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“Borderline Syndrome” describes a personality disorder in which your feelings and behavior can’t remain stable. Borderline Syndrome is also an experimental progressive quartet from Athens, Greece, having just released their second album “Synapses”. Their music makes you feel unstable. They make you feel, think and dance or just gaze every wave and jump into a pool.

Hi Borderline Syndrome! Please feel free to introduce yourself and talk about your music.

Hi, there. We are Borderline Syndrome from Greece. We are a quartet, playing instrumental (at the time) experimental progressive music… or something like that. Well, apart from labeling, we just meet every week and compose music, because that’s what we do.

Your music seems to express your feelings and thoughts, as someone may describe. So how do you feel? Why do you make this kind of music?

Well, this “kind of music” is the spontaneous expression of our thoughts, feelings and musical influences – no more, no less. We experience a variety of feelings and thoughts (as every human being), so the product music of all this procedure has a broad variety of soundscapes and music genres….

Progressive, alternative, eclectic metal… What do you think about music genres? Which one is the most accurate for you?

…I guess this is your job to say…

Which is the first song that someone should listen from you?

I’d say the first track of our most recent EP: ‘Internalize’.

From 2010 till today your formation has changed several times. In your debut album you were collaborating with Sophia Sarri in the vocals. Now you are introducing us to Loucas in the bass. Do you presume that these changes also transform the core of your music? Could you explain to us your stages?

Changes in line-up certainly most affect the musical result of Borderline Syndrome. Collaborating with somebody, means that you trust all that he or she brings to the band and feel more than happy to interact with him or her.

Specifically, the departure of Sophia Sarri led to the fact that we decided to continue as an instrumental quartet… kind of a drastic change, don’t you think?

Moreover, Loucas, our new bass player, has brought a whole new perception of groove into the band.

Our primary goal is to have a really good and passionate group of people who enjoy to interact with one another and then try to make the best out of the group.

When will your new album be released? Will it be self-produced like the first one? What other news could we expect from you and why did it take you so long?

We already have recorded a new EP consisting of three tracks which was released in May. It is self-produced like our previous album “stateless” and we are currently planning a series of gigs to re-introduce the band as an instrumental quartet. Regarding our next album… we have no idea… we will release a new full-length album just when we will have enough (satisfactory to ourselves) new music to publish. It took us so long to come up with this EP, just because of this reason; we took our time to re-establish our sound as an instrumental band, rather than a vocal-based one, and come up with music that we truly think is worth publishing.

Why do you choose self-production as an option?

Nobody seems to care about publishing our music…

But then again, why not, really?

The truth is, we are not totally into DIY option. We are in favor of somebody taking care of all the totally boring and dull part of publishing an album, but we don’t really look for it. Things go smoothly and that’s the way we keep it.

You named your EP ‘Synapses’,  that is a Greek word for a connection line. Am I right? What is the meaning behind this title?

It actually means the connection between two neurons or a neuron and a muscle within the human brain. It is the mechanism with which intelligence grows and a memory is stored. It sounded good enough to name our EP after it.

Could you propose us a movie that you would like ‘Synapses‘ to become its soundtrack and tell us the reason why you choose it?

I hope we will have the chance to actually answer this question by making a short film (kind of video clip) for one of our tracks … Just an idea, at the time, but hopefully we will implement it.

Is it true that one of your members lives in another town and if this consists of an issue for the way you work together? How do you create your music?

Yeap, that’s true. George (our keyboard player) lives in Chalcis, a town 1,5 hour drive away from Athens, where the rest of the band live. Not really an issue there, cause we make him travel each week to meet and work on new music…

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Some of you participate also in other bands. How does this multiple music expression affect your sound?

Playing music in bands has to do with how your taste blends with the other members. And more bands, means more tests for you as a person/musician in a team. So you check your limitations on many aspects, communication and productivity. Playing in a band like Borderline Syndrome where the musical context is a very open thing that you have to be aware of what fits in every occasion, so having the advantage of testing yourself in different situation really helps.

One of your recent lives introduced us to an experimental electronic project. Does this electronic sound constitute a new field of experiment?

We tend to perceive music as a whole. Every genre is potentially a field of experiment. Electronic music (especially the experimental branch of it) is a major influence in our music, even if we don’t make it really apparent.

I believe that in your new songs is an absence of lyrics completely, even though in ‘Stateless’ the lyrics combined a significant part of the whole experience. Did your lyrical era end? I remember that you have told me in the past that a voice is deemed also as an instrument.

Nice… I appreciate you remember this…

Well, our lyrical era is not definitely over. As I’ve said before we always try to make the best of the group of people who are there at any given time. If that means instrumental, so be it

What plans do you have about prospective live performances? Will they take place only in Athens? What about in Greece generally?

We have a series of gigs planned for the future. We held a live presentation gig for our new EP on May 8, a Kookoo club in Athens plus some festivals in summer. A Greek tour is also in our upcoming plans, so keep informed…

Does a live version be always different from a studio version? Gigs, as I conceive it, are important for you before you conclude the recording of your album. Why does this happen?

A live version of any song is always different from a studio version. There are different forms of communicating music on a stage from a studio, so we try to exploit the best of every scenario. For example, in a studio we try to take advantage of multi-layer recording, in order to enhance the orchestration of a tune, while on a stage we need to maximize the musical and emotional interaction of four people being there at the same stage

Which is the most remarkable comment that you have heard regarding your music?

Certainly that sucks… stating that our music resembles “an old spaghetti western movie where the whole city is just scenery, but there is nothing at the back of it”.

I really loved that comment.

Photo Credits: Konstantinos Stagkikas

Malina Tzachristou