9+1 Q&A with cathedral echo

What inspired you to first start making music? And how did you come to be in your current incarnation? Or if you prefer, a brief bio about you.

I started writing and recording music at the age of 16, experimenting with loops and effects in conjuction with song ideas I would write on the guitar or keyboard. The idea of me working on my own came through because I couldn’t find other members to write or work on music together, so it became my recording project and it still is, it’s just that now it has a name and a live band to flesh out those recordings on stage. But it’s always been a way of creating my own world of sounds in solitude and expressing myself as much as possible.

Provide us with some info about your latest release…

We just released our EP “ΨΧ” which I spent close to 8 months writing, recording and producing in my bedroom with various gear I collected over the past few years . It’s a collection of recordings I started writing as separate songs, but then I started working on the artwork myself and took control of the entire project, which I am very proud of and after dedicating so much time on it, I think it encapsulates myself pretty accurately.

Which ones would you consider your main influences both music-wise & non-music-wise?

When I was a kid I listened to a lot of 60’s and 70’s psych rock like Pink Floyd, Aphrodite’s Child and prog rock/pop like Supertramp, but as I grew into adolescence I started exploring lots of modern bands like MGMT, Tame Impala and The Flaming Lips and bands like Spacemen 3 and My Bloody Valentine which I wasn’t familiar at all, but all those bands led to me exploring so many more sounds and also listening to The Beatles/Ravi Shankar allowed me to explore Indian music which was a chance encounter I fell in love with. I try not to stick to certain artists as inspirations and influences, because thet change all the time and take shape into what I’m working on at each moment.

In what way does your sound differ from the rest genre-related artists/bands and why should we listen to your music? In other words, how would you describe your sound?

Cosmic cathedral kaleidoscope pop (?) I really don’t know how to describe it, I guess a lot of people get a shoegaze/dream pop vibe, which makes sense because I try to create a very dense cerebral sound and I try my best to remain on my own scope of sound. The sound of it comes from a vision I have of a levitating cathedral in the sky which constantly transmits those sounds, but I guess that’s not a very clear description.

Please name your 3 desert islands albums, movies & books…

Albums:
“New Age Of Earth” – Ash Ra
“Cochin Moon” – Haruomi Hosono
“Spectrum” – Sonic Boom/Spectrum

Movies
“The Holy Mountain” – Alejandro Jodorowsky
“Lucifer Rising” – Kenneth Anger
“Tetsuo: The Iron Man” – Shinya Tsukamoto

Books
I mostly read philosophy books and musical autobiographies/archival material so I would go with this:
“The Doors Of Perception” – Aldous Huxley

Do you prefer studio or performing live and why?

I generally prefer working in the studio because my first love involves experimenting with sounds and composing, but because I actually study music production, I consider it as my main thing and live shows being an extension of that. Playing live is a very fulfilling experience on its own and although it sets me out of my comfort zone, it’s something I love doing.

Is there any funny-unique story you would like to share with us, always in relation to your music ‘career’?

Well, we were playing this gig in Athens, it was our first one in fact, and it was meant to be an one-off experimental improvisation featuring my sitar and I didn’t have a case for it. So we had a friend of mine to drive us to the venue with his car, but he had parked it a few blocks away, so by the time we finished and packed everything up, I vividly remember being very stoned and literally having hold the sitar in full view in Athens at like 2:00 am and thinking that this is actually one of the most unusual situations I’ve been in.

Which track of your own would you point out as the most unique and why?

I think that would be “crystal flowers”, not only because it seems to be a fan favorite, but it’s also the most spacey one I have recorded, it was that one time where I went full on, at times thinking it’s even unlistenable, however it’s also one of my proudest works thus far.

Would you like to share with our readers your future plans?

We are playing a gig with The Vagina Lips and Monochromatic Visions at Romantso on November 30 and we hope that a few weeks later we will play another gig with The Vagina Lips in Thessaloniki, but there are many plans for gigs up ahead, so stay tuned.

Free question!!! (Ask yourself a question) you wish to answer and haven’t been given the opportunity…

Why everything is?

Because nothing isn’t.

Photo credits: Sofia Paflioti

Curated by: Christos Doukakis

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