to live there...you can go to the zoo and see tigers and lions
and all kind of things and you can go “wow its beautiful” but that’s not their natural habitat… you can’t
put a bird in a cage, an eagle… it’s supposed to be free and you know it’s the same with music... you
limit the creativity. Things always moving and the very notion of underground and commercial...Ιsit because
something popular bad?Pop music meanspopular music...because its popular that means it’s bad?
NoI think that every creative thing that you appreciate is on a case scenario...because a group is in the c
harts doesn’t mean it is bull sheet. There is some music that gets in the charts that I think it is really good a
nd there are some stuff in the charts thatI think it’s terrible. Just because a record only sells 500 copies does
that meanit’samazing? No...It could be bull sheet or it could be really amazing too. It’s true that I think a lot of
music there is on the radio Idon’t like…I’m not really into pop music but there is every so often something that
I’m listening to the radio and I’m like wow that’s a really good group or song. You know what I mean? SoIdon’t
think thatI am underground or I am pop...I just make music.
-It’s your last show in Greece…you have been in Athens, Patra, Volos, Larisa…did you enjoy the gigs?
Where did you like it the most?
-Where did I like the most? HmmmIdon’t think...yea it was a good time...I had a good time...
I met lots of nice people. Athens is really good...I’m sure tonight it’sgoing to be great...and
every time I come to Greece there is a good audience for music here..
-What do you think about the current situation in Greece and the rest of Europe?
- You mean the economic depression...Idon’t know enough about Greece to make a huge remark…
what I know is there is a world financial crisis. The banks were mismanaged and they gave money
where they shouldn’t have given money and then we bailed them out. That should never havehappened.
Lots of bad financial decisions… I think in part some of them were engineered for certain people to make
more money. I think it’s really strange how the head of the national bank of Greece now is the prime minister,
because in part he should be in prison for what he put the country into. All the bank managers and the heads
of the financial policies of the government they should all be in prison. We are in this position now because of them…
of what they did three four five years ago. So there is terrible financial mismanagement.WhatI really don’t believe
is that what Angela Merkel and Sarkozy are putting is to make Greece better is to make them better not Greece.
I think Greece are looking to European Union… that these people are going tosave us...In part there is terrible
mismanagement but the Greek people also voted for this guy who put them in this sheet, they put the head of
the bank into power… that should never have happened so a terrible thing is happening. A lot of things that need
to be done but also I think this is a time not just the Greeks are going through, I thinkthere is a huge change in the
air, in the world there is a huge occupy movement that’s happening in the USA, in the UK,in Spain… but that’s about
the fact that 1% of the world’selite controls the 99% percent and its time to take the power back from the 1% in our
hands…They are having terrible battles in America. I just came back from the US last week and its crazy ...really there
needs to be a revolution in people’s minds because the reason we are in this big sheet is partly because the elite are
getting richer… the very people in top, the heads of the banks they are paying themselves huge bonuses when average
people have no money to even pay for their rent...
- The 1%...
- Yea...and that what the occupy movement is about ...taking back what’s ours. I pay taxes in the UK ...my taxes…
where the fuck my money is going? It’s not going to me;it’s going to pay for some bull sheet war in Afghanistan,
in Iraq...what was that about? What’s the war in Libyaabout? Itwasn’t about Kaddafi, it’s about the fact that he has
oil, and all these bullsheet. Who is making that money and now the next president of Libya is going to be friends
with the UK, with the USand the very heads get the money. You know all of this is bullsheet so yea I’m aware of lots
of little things so Greeceisn’t by itself. It’s a complex situation which is connected to other countries, Italy and Spain
and the whole banking system...
-Have you ever thought of going back to live in Russia?
-NoIwouldn’t go there to live,it’s too cold...
-Could you describe me the sound of your music in a few words? How would you
describe the sound of your music to someone that hasn’t heard of you…
-Someonewho hasn’t heard of me...It’s I would say organic, soulful electronica.
-How difficult was it to succeed and be recognized?
-How difficult was it to succeed and be recognized...
-If it was difficult...
-This goes back to the question you asked before...am Ihappy? AmI happy with the success
of the Electric... Idon’t do this to be recognized. Obviouslyit’s nice when people appreciate your
music. That question is very relative. Because wherever you are you know on the ladder, on the
musical ladder, the creative ladder, you always want to do better. So if you are interviewing DJShadow,
he wants to be somewhere else. Everybody wants to do better for their music so in terms of recognition
Iwish more people listen to it. I wish every show in Greece was 5000 people. You know? Butit’s not.
So I keep going and I keep doing but Idon’t do this to get 5000 people, I do this because I love music but
Idon’t think on those terms of recognition. I work very very hard for what I do. I work 15 hours a day, every day
on music...you know and the business, and doing what I do so it’s not easy.
-“Hardest working man in show business”… “John Coltrane of Hip-Hop” … “an artist who
cannot be ignored”… how do you feel when you read-hear these descriptions?
-Yea…they are pretty cool right..?
-Very cool…
-Producer, Dj, promoter, record collector, radio presenter, painter, writer… where do you find the time?
And most of all the energy…?
-Sometimes I do get sleepy… when you do…what you love doing you don’t really think
of it in those terms… you know you just do… I don’t do all of that every day…you know what
I mean? But over a period of time so…
-May I ask about your paintings and writings?
