25488950_1725553037489053_411402214_n

Rosewood Brothers are a blues/rock/soul band from Athens, Greece, that will be performing on Thursday, December 21st, at ILION Plus, their debut full-length ‘Soul Blossom’ (Ikaros Records). Joseph Kiritsis (vocals, electric guitar, slide, dobro guitar, percussion) carried on the task answering our questions pretty quickly (!) and enlighten us about what this is all about. There you go then…

So, lets go for it! Who are Rosewood Brothers and how did it all start?

It all began with an idea of mine for a project 13 years ago with some home demo recordings at first, a test more of carving the shape of the sound so I could better understand the needs of a recording and working band at that point, 3 years later and after of some extra studio recordings, younger  musicians/friends listened to it, liked it, talked about it  and  the band was breathing alive. George & John Katsanos along with Konstantinos Zervas, Nico Konstas and Demetrios Grigoriadis were and still are with the band, but there were a bunch of additional very good musicians over these years that they have been recording or performing live with us.

Would you like to give us some information about our debut full-length ‘Soul Blossom’ out via Ikaros Records? How would you describe its sound?

The band along with the producer Alex Bolpasis after working with the band’s material, decided to “drive it” thru the paths that gonna make it sound better and close to the era that the band enjoy to write and play, so we tried to make it sound  humble and warm like the music we had in our ears all these years. It’s a rock/bluesy record with 9 plus 1 tracks (digital download bonus track) printed in vinyl by Ikaros Records, that we recorded at Artracks Studios in Athens, Greece during the winter of 2016-17. The graphic designer by the name BeWild Brother made this beautiful cover and all the puzzle pieces came clean to the band’s  3rd release, but first full length album.

Why do you “maintain the spirit of the 70’s blues/rock analog sound”?

The sound!.. You know sometimes a song that you write even from the first notes or arrangements has this power of taking you exactly where it wants you to go, even that it’s young n’ fresh has a strong mind of knowing how it wants to sound like.  The same happened with the tracks of our new material. They wanted to go there so we play our part to dress em up nice with some clean and warm clothes made by an old tailor.

What should we come over and see you on December 21st at ILION Plus?

We are gonna perform live the new material along with some of our older songs with two great drummers playing along thru the gig!

Which blues artists/bands have mostly influenced your art?

They are so many and we keep adding more of them to that list that it’s gonna take a lot of time and ink to write em down. From early blues recordings to jazz giants 70’s rock, 80’s punk to 90’s grunge and hip-hop till  this month’s latest releases. Check the answer no.7 if you don’t believe me.

How did the co-operation with Ikaros Records come about?

So far it went cool, little bit later at the deadlines than we had initially agreed, but that is a common thing for an underground record label that does 4-5 releases at the same period of time and for the first time if I’m not wrong. We pay the recording studio, the mastering for the album and the artwork and they pay for the test pressing and the 300 pieces of the final vinyl press that we have in our hands along with the printed covers, plus the import taxes etc… Although the studio recordings  and the master together it’s 4 or 5 times more expensive than the rest of the project, that’s the deal you get in our days in Greece and in most times you have to be happy as well. Lot of bands here  do pay everything by themselves from scratch to finish.. We’ve done it to the past but now if you ask me it’s kind of a burden for the band to keep everything in what I call “overall pro level” of production. A band has to make music and that’s it .. The labels have to respect that n’ do their job along with  the bands with respect for the music and not the money. But that’s my way of seeing it.. Maybe I’m wrong..

25529904_1725543334156690_660258707_n

5 desert islands records for Rosewood Brothers…

We are more than five so we add a couple more to this..  John Coltrane – ‘Crescent‘, Led Zeppelin – ‘The Song Remains The Same‘, David Crosby – ‘If I Only Could Remember My Name‘, Candi Stanton – ‘1970-74  Recordings‘, Faces – ‘A Nod Is As Good As A Wink…To A Blind Horse‘, The Allman Brothers Band – ‘At The Fillmore East‘,  Robert Johnson – ‘King Of The Delta Blues‘, Guru Jazzmatazz Volume: 1‘, The Stooges – ‘Raw Power‘, Stephen Stills / Manassas – ‘Manassas‘, The Band (full box set recordings)… Fuck it, I got to stop the list it’s gonna be huge!

How difficult/easy is it for new bands to find venues to play live?

Easy if you want to just do it like they want it, hard if you want to do it your way.. Taken from every aspect.

Which are Rosewood Brothers’ plans for 2018?

Promote the new album performing it live and return to the studio for some new recordings.

A message from Rosewood Brothers to Last Day Deaf readers.

May your ears work fine like a Swiss watch till your last day.

Photo credits: Fyllis Pappas

Christos Doukakis