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First time visiting Athens for a live appearance, the high energy blues rock band from Patras, Blues Antivirus, had this little chat with Last Day Deaf. Go on and read this enlightening interview, and above all make sure you pay a visit at FAUST Bar-Theatre-Arts on April 3rd!

Hey Blues Antivirus! Feel free to introduce the band and its origin to us then…

A high power blues-rock band existing since 2011, but totally reborn in the summer of 2017 with the addition of 4 new members. The 6 members of the band is a strange combination of individually high skilled musicians, who are transformed on stage to passionate “amateurs” giving electroshocks to the audience throughout each live performance. That can be easily ascertained if someone visits our Facebook page, where he can listen to live recordings from different gigs, recorded with only one cable from the mixing console, without any editing (that’s the only way we upload parts from our gigs and a safe way for our friends to understand our stage power and quality).

Your music is influenced (and also do covers) of artists like Eric Burdon, Cream, Blind Faith, Gary Moore, Steve Ray Vaughan, John Mayall, Deep Purple, John Lee Hooker. Great names, but what about new music? Any current artists/bands you like and obtain inspiration from?

Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Chris Duarte, Joe Bonamassa, Eric Gales.

When and what should we expect from your debut release then?

Our debut release is gonna take place at the end of our live performances, in the winter season, till May 2018.  Four new songs in the final mix. There is no way to give written details to describe the Blues Antivirus’  new  album. Stay tuned…

You are lucky to have shared the stage with names such as Blues Wire & Radio Moscow. Would you like to share your thoughts and feelings about these experiences?

A total win-win situation. Beeing on stage with such great bands gives you the motivation to really support them and not just be a “support band” and the concentrated experience to rock the place on your own.

Imagine all 6 of you have to live in a desert island for 6 months! You only have to choose 5 albums in total! Which ones would they be?

Power Οf Τhe Blues‘ – Gary Moore (Antonis Panagopoulos – guitar)

Powerslave‘ – Iron Maiden               (Spyros Chasapidis – bass)

L.A. Woman‘ – The Doors                         (Giannis Bourazanis – vocals)

Gutter Ballet‘ – Savatage                   (Ilias Isaias – keys)

Led Zeppelin II‘ – Led Zeppelin        (Giorgos Pispirigkos – drums)

The Best Of Little Walter‘ – Little Walter      (Dimitris Antonopoulos – harmonica)

The albums are six and not five so we can listen to one each month! And they’re not really blues cause six months on a desert  island it’s blues enough…

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Do you believe that the Greek rhythm n’ blues’ scene is in blossom the last few years? If so, please a few emerging bands/acts we should pay attention to…

We feel that the R n’ B scene is static the past decades, not due to lack of new bands, but because of the absence of bands with strong  character.

Studio or live? And why?

Live for our soul and studio for history. Live performances is the oxygen for us and our friends,  and studio recordings will give our fingerprint to our audience. And we’re sure this fingerprint will be a non washable one.

What are you going to present at FAUST Bar-Theatre-Arts on April 3rd? Its gonna be a blast, right?

It’s the first time we’ll appear in Athens with our new members and some of our new songs. We can’t say much, but what we can say for sure that you won’t blink for two hours  …(haha). But don’t worry, we’ve been told that our play list can be used as a defibrillator too. Try it and give us feedback for the side effects….

Feel free to end this one the way you feel…

We feel good (Ta ra Ra ra Ra ra Ra) !!! Wish the same for you…

Photo credits: Kia Kotsani

Christos Doukakis