This Saturday, December 9th, brace yourself for the triumphant return of ElektroSpank In Concert, commemorating five years of incredible existence. Beyond the jubilation, they are set to amplify their commitment by supporting children fighting cancer and their families. Your presence holds the power to make a meaningful impact in their lives! Now, let’s delve into a conversation with the mastermind behind it all, Achilleas Charitos…
Tell us briefly about the story behind Elektropank PR. What inspired you to get it started, both in terms of the online publication and the PR agency?
Thank you for having me in Last Day Deaf. Before telling you about ElektroSpank PR I will tell you some things about the webzine and the ElektroSpank idea in general. ElektroSpank, as it is since 2018, created for two reasons. The first was that, at that time, I needed to find or create something that it would help me to overcome a situation. The second one was, and still is, to share my thoughts on different things that I listen to, to create a space for the artists, the bands and the labels where they could send an spread their music to other people listening to this genres and, of course, to communicate with all those people and discuss about music. So, this December ElektroSpank is celebrating 5 years of this amazing journey. ElektroSpank PR came out of an idea of helping the artists to reach out to more media and fans, through some advices and campaigns that are being built in collaboration with the bands. I think I am still new in that field but there is a lot of experience gained out of all these years talking with the bands through the webzine and now I am using this experience in order to help the artists.
Would you like to share some information about the upcoming event at Arch Club on December 9th for the 5-year celebration of Elektrospank webzine? Why were these bands chosen, and what is the significance of the DJs after?
Well, ElektroSpank is a living thing draws power from the people that supports it. And with the event, I want this contact that has been built digitally to also become partly personal. This is how the idea of ElektroSpank In Concert came out, where personal contact is combined with the “birthday” of the magazine but also with a very important goal, a charitable cause. That is, to help children with cancer and their families, as much as everyone can. So I chose AmKE Karkinaki, where some people there are making a huge effort, and all proceeds from this event will go to this cause. All the information can be found on the official website, at https://inconcert.elektrospank.com.
This year, ElektroSpank In Concert has grown, so I chose the Arch Club Live Music Stage where the people of TMR Entertainment and Morphic Athens, accepted from the first moment and they have offered a great venue and a huge help. On the 9th of December, four top Greek bands, Data Fragments, Kalte Nacht, Sugar For The Pill and Ghostland will take part performing live, creating an ideal line-up, and, after the shows, the night will continue with DJ sets from an amazing DJ line-up with four top DJs of Greek dark scene, George Fakinos, Spiros Stefanatos, Valisia Odell and Dr.D..
Would you like to shed some light regarding the event’s sponsor, Karkinaki, and its initiative?
Karkinaki is the way for children with cancer and their families, to talk open about childhood and teenage cancer. Karkinaki focuses on many things that some people, perhaps, haven’t think of, like the simple thing of the importance of hand hygiene when you are in an environment where a kid is under treatment to the most complex ones such as the promotion of clinical research in our country, the psychosocial support of the family of the sick child and the issues of survival of children and adolescents who have been diagnosed with cancer. Karkinaki, among other things, supports the scientific-research work of the scientific-medical community dealing with childhood and adolescent cancer, gathering resources to support innovative treatment approaches for childhood and adolescent cancer. Karkinaki also supports the operation of psychosocial support structures for children, adolescents and their families and the organized operation of “survivor” monitoring structures with the aim of ensuring a good quality of life throughout their adult lives. Αnd, these are some very important things, which, when you find yourself in such a situation, you don’t have the mind to think about, and that’s why it’s very important to have people who will show you the way but, most importantly, will be by your side to support you, as long as you and your family need it.
For which artists or bands would you like to handle PR, and which ones would you consider booking for a live show?
There are so many bands that really worth to reach out to a bigger audience. And for those bands I would really work hard to create a PR plan that would help them the most. ElektroSpank PR focus mainly in new bands and artists that really deserve and work really hard to achieve things. However I will admit that I would love to handle for a band that has already been on the scene for some time now and has different needs from a band that starts now. There are many names on both categories that I would like to work, indeed. As for the bookings, this is a thing that I do in collaboration with VoodooD Productions and there are many plans for the next months.
What holds the future for Elektrospank PR?
I can’t tell now. I try to live every day as well as it gets and not make long-term future plans (apart from booking plans). I have ElektroSpank In Concert at the moment and an amount of collaborations, waiting, for ElektroSpank Online Music Magazine. However, my vision is to see ElektroSpank, as a whole, becoming even more important factor for bands and artists to promote their work and for the fans to go into and discover new music.
Christos Doukakis