RadarRock Magazine / SKYSENT LU

HELLENIC BANDS ONLY

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SkYSENT LU “Touch me Mo#herfu(k3r!”

SkYSENT L

“Touch me Mo#herfu(

LU

(k3r!”

INTERVIEW Hi there Skysent LU and welcome to Radar Rock magazine once more!!

To start with, please introduce your band to our readers, those who have forgotten, that is!

Hi there Radar Rock, and thanks for having us one more! Skysent LU is a 5 piece band, and members are Nondas Emmanouil (vocals), Costas Karapetsas (guitar), Christos Spyropoulos (guitar), Stefanos Malliaros (bass), and Alexandros Varsanis (drums).

What is the band’s vision? What did you hope to achieve when you started playing together?

The band, since its inception, was composed of people who just liked playing and sharing their music. I cannot tell you if that is considered a “vision” exactly, but the hope was to be able to share our music, and become increasingly better at what we do, via hard work and having fun!

And what makes you different from other similar artists?

It has been quite impressive that, even though we hardly knew each other at first, “skysent” all of us, it took us very little time to actually become family! Very soon we realized that we shared the same love for music, and the aforementioned common vision.

However, since we were actually very different people, every single one of us had his own, separate influences, ranging from classic to hard rock, heavy and progressive metal, to stoner and blues… Nevertheless, we managed to compose music that met everyone’s expectations, thus creating a personal style, moving of course within the context of hard rock and metal music.

It’s been a year that you released your debut album, “2 Seconds Late”. Could you tell us a few words about it?

“2 Seconds Late” is the most difficult and creative project Skysent LU have been involved with so far, provided that the production and diligence for all the aspects of the CD stem from the band: recording, mastering, the creative concept and photography, everything

is funded and coordinated by us, thus have our personal signature.

The album contains 9 Skysent LU tracks. In the CD you can easily figure out the different musical origins of the each band member that we mentioned before, as each track has quite a differentiated character. Of course, given that the orchestration and musical arrangements are the result of teamwork, all tracks have the Skysent LU character.

Our goal was to get a professional result, but not a “stiff” one. We were aiming at a quality work with distinctive compositions,

strapping production, and an interesting art work, while at the same time trying not to lose the energy the band has when performing live! And we are happy with the outcome, that couldn’t be less satisfying, as the people involved in the process are all professionals and friends, who we absolutely trust.

One year after the CD release we are happy to realize that, based on CD sales, physical and digital, the audience shares our enthusiasm, while the reviews from media in Greece and abroad have been excellent!

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Very soon we realized that we shared the same love for music, and the aforementioned common vision.

That’s great news indeed! However, we hear you now have a new single, and a new co-operation. What’s up with that?

That is correct! The CD single is entitled “Touch me Mo#herfu(k3r!” and was released last October by FM Records. We like to think of it as a “sequel” of “2 Seconds Late”, as it contains two songs from the previous album in different versions: an acoustic version of “Punishment” –first time for us to try working an acoustic version– and a radio edit of “Loneliness of my heart”. The actual surprise of the single is the homonymous track, a hard

rock cover of the 80s hit “Touch me (I want your body)”, originally sang by Samantha Fox. The single was recorded live at the studio, in an attempt to keep all the energy one can feel when we perform the songs live! Once more, only few months later, the single seems to be very well received!

Did I understand correctly that Samantha Fox herself heard it and liked it?? That must have been impressive!

Yeah!! To be honest, we felt we had changed it so much, that she may want to shoot us if she actually heard it!! (hahahaha) That was not the case after all... She actually commented great, and posted it on Facebook, noting “I’m going to be ‘Touch me’ like this at festivals next summer”. It was an excellent surprise!

You’ve been talking about digital sales, so I have to ask: How can a rock band be successful nowadays, given that technology has led to the transition from CDs to different formats? And is it helpful or harmful?

The word “success” can have many different meanings... Technology and social media offer a convenience for a band to be released and promoted in a much less costly way than before, but has also created an information overflow, making it too difficult for artists to stand out.

Of course in Greece we tend to be overtraditional some times; and Skysent LU are no exception here! Even though a band could only have a digital release and work with that, Greek bands don’t feel they are actually releasing, if they don’t get their hands on a tangible CD with its creative, lyrics etc! We are known to make our lives difficult by ourselves! (hahahaha), but to be honest we feel it is more apt that way! Being able to sell digitally facilitates our effort to expose distant audiences to our music. And that is an actual, measurable success!

Skysent Lu’s main goal for example, was never to achieve over-revenue from CD sales, but to be heard as widely as possible. Having more and more people listening to our music is what we primarily consider success. And it is now clear that it can be achieved via the convenience offered by technology and media,

combined with the “classic recipe”: hard work, strong engagement with the band, original compositions, and respect to audience!

True story! This “info overflow” is also a characteristic of the Greek rock scene: many bands, even more artists… How do you see the future of our local scene?

Luckily, for all of us, there are many great bands, with softer or harder sound, that can stand out in the Greece and abroad; and this fact elevates the quality of the scene as a whole! These days the Greek scene includes artists and bands who can keep pace with European, even global standards. The scene is fulfilling all the requirements to move to a bright future.

Of course things are not easy during turbulent times, while the economical issues are not confined in Greece; and as expected, the situation has influenced music as well, given that the industry today is reluctant to spend budget to promote new artists. Bands are expected to find new, alternative ways to promote themselves, and social media is clearly one of them. If one is eager to work, he/she becomes creative, and thus overcomes difficulties.

Overall we stand optimistic, as we believe in the hard work and professionalism shown by the Greek bands.

Let’s go back to the band. What should we expect from you in the near future?

We are in fact in the process of composing new staff, and working on tunes, having already even some songs ready, but it’s too soon to talk about them.

Our top priorities are the promotion of our music, and especially the steps we’ve made in discography: “2 Seconds Late” and “Touch me Mo#herfu(k3r!”. Given that, and the fact that we love being on stage and sharing our music, you can be sure that you’ll never miss us for too long ! (hahahaha)