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Joalz are going to appear live (full band) on Friday 11th November at six d.o.g.s. after quiet a long time. On this special occasion, we had a brief chat with Leon Segka about this and many more that follow. If you believe that you are an electronica fan, then you shouldn’t miss this one. Just, go for it! 

So, Leon please tell us which are the latest news about Joalz? Why should we keep our eyes and ears open for you?

Many reasons to keep a deaf ear active. New album coming end of March 2017, titled ‘Amazing Moments‘,  new band members like guitarists Kimonas Vlachakis (Orh) & Gellina Palla, a brief European tour which includes so far, Berlin, Bristol & Rome but most important an album that we have been working for the last two years and features friends & artists like Toni Kater, Julia Kent, Mary Tsoni, Kat Papachristou, Zoggy & Kostadis.

Wow! This is really cool news. Correct me if I’m wrong but after months of live inactivity you are going to perform live on 11th November at six d.o.g.s. What should we expect from this live?

Songs from the already released albums, ‘Monkshood‘, ‘Hello Darkness My Friends‘, ‘Failed Tapes‘ and for sure songs from the ‘Amazing Moments‘ LP.  But what’s intriguing me most is performing along with two guitarists for the first time.

Two guitarists? Could you be more specific?

Sure, as before mentioned the two guitarists on stage will be Kimonas Vlachakis & Gelina Palla. We ‘ll  try to perform Joalz‘ compotitions merging their different way of playing, meaning being noisy and melodic at the same time.

Looking forward to this cooperation. Recently you shared with us a video of the live version of ‘Love Sweeps’. Could you give us some information about this?

The song was originally released as ‘Sweeping Range‘  from the ‘Monkshood‘ LP, featuring Canadian performer Sunday Luv. The thing is that when you rehearse with Mary Tsoni more or less she would like to sing into everything and she is always stunning. So an afternoon while we were playing an instrumental version of the song and all of a sudden she came in singing Dylan‘s ‘Love Sick‘ lyrics.  As I like to merge everything I could not resist in baptizing the song ‘ Love Sweeps‘. Kostas Dimis gladly captured that on a video.

Always wanted to ask you this question about Joalz’ universe: Listening to your music  a feeling of claustrophobia often overwhelms me. In addition, the band’s music resembles to this void feeling of the urban environment. In what way have big cities affected you composition-wise?

I think I will be living in big cities till I die while I am still working to improve Joalz recordings. Personally, I believe in an endless effort of surviving, having the least possible belongings and knowing everyday something more in what I love the most, music. I am trying to work with people having the same sense. It is so glorious when out of this process we become friends. Τhen, you return drunk at nights and the compositions are there.

As far as I know, apart from Joalz you are also involved with Djing and also your record shop  Homcore. Anything else? How do you combine all these? What about the other band members? Are they too so active?

Yes I am djng too, not so often these days. Started the Homcore store in Athens a year ago, not exactly a record store, basically it is like a home where I cook and sleep sometimes, checking to see if the way I live becomes a business. I am not a person to work 24 hours in a studio so the remaining hours of the day I prefer to keep myself occupied with music, I ‘ve tried other jobs too, like plumber, waiter and other stuff but with all ended up with  depression so I prefer to be depressed from music instead.

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Which 2016 albums have been the best for you so far? And for Joalz in general?

They are a few, but I can say the new Black Merlin‘s album ‘HYPNOTIC TRADISI‘ is important to me, Mark Pritchard‘s album on Warp Records too. I also had the opportunity to listen the still unreleased debut album of Orh band, which is brilliant!!

A tricky one! What’s your opinion about Bob Dylan’s Nobel Prize in literature and legendary Fabric’s closure?

I admire Bob Dylan as a composer & performer I do not know so much about poetry. Fabric was a real club, I ‘ve spent many nights there besides they had also license publishing rights from my songs ‘Mosanto‘ & ‘Inside You‘. They were great people. I am sorry that such a decent place is closed now but ” Times are changing “

Thank you for this one. A message to LDD readers?

Thank you as well.  Please before starting your day out, take sometime &  listen one of your fav LP’s. Music heals..

Photo credits: Jo Gogou (1st one)

Christos Doukakis