Iulia Karapatakis, Sotiris Papatragiannis, Members of the music group KOMPANIA

The seven members of KOMPANIA will join us in musical evening of Before in the welcoming space of Ilion Plus, on Sunday, April 30. I. Karapataki emphasizes that rebetiko is timeless, but communicates better with the youth through its own sounds. S. Papatragiannis notes that popular struggles have never been silent and that the times call for radicalization.

Interview with Dimitris Giantzis

▶ You have a weakness for rebetiko and classical folk song, but at the same time you have “married” it with a more modern perception and other musical genres. What is it that touches the youth who listen to you so much?

I.K.: Rebetiko is timeless music. The content of the songs, their lyrics, might also be addressed to a person of today. Love, pain, strangeness, loneliness are subjects that will always concern us and will always become songs. This is what touches the youth as well, the songs themselves, but it is easier for them to listen and pay attention to them when they are rendered with today’s sound.

SP: As Julia says it, plus the truth that Kompanía broadcasts. Seven of us really play as a band, each one depositing the music and the sounds it contains through their personal filter and what comes out is deposited into the world with honesty. As little children play from the first moment, without knowing each other beforehand!

▶ How do you see the way we “consume” music today on social media, at a time when the traditional music industry does not exist in the form we used to know?

Social media is “killing” discography and we are mainly left with live to communicate what we want
to say

SP: The music industry, an ugly phrase anyway, is dying precisely because of the way we perceive music today! Social media is, in a sense, the death of discography. Everything is done so quickly and in such great quantity that new creations don’t get the time they deserve. It’s like a supermarket that we pass by and shop on the run. New creations that can mean months of work for artists, in most cases get a chance of a few seconds. It is not possible to have deep listening and communication in this way. How many times in the past haven’t we bought a record by our favorite artist and literally melted it into the turntable, listening to it over and over and analyzing it on every level? That’s how we connected with the songs. This is what is missing for great songs to stand out. Now, we mainly have live to communicate what we want to say…

▶ The first years of your artistic career coincided with the era of memorials, while the last three years were sealed by the Covid-19 epidemic. How much have these sealed you?

I.K.: Enough. We lived and continue to live in a time when culture and artistic professions were completely discredited. We’ve seen shops, theaters and music venues close, discography disappear, day wages go downhill at an alarming rate. We learned the hard way, but I believe that this has made us even stronger. We don’t chew anymore.

SP: On a personal level, these years have defined us all. The anxiety of daily survival, the anger and the disappointment of our stolen life, shaped us as artists, but also the public that directly affects us! People stopped partying and dancing, for many years. In terms of creativity, however, as Kompanía we have never stopped, as since 2012 we have traveled for concerts all over Europe and remained active even in quarantines, we even managed to release our latest record, Weast. Tough times are always creative!

▶ We recently experienced an unprecedented movement of workers in the field of culture. What are the biggest issues facing artists today — especially younger ones?

SP: The most basic is the question of survival through art. It takes a lot of persistence and endurance to make a living today with music alone, without additional income. Especially if he is a new artist trying to find his place in the space. In an environment with daily wages at half and below the level of 15 years ago, without collective agreements, with rebetadikas having disappeared and being replaced by taverns that can handle figures of 2-3 people at most. And with the discography now being a financial burden instead of income. The recent movement, however, confirms that artists were, are and will always be at the forefront of the struggle — for themselves and for the whole society! Besides, I don’t think one can imagine folk struggles without music and songs.

▶ Are today’s crisis phenomena such as punctuality, energy price explosion, widespread poverty impacting the way we have fun?

I.K.: The method changed shortly following the last quarantine. People were furious. He was trying to shake off the oppression and loneliness of so many months and you might feel the tension in the atmosphere. Now we are slowly getting back to normal. Back-to-back crises have affected the frequency with which people are entertained. He does it a lot less, but I believe he will always find a way to do it. It’s something that runs in our blood and it’s something that no matter what they do, they can’t take it away from us.

▶ The government claims that the mass exodus from the cities at Easter showed that “money exists”. Are we, following all, crying for no reason and protesting out of habit?

SP: There is money, but only for gas, until the village and that’s it! And this with a fuel pass… Any other conclusion is out of place and time. The government may use various sophistry, in view of the elections, but the people know the reality they experience every day. What should the government and its parrots say to him? As for whether we are protesting out of habit, it would not be bad to develop other ways of struggle and protest. Let’s surprise them creatively. The times ask us to radicalize.

April 30, appointment at Prin’s music evening