Bandage

Ihave been following Bandage since the beginning, co-releasing one of their records, sharing the stage with them a lot of times with my band, and even sharing a house with Drossos (vocals / bass) for a couple of years. Bandage is one of the most unique and lovely bands in the Greek punk rock scene and Drossos one of the nicest dudes I ever met and one of my best friends (even though we live 350km away from each other), so I needed no further reason to include them in the fanzine. Who cares that they are not playing hardcore at all?! Read what he has to say and get ‘Build’ now!

Interview conducted in early April 2020. Band picture by Theo Vranas.

www.facebook.com/bandagepunkrock www.instagram.com/bndg_band

Hey Drossos! Welcome to Soulcraft 2! How do you spend your time during the quarantine? When do you think this is going to end and how?

Hey Soulcraft! Thanx for interjecting into this difficult time for me and all of us, by having me being interviewed. I am still able to work from home, even though at a minimum pace, I listen to music I had shelved for quite some time, I play a bit of music of my own, watch LOST with my favourite person in the world and play video games. My parents need some assistance with groceries and other necessary amenities and time passes slowly but gradually. As to when this quarantine and the general franticness will end, I’m afraid it will not be any time soon. Extreme measures may take a step back during the summer but I think the year 2020 will not go back to being “normal” one little bit.

How hard are these times for independent music, small-scale bands / artists and punk rock especially? By the way, melodic / skate punk rock is not the trend anymore, nothing like it used to be 10 years ago for example? Why did this happen in your opinion?

Small scale bands and artists is actually a very fitting term, generally. I would say that this crazy time we’re all experiencing will be having a rather intimate effect, as in small-scale independent musicians will not have a chance to express their camaraderie through music with people they are interconnected with and simply will not be able to have a good time through performing their music on any level. The general outline of

this outbreak will clearly have a more severe impact on the general musical scene that relies on their shows and output to make a living. As for the second part of the question, I’m not entirely sure what happened to the skate punk / melodic puck scene, as I don’t really consider my band a part of that scene anymore, musically anyway. On a personal level, while I am in no way willing to “shit” on the skate punk parade, I have outgrown the musical and lyrical content of that genre. However, to be honest - and to the best of my possibly limited knowledge - I would actually contest this argument; I think globally the skate punk movement - especially a more technical and contemporary part of it - has come to the forefront of many stages in Europe and across the world with still anyone being able to “make it big”.

Bandage recently released an amazing record, called ‘Build’, in 2019, can you shed some light to the release of your 2nd full length? When did you come up with the idea and how long did it take you to finalize it?

Firstly, thank you for the kind comments on our new record, they are much appreciated. After the release of our first full length record, North by Northeast, we wanted to approach our song writing in a more organized fashion, preproducing everything on a very basic level in order to single out our favourite ideas on the new songs, as well as try a more personal direction with our lyrical content, avoiding anything we think is generic, which characterized most of our songs in the past. “Build” ended up having a theme and the theme lyrically was Loss on every possible level. Musically we tried many new things and headed for a more emo / poppunk aesthetic. We worked on the songs for nearly two years before recording them in the spring of 2018 at Villa Giuseppe, here in Athens.

You keep writing personal lyrics, what inspires you? Why did you choose the word ‘build’ for the title of the record? What do you want to build with this record and by playing in a band after all these years?

As I am the one writing most of the lyrics in the band, for our new record I wanted to express myself in a way that I imagined a person like me could maybe empathize with. Hope that makes sense. The songs of my favourite bands I relate to the most are very personal, due to the simple fact that most of us tend to go through similar but essential situations in life. The premise of the title for the record resonates

from the simple realization that through every single difficult experience in life there is a lesson to be learned and that this is a way of avoiding the repeatability of past mistakes of any kind, a way of “building” a stronger personality through experience.

There’s a ‘pop’ vibe in the new record. What influenced your writing and what are your favourite bands nowadays?

The band is almost 10 years old now, so, as individuals in it, some of us have found different musical paths to follow through time, some of which not even in the punk genre. However, I personally was completely overthrown by this modern emo / pop punk wave that has been becoming increasingly popular year by year. Bands like The Story So Far, Knuckle Punk, Citizen, Turnover, Trash Boat and many many more were on a terrifyingly abundant rotation for me. All of that somehow shaped the songs on Build I wrote the music and melodies for. Right now I’m listening to Four Year Strong, Movements, Tiny Moving Parts, Spanish Love Songs, PUP, Pinegrove but also some hip hop like Leikeli 47, Tyler the Creator, Common, Lizzo, Cautious Clay and others. Not sure if our upcoming material will involve hip hop (wink).

Bandage play for quite a long time. Usually bands come and go after a couple of years. What keeps it together for you in Bandage? You had your line up changes but after all the core remains the same. What do you regret changing and what not changing through all these years?

