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.

Making music came from the need to express myself and be creative in a way I knew I could, but hadn’t tried yet. I have been playing in bands for many years, doing mostly rock covers, but at the same time, there were always music ideas in my head that I wanted to try, that didn’t necessarily involve a band. After a difficult period in my life, that made me rethink about my priorities, I made the decision to start writing and releasing music on my own.

A studio started to take shape at home and soon I was writing and arranging keyboard and guitar parts. It turned out to be difficult at the beginning mostly because of technical details, but the musical freedom to try anything I want and also the ability to make all the steps of the procedure from composing, to producing and releasing a song, was well worth it. That is how my musical journey started at 2019.

Provide us with some info about your latest release…

“Waving” is my latest release and it is a piano classical piece with some ambient elements. Originally when I came up with the main melody of the track, the idea was to have a full band arrangement at some point with drums and guitar but after a while I decided to keep it simple with basically just a piano. I think it was more appropriate for that nostalgic feeling I was aiming for and personally I am happy with the result. “Waving” is about letting go someone you have loved that had a major impact on your life. It can be a parent, a lover, a friend. It’s about saying goodbye forever.

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

music-wise influences:
David Gilmour, Slash, Jean Michel Jarre

Non-music-wise I mostly find myself being influenced by people with the dedication and courage to move forward no matter what.

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?

My sound can be anything that resonates strong emotions within me and hopefully to the people that listen. If a song doesn’t make me feel, there is no point releasing it. That is the most important thing for me personally. Fitting to a genre is not really important, although I have preferences towards electronic, rock, ambient and classical. I couldn’t be dedicated to a specific genre and making music only for that. I believe that most people, including myself, listen to different genres of music in our personal playlists.

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

Albums:
1. Queen – Innuendo
2. U2 – The Joshua Tree
3. Genesis – We can’t Dance

Movies:
1. Incendies
2. Like father, like son
3. The Legend of 1900

Books:
1. The Silent Patient – Alex Michaelides
2. The Schopenhauer Cure – Irvin Yalom
3. The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown

Do you prefer studio or performing live and why?

I really love performing live. It is a great experience to present your music in front of people but I mostly prefer the place where ideas and creativity emerges and that happens in the studio. Trying new things and arrangements and turning them into songs is very exciting for me.

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

A funny and definitely not unique story, that happens often, is this: I live with my wife and 4-year-old son in an apartment and I record everything in a small bedroom. Usually I cannot play music loud or listen to my mixes on monitor speakers, so I use headphones most of the time. And there I am excited at 2 a.m. in the morning, because I just tapped on a great melody and I play it constantly on the keyboard and tweak it until I make it the best I can. Then all of a sudden, my wife is standing in front of me with a straight face asking me: “exactly how many times are you gonna play that thing?? It’s loud! We cannot sleep, please stop!”. And of course I give her back the look of a devasted artist: “you don’t understand me…” hahaha

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

It is too early to point out a unique song of mine, because I have only 4 singles released at this point. But every time I start a new song I try to make it as unique as possible.

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

Future plans involve definitely releasing more music within 21 and also there are some ideas for videos as well.

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

Not really a question just a statement. I really love the time that we live right now. I am looking forward to the future. I don’t feel nostalgic about the 60’s, 70’s or 80’s. I wouldn’t go back to these eras even if I could. I love technology, I love science and the goods that we have because of it. I really appreciate the fact that someone from the other side of the world can stream my music. And also I have faith to the new generation of musicians. There was never a better time to follow your dreams than today.

Curated by: Christos Doukakis

Recommended listening:

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Connect with Yannis Kazakos:

Spotify: open.spotify.com/artist/4pUEmSylSOFBReD5S6Z56H

Bandcamp: yanniskazakos.bandcamp.com

Youtube: www.youtube.com/YannisKazakosMusic

Facebook: www.facebook.com/YannisKazakosMusic

SoundCloud: www.soundcloud.com/YannisKazakos

Instagram: www.instagram.com/YannisKazakos