A song – released by Protasis Music in collaboration with Walnut – that speaks to our hearts, from two favorite artists, creators, with common codes of aesthetics and quality. A successful coexistence but also a companionship that has a past, present and future and which, in our musically arid age, acquires even greater value.
On the occasion of this release, which is nothing more than an anthem of two creators in the song, Kostas Livadas spoke to ET about his collaboration with Panos Katsimihas, about the song today, trap, his worries, dreams, expectations:
What is the song to you? Your way of living, your lifeline, your breath?
This song really means a lot to me personally but also as a track and a message. What is the song? This time I will borrow the words of Panos Katsimihas, where, speaking about himself, he described with amazing performance and precision everything that I and other colleagues could say, that singing, that is, songwriting for me, is neither a profession nor a hobby, but balance exercises, safety harness and lifestyle. Music is a language that creates a universe where your whole love can exist there safe and unthreatened when you work and care for it. It has saved my life so far, I had a destination from a young age and it opened my eyes and enriched my soul. It is not just an ancient and collective art that is connected to the entire evolution of our species but also a personal and existential adventure within the poetic dimension – where all the arts become one – so powerful that it is as serious or more than ever a matter of life or death. People need to understand how blessed we are to have true song in our lives.
Panos Katsimihas is a famous and extremely important creator. How do you feel about this meeting of yours?
Although he has long allowed me to share moments and songs and I have had his valuable opinion and insight into many of my critical periods, the honor and joy are always new from the beginning. This clairvoyance you speak of is based on a sensitive and tender management of time, as well as a long track and experience on all levels towards what is essential and when is its time. So at the same time our relationship has never worn out, while I have never felt that the door of communication and love is not open. For me, of course, as you understand that I grew up, as much as I could (hahaha), with their songs and in their live performances and was influenced like my whole generation, inside and outside of the song, by the Katsimiha brothers, the importance of our meeting is incalculable. You don’t measure these things when you meet your heroes. As simple and quiet and equal as Panos behaves, I am always their listener along with the child who waited and waits for their new releases with the same anxiety and respect.
What connects you to Panos in general?
From long ago and from the first time we met – we were also in the same record company and I also started playing in Stavros tou Notou, when they were on the big commercial boom of their phenomenon, which characterized a twenty-year period – we were immediately connected by our love for music. We shared many artistic loves and exchanged information on new releases and bands. Next to them, the poetic dimension of life was omnipresent in all its aspects… As the years go by, the moments of collaboration remain unique for me. Panos sang the poem with me Confession of Polemis, later in the CD poetry anthology Written in red the My wretched lover, this dark gem of Sutsou cleaned you and in the year 2018-2019 he invited me and we played together in the figure that made his winter appearances at the Sphinx where we had an unforgettable time, played, laughed and talked. Even the rehearsals were another school for me. Since then, the creation of the song began Like a flower on the rock, when Panos gave me this text with the apparently few verses, but with this great world that it encompasses, the many levels and the incredible images… A chorus, a psalm in a litany of thanksgiving, praise for the singing by us, like message in the bottle in the sea that unites us. This time the partnership and adventure was so real – and there was so much for me to see from their magical way with Harry – that it gave me life grace and a great detox from his profession and rust. I always thank Panos for that and he knows it, even if we don’t talk about it.
Is there a noble rival in this songwriting scene would you say?
I am not sure anymore exactly what is happening in Greek singing and especially in the younger generations or what is considered and by which songwriter… Many of the public ignore the lyricists or even in our area there are people who do not distinguish between the one who writes lyrics and music from the one who is written one of the two only and which one. Every year and every decade previous and better.
Yes, there has always been this rivalry and firing of one through the work he admired in the other and collaborations and meetings with kinship in reason and aesthetics. Today everyone seems to move more alone and rather disoriented or even completely exhausted by the fragmentedness of the time, with few exceptions. There are many reasons, many and complex.
How does the generation of songwriters, your generation, feel today that the music scene around has completely changed?
I am afraid that the atmosphere of an incoherent variety show dominates the song too – like in the interwar period – and I hope that a very wise friend who told me one day that usually after the age of variety shows the dark clouds, social and political and the drums of war, will not come true… One thing is certain, wherever the era of singers has taken us for 40 years, the song that had a reason and was watered with true love and emotion, will live on and that is always the best guide and the most accurate compass.
