Heavy Rock dudes don’t talk too much, they just jam their stoner quake in the face, so read the interview with HeadQuake man, cause it includes interesting info about the band… And they are also hitting the ILION Plus stage on February 2nd, along with BUS.
You’ re not newcomers in rock ‘n’ roll, and by the majority of fans you are considered as a super-group, since all of you have had a long course in the amplified delights, so please introduce HeadQuake to the readers outside of Greece.
Super group?? Naaah. Due to the fact that we’ve been around for 25 years, our members were members of bands such as Villa21, Tractor Bowling (Russia), Vibratore Bizzaro. We just enjoy playing quality heavy rock music, constantly seeking to improve our playing and songwriting.
On February 2nd you are hitting the stage at ILION Plus in Athens together with BUS, what are we expecting to listen on that night? Are there any guest surprises too?
We’ll play the whole ‘Into The spiral’ album, some new songs never presented before and a couple of tracks from our deep past which were recently published in vinyl editions only, under the title ‘Roots And Branches’.
You are not “live maniacs”, and it seems that you choose carefully your live performances, tell us a few words on that perspective.
True. Although we never stop rehearsing, we do very few gigs. We play gigs only with bands we love to listen to.
Hard rock music on a stoner vehicle reaches our ears, but how do you consider your music?
We love 70’s heavy sounds, we lived the 90’s grunge and stoner explosion and we are always moved by a good rock n roll punkish tune. Put them in the blender and there you go…
Your latest ‘Roots And Branches’ has gained very good reviews, powerful music with very good and clean sound. What are the differences from your earlier releases in creative terms?
‘Roots And Branches’ features unreleased recordings from the band’s first period, from 1993 to 1995 and manifests HeadQuake‘s combination of raw riff-rock power and stoner grooves from an era when even the term “stoner-rock” was a novelty.
What does the title of the LP hide, and what does really inspire you in your lyrics?
As mentioned before, ‘Roots And Branches’ features unreleased recordings from the band’s first period, from 1993 to 1995, therefore the word roots clearly refers to our very beginning back in the past. “Roots” side, recorded in the summer of 1993, demonstrates the guitar work of the late Costas Pothoulakis (ex-Villa21) along with vocals from Nightstalker‘s Argie while for the “Branches” side HeadQuake are a 4-piece, with new vocalist Shen “Zen” Lenahan and guitarist Stelios “Schema” Giannoulakis, somehow previewing the band’s second period, from the early ’00s ’till today.
Has your music reached a de-facto point, or are we expecting any surprises in the future, what other musings are you interested in, that you could use in?
Well, our new stuff is heavier, faster and at the same time more mature. I think we’ll never play jazz though…
How does HeadQuake consider the new world order, the rise of fascists in Europe, the election of a conservative “puppet” in USA and the global political will to turn the world into a more violent yard? Does all these affect you as artists or “it’s only rock ‘n‘ roll…”?
Well, fuck fascists, racists, Donald Trump and the likes of him.
The band’s future plans are..?
We soon plan to begin recordings for our 4th full album.
Could you share with us 5 pieces of art that have influenced HeadQuake the most?
We love music, cinema, theatre, football and basketball. We admire artists like Jimmy Hendrix, Lionel Messi, Steph Curry J
Thanx a lot for the interview guys, last words on you…
We haven’t said our last word yet (and we won’t).
Mike Dimitriou