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  AILAFAR -Interview (2017)

 

 

Long Way To Imagery
No Limits
Heartbeat
Release Year: 2012
Release Year: 2015
Release Year: 2017

 

Band's Facebook: www.facebook.com/ailafar

Interview taken from John Tzortzis Ailafar.

GEORGE: Welcome to BeRock Radio guys, the most melodic place! I am George,
please make yourself comfortable! We’re glad to have you here.
Tell us about the current line-up and some words on
how you came up with your band name, "AILAFAR"?

JOHN: Hello! Hi to everyone! I’m John Tzortzis (Guitars) in behalf of Ailafar band.
Thank you for having us here! It’s a pleasure and honor. Well the line up goes like this:
Elisabeth Mari – Vocals , Kostas Mauroudis – Bass, Fotis Kanistras – Drums,
Vangelis Papageorgiou – Piano/Keys and me all guitars.

The name comes from verb “Ail” which means something that causes you pain and bad feelings
and “Afar’’, which is far. So in few words it means to push away all the negative feelings away.
I came up with this name back in 2005 after the loss of one of my best friend.
She passed away in 2004 due to cancer.

GEORGE: Will you tell us some information about your new album "Heartbeat"?
Was it hard composing the tracks? How long did the recording sessions take?

JOHN: Well “Heartbeat” has been released by Perris Records in US and it features 12 new songs and
several guest vocals such as Steve Overland of FM, Kelly Blake of Jailcat, Costantin Maris of Forbidden Seed
and Dean Mess of Wanted and Downtown Association.

It was recorded in Valve studios here in Thessaloniki by my dear and talented friend Stratos Karagiannidis,
known as (Strutter). It was mastered by George Markousis in Sydney, Australia.
I’m really thankful to all of them for their amazing help and talent! It wouldn’t be the same without them.

Composing new tracks it’s always fun! Sometimes it comes out quickly and some other times slower.
Either way, you must be focus on them and enjoying the adventure and the experimenting.
Each song is a journey and we must enjoy the ride!
The album took one year totally to be recorded and mixed with
a couple of months of break up in between though.

GEORGE: “Heartbeat” has the most "fresh" musical ideas that I've listened to so far.
Tell us a few words about the tracks. What is your secret in writing such great and "refreshing" music?

JOHN: First of all thank you very much for your very kind words and support. It means a lot.
There are 12 new Rocking songs in it, written between 2014 - 2016, with the exception of “Come like an angel”
that I wrote back in 2006. But it only remained as a demo until now. It was the song that started the band somehow
back then.

There’s no secret I think regarding my song writing. I just try to write songs in the style that I like and that comes out
naturally. And I really try to make them like full to my ears first. Then I try to produce them in the best way I can.

Of course that requires the priceless help and talent of the rest of the band and of course
the talent of the sound engineer. You must always have a direction in your mind I believe.
And you must get it there no matter what.

GEORGE: What were your inspirations while writing the tracks?

JOHN: Inspiration to me comes first by my own experiences, feelings, thoughts and dreams that many times
I combine them with a bit of fantasy and experiences of other people’s lives. To give you a clue.. “Dream date”
for example is a true story somehow that I personally experienced some time ago.

GEORGE: Did you encounter any problems during the recording of the album?
If so, how did you overcome them?

JOHN: They say that when we make plans God is laughing. (hehe) Well it has happened in every album I did so far.
One of the first problems was the fact that we had agreed with a male singer and ex member of the band that he
would record almost half of the album.

And so we recorded those tracks according to his voice and Key.
But it was after the first month that he started working and playing live with another guitarist.
He had a very heavy schedule so our work was left behind.
After some months of waiting there was no other way than finding another solution.
The same thing happened with Mr. Paul Jackson as well.

Paul had recorded vocals on our previous album. He would sing on this one too.
Therefore I thank both of them for everything we did together until then.

I think that everything happened for a good reason. Because that gave the opportunity for Elisa to record more
songs and of course because of that we were lucky to have the Amazing Steve Overland!
There were other problems and delays because life get’s in the way every time.
But if you believe in your work and dream you can overcome anything.

GEORGE: Are you pleased with the feedback from media worldwide?
Such as from reviews and fan reactions.

JOHN: Yes I am so far. Even though I haven’t even promoted it myself so far in the best way I want.
But it goes really well and reviews are going well too!

GEORGE: What are your plans for the promotion of the album, but also generally speaking?
In November of 2017, you released a video clip for “Stop Running Away”, Should we wait for another video clip?

JOHN: Well surely there will be more video clips. Things have changed at the moment regarding gigs but we will
overcome this as well no matter what. I will also focus more in the promotion of the album through social media
and radio shows