For me it was always about progress, apart from the obvious interest of making your own music and performing it. I think we basically became a band when in Greece there was little to no punk rock of the late 90’s and the 00’s left and a few new bands started playing at the time as well, paving the way for what the new era for bands was, I believe. Until 2010, touring abroad excessively or even just every year for a few weeks each time wasn’t ever a norm, bands here never even thought of proper merch or music videos and having your own equipment at shows to play with, your own distinct sound as a personal choice, how to make a proper record that doesn’t necessarily cost a ton of money and so much more. It was an interesting time to be a band and I was eager to do things I hadn’t tried before and to always keep moving forward as much as possible. Without that kind of drive, everything dies down eventually, I guess. In retrospect, I wish we had moved a bit faster with making more music and I especially wished we had played more places than we have until now, that we would have seen more, you know? On the other hand, I have this feeling about our little band that in our extremely small framework, while we were affected and even inspired by many bands and people in music, we formed and stuck to our own personality as musicians and did many things exactly how we wanted them without actually “copying” anything from anyone.

How’s the Greek punk rock scene nowadays? Sadly, I hardly see any unity, only a handful of friends coming together and creating things or just people going with the flow… Or maybe I’m getting old and start losing my faith in positivity, haha!

I don’t know about this one. If we’re talking about English speaking Greek punk bands, my main concern, if you can call it that, is I see no new Greek punk bands coming out and I’d like to think I keep my ears open. I know trends come and go but we’ve always had a rich history of bands playing some sort of music associated to punk and now it seems it’s mostly “older” bands still playing. Right now I’d say the Greek punk scene is at an all-time low. Maybe it’s a decade thing, who knows? The funny thing is, globally there is a ton of music coming out, within the wider range of punk / hardcore. I don’t know about the unity aspect either. I mean, yeah no one really seems to want to keep this engine going, or even help boost it, but there’s no audience for it basically at the moment and that in my opinion is the main problem. You could argue that it is the band’s job to jolt the audience’s interest, but Greece is a really bad example for that argument. I can name a good list of non-Greek bands that had no audience in their home town or greater area and found a way to tour farther and farther - but in a logical geographical field, not having to switch continents for example - and make something happen or be part of a greater movement. Greece is at the bottom of Europe and - let’s face it - this type of music is heavily westerninfluenced; a culture our reality here is still far

You have toured for more than a couple of times abroad. What differences have you spotted in the punk rock scenes around Europe? Any plans for further touring when all this paranoia ends and we get back to normality?

The main difference is that of organizing things. Greek promoters and bands have gotten CRAZY better at organizing a proper show, treating and paying the bands decently, feeding and housing them, but it can still get a hell of a lot better. Another thing is, Greece barely has any decent small venues for a - let’s say - 200 cap show. That doesn’t help the organizational part of things. Other than that, I don’t really see many differences. We had various shows planned here in Greece in March and April, but the pandemic storm hit exactly on cue for these shows and we were also in the midst of planning a European tour for September, but I’m really unsure it’s possible at this point, mostly due to the fact that, even if shows are actually possible by then, you need to be able to plan it months ahead and all the shows - big or small - that were supposed to happen globally around this time are for now being postponed for the fall of 2020, so there’s going to be a TON shows then, theoretically at least. Let alone all the financial aspects this crisis will bring in months ahead and the actual potency to tour… I hope we can somehow make things work out.

What do you do in your daily lives besides Bandage? How hard is it for a local band to play shows, tour and also maintain a normal job (usually providing a low income in Greece…)? Have you ever tried to do Bandage full time? Or do you think that doing a hobby that you love full time may affect your passion and dedication for this?

For all of us, Bandage is a hobby. An expensive hobby, but also one that pays off in a lot of ways that don’t necessarily have to do with money. Everyone in the band is occupied with something other than music here in Athens, in order to pay the bills and generally get by, as well as keep the band going on various levels. We make some of the money we invest back but for the most part it’s a negative margin. Sometimes by a lot. It’s cool, though, and also important that it’s split four ways. Many aspects of keeping a band going require tremendous energy and time and, while it’s proven that the more time you put into a band the more you get rewarded, it is almost impossible to maintain a daily job AND work with the band full time. If there were a way to financially secure our everyday lives, we’d have the band be a full time thing, but we never tried it and I don’t think anyone seriously considered it. Doing a hobby, that you love, full time wouldn’t affect your passion and dedication for it, on the contrary; it would fuel it and you’d do a great job with it, exactly because you love it so much.

Does punk rock have an age limit? Is it a passing phase for youngsters to rebel against society’s needs? I know my questions are provocative, since I’m also close to 40 and still screaming my lungs out in basements, but I’d like to read your perspective!

I have this thing in my head, where I can’t stand watching people rock out in their 60’s or whatever. In most cases it’s just too much for me. Music definitely doesn’t have an age limit in general, even performing it. But I think at some point a venture like punk rock, which takes so much energy on stage and during a performance, has a limit, at least for me. I think, however, there are many ways of transitioning into different things still surrounding the genre of punk and even making or playing that type of music live, that’s how I’ve considered it for myself if the band-thing keeps going on any level for many more years. I just believe you don’t have to necessarily do the same thing you were doing when you were 20-30-40 and as you move forward because it feels and looks unnatural and sometimes ridiculous. Anything is possible, but it looks forced on so many occasions that I think aging should be a factor in how you choose to progress further by playing music, especially in any kind of rock band.

Thanks for the interview, it’s always a pleasure. Stay safe and let’s hope the world won’t end soon so we can share the stage again!

Thank you for having me and always being supportive of Bandage. Good luck with the fanzine and stay positive and strong, as always!