What about trap? And for the new kids listening to genre lyrics? (at a time when violence against women is often domestic, or among young people)
To say… I have been following hip-hop and its development on the international scene from long ago until today and I would say that not only here, but globally the level of commercial derivatives of mainstream music is at the bottom of inspiration and intentions. Especially in Greece and for trap, most of the songs are not just sad constructions of short duration, but as if we are in the streets of New York gangs of the 80’s, they suggest and entertain with a vocabulary of crime and the underworld so blatant that it should that justice had intervened in some cases. I’m not saying this either ethically or aesthetically, and not only because from the age of 6 children today are left to their fate in mobile phones and screens to be distracted (that’s the huge dangerous difference with previous generations), I’m saying it as a normal report and having finished the Legal. It is dangerous, while it seems just silly or a teenage disease like so and so. But it isn’t. Now for the five cute songs on 100 gross, let’s not make it an issue. In general, until a few years ago I was still very optimistic about the future at least of the Greek song. Today I’m very thoughtful to the point of frustration, on and off the trap. It’s always the same thing: the remake and not the restart dominates.
What are you doing these days, writing songs? And what else; Concerts; Next plans?
The most important thing that concerns me at this time is the Like a flower on a rock and its release throughout Greece… Of course, it was a winter when I wrote and completed several songs that I had been working on for years and that we also planned something with Reno Charalambidis. We toured again in several cities with my beloved Andriana Babalis and we are already preparing some concerts for the summer. Two of those that I already know concern my finally returning to beautiful Serifos in July and a concert of mine with several guests at the Papagou theater in September. Finally, the dance theater of Dagipoli, where we have been working together for 15 years, turns 20 this year and we have no intention of not celebrating it, on stage and with a publication. There is also material from two different directions that has been forming for years for two personal records. May we have health and everything is ahead.
Are there any unreleased songs by Manos Eleftheriou?
Yes, this is a 15-year adventure with our beloved Mano, who luckily got to hear most of the nine songs (and a recitative) he entrusted to me, which make up a very tightly knit unit. I recently played live, on the show Night Standone of them, Manos’ favorite, titled Vertical drop and I think that relatively soon the songs will be completed. Great school and beautiful adventure, just like the songs we recorded together in the past with Manos Eleftheriou. Gifts with responsibility.
You always maintain a very lively relationship with Crete. Are you doing something there?
I go as often as I can to my place of origin, Chania, which fortunately our relationship never lost its magic and we both took care of it, me and the city.
How do you spend your free time? What do you like to do in general?
My free time is very often mixed with the period of gathering material and preparing – as I like to say – for inspiration and the right moment to call you. Inspiration is a tough girl and she wants you with her whole heart and soul on her lips not in her mouth. Otherwise either alone or together with Aglaia (including his partner) I love traveling (regardless of work), meetings with my dear old friends and of course my family (which extends from North to South) and 24 hours is not enough for me to read, see and listen to everything I want. It will never be enough, I know it… Apart from the arts, the world of sports is my great antioxidant 24 hours a day and all the sports I watch more than flirt with them. The same important daily medicine is for me the world of life and the long-suffering environment that we have unfortunately lost. There is still so much beauty for us to protect and care for. I live in Penteli and I am very close to both the majesty of nature and the tragedy of human negligence and management. I am very concerned about this every day.
You are the soul of the group, with the stories you often tell, do you like that?
I have always loved telling stories and capturing moments. I suffer from hypermnesia and this always makes for a good and sometimes thirsty story teller and many times the soul of the group especially when the humor and its codes are shared between us.
What worries you most in the world?
I worry about the days to come and the lack of education and love of letters and finding an identity with roots and a horizon. The new anthropotype evolves into an electronic nomad lost in screens and his image. Of course dna will always resist the sweeping times, but the new completely uncharted waters ahead of us are very deep and dark. It may have always been like this, but I see the blindness of our time trial and I want to share.
What do you think is missing the most from the world around us today?
True imagination and genuine humanity with dignity and courtesy are sorely lacking in our everyday life. Maybe the system worked a lot to achieve this, maybe it is every now and then a breach of the law.
A dream of yours that you would like to share?
I dream first of all of health and longevity with inner youth for all of us in a peaceful world. It would be wonderful if the country could once again experience the power of a community that, with mutual respect, looks first at the common good, and for the planet to find its romantic hopes again in a new decade of human – in values - rebirth and faith in the dream that gives birth to seed and fruit and its unwavering magic. This loneliness together with this eternal strength and hope that stands like a flower on the rock.
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