-I wouldn’t say I’m a writer… I have written articles for magazines and some stuff I’ve written is
being published in magazines. Someone wrote that, I didn’t write that. And painting? ... I mess around…
I like being creative.
-Do you think that nowadays is more difficult for young artists to begin a career in music?
-Is it more difficult? I think it’s easy now to ever before for people to do music. It’s also... There is a downside of
the argument. I think one of the great things of technology now is people having access to it. When I started making
music in 1992, twenty years ago, it was very difficult because there wasn’t that many people doing it, there was no
internet, there was no YouTube there was only a few magazines and was quite hard to know what to do, what
equipment to use, how to do it, staff like that. And I remember when I wanted to make music, there is a music
magazine in England called Sound on Sound, it’s a music production magazine in the UK and the US. I rang
up the magazine… I bought the copy and I found the editor’s telephone number in the magazine and I rang
him up and I said: I want to buy some equipment what do you recommend? Because in the magazine they had all this
different equipment I did not know and he told me what to get. He said get this or get that. And I took his advice.
But it was expensive it cost…maybe I spent 3-4.000 euros on a really basic set up. Really basic… 3-4.000
eurosisn’t so much money but for me it was… I didn’t have a job, I was a student but now you can buy a computer
for 300 euros that could have 50 million times more power thanwhat I had 20 years ago. And now because of things
like Facebook and twitter and all these different forums people can’t only buy equipment to make music, they can
become their own record labels and get people to hear their music, they get bookings so it’s much much easier.
Thedownside of the argument is that because it’s so easy to make music everybody is a DJ, everybody is a producer
and because so many people are DJs and producers it’s harder for people to recognize what is good and what is bad.
Now everyone is a DJ. People come with their iPod and think they are DJsAnd that’s the side of what’s happening
now that I don’t like.
-What are your plans for the future?
-What’s my plan for the future? I have a new album, I’m finishing right now… it’s called
Don’t be Scared and it’sgoing to come out next year. It’s not with the Electric, it’s just me
and it’s again something different, it’s more instrumental and I am really just finishing it right now…
-Are we going to hear any of the songs?
-Today yes…I’mgoing to play some yea…
-Has your teenage dream come true?
-You want to know my teenage dreams…my teenage dreams were never to make music.
I wanted to be a tennis player. I didn’t want to figure about music. I wanted to be the new
Boris Becker… people like that who I watched on television in the 1980s, that’s what I wanted to do.
I didn’t think about making music. I just listen to music. And then music is also something that…
I don’t know … I just fell into… it was never something I thought… wow I dream about this.
I just start doing it and I suppose I was good and I just worked hard and it happened. Am I living
my dream? Yea…in parts … I mean I’ve been to amazing places…I‘ve been to 68 countries…
I’ve been to many countries that I would never ever have gone to without music. I’ve met amazing
people you know, I have experienced love also I have experienced sadness… this job is a beautiful
job…the opportunity you have… but it’s not all roses either…Its very hard travelling, always being
away, gone through airports, gone through getting jet lag, never be with your friends …you know that’s
not easy… so …its really beauty and the beast…the dream… its good but it’s not always sweet, not
every show is amazing…you know… so I wouldn’t change it, like my nightmare would be to wake up
one day and this not to be true and I have to be working in Mac Donald’s… that would be my nightmare.
I hated school.Some people say school is the greatest time in your life, when you go to school or university…
for me I hated it. I fucking hated it. I never want to go back. I hate school and I hate university and I never want
to go back. For me I had such a bad time, for me that would be a nightmare having to go back to school to
learn a new profession.
-Which artists are you listening to right now?
-I am listening to…. I guess I’m listening to a lot of UK music. A lot of base music, lot of UK house,
lot of UK electronic music, a lot of dupstep, dupstep and UK house, kind of UK future beats…
ike I have never listen to moreUK staff now than ever before . BeforeI used to listen to a lot of US
hip pop and staff like that but now I don’t know… I don’t think, I don’t find a lot of interesting ideas
in America in terms of music production. There is some but not that many… but I listen to things
like Scratcha DVA, Red Lights, JamesBlake, Jamie Woon and Adele, I don’t know…lots of UK staff…
-You live in London now?
-Yea... I have always…
-BecauseI read that you left to go to New York...
-Yea…I lived there for two years… but I have been back in England for three, four years…
I still listen to a lot of reggae, I listen to all kinds of staff, like the Black Keys…
-Do you like classical music?
-Not particularly… I mean I can appreciate it,I’m listening to it to get some samples and it’s
quite soothing I suppose if you are in a spa or in the bath…you know but I wouldn’t particularly
go to a classical music concert… My mother used to take me to the ballet and to the opera…
Oh my god… I hated it… like when I was small, I’d always fall asleep
-Any last advice to your Greek fans?
-My last advice to my Greek fans..? Leave Greece (laughs) No…No… Have hope …
Tomorrow is going to be a better day than today…
-Do you believe this?
-Yea…you have to believe..! Because we make the future…And we… all of us have the
power to change it.
-The 1%...
-No… we are the 99%... well I’m part of the 99% I don’t know about you… (Laughs)
-No …no… I am also part of the 99 %...(laughs)
-We have the power to change… the people united…
-Well…thank you very much…it was a pleasure…