Breath After Coma

Breath After Coma is an alternative, grunge, rock band, formed in 2013 in Athens. In February 2017 they self-released their debut album ‘Leaders’, which has been critical acclaimed by the media and audience. On March 10th they perform live at Gagarin 205 Live Music Space, where they will share the stage with Nightstalker and Honeybadger.

Your debut album ‘Leaders‘ has been very well received. After one year since the release, what is your personal evaluation?

It has been a very exciting year indeed. We have played gigs around Greece, made two music videos and really enjoyed the process. The album was very well received by the press and listeners and made us come closer to each other musically and personally. It was a stepping stone for us to evolve and certainly felt like we are starting to know where we are headed.

Are you working yet on new material?

Actually yes. We have been working on new material the last couple of months, although to be honest we are continuously writing new parts and songs. We are preparing some surprise pretty soon.

When you released your first EP, the song ‘Betray Me’ was included in a movie trailer by Thunderstuck Films. How did this collaboration occurred and to what extend has this given you a boost to foreign audience as well?

Actually the track was in the movie soundtrack apart from the trailer. Thunderstruck Films proposal literally came out of nowhere. They listened to our music on our page and just felt it suits their material. This is an extreme sports movie with some rad snowmobile raiders. The movie introduced our music to this crazy lot and we can now proudly say we have some snowmobile rider audience. It is kind of funny.

Your influences include bands from classic rock to metal. Are we going to expect from you a lot of experimentation or are you intending to shape a specific musical identity, as we got from ‘Leaders‘?

We have very different musical influences between the four of us and the way we make our music maintains these individual elements alive in the final mixing pot. We like to keep this individuality in the final sound but as we play more together we are getting closer to “that” sound. We know what we want and each time we try to get closer to this target. The new material feels even more like “us” than ‘Leaders‘. It is a painful experience to achieve the desired result in the recording studio though. We have just started working on that. Hopefully we will convey our thoughts on the record efficiently.

What I liked in ‘Leaders‘ is that you created a sound that can attract audience of various musical tastes, without being a sloppy mainstream album just for the profit. Do you wish your work to be reachable by a diverse audience?

Rock and roll started off as people’s music and it is in its genetic code to appeal to the masses. We feel rock music with its sub genres belongs to the general pop culture rather than to the music elitism. We dislike elitism which often becomes apparent in the underground scene. Music should bring people together. The larger the number the better. We are supposed to be trying to pass our own message after all. So, yes. Of course we want to reach diverse and larger audiences. About the money part, well now days money in music is a total joke so we are free to play as we please.

What is your impression and experience regarding the Greek rock scene? Are people more open the last years to smaller scenes, new bands and sounds?

The Greek rock scene has very much evolved and it starts to blossom and expand towards the outer world. This is partly because people are closer to the smaller scenes due to the proximity that the internet provides (e.g. we have people buying our record from the other end of the world; this could never happen to an unsigned band a few years back), but mostly because bands in the Greek scene have become better. This does not mean of course that Greek bands from the 90s were not artistically good whatsoever. It is just that many Greek bands realised it takes very hard work to be out there and stand next to big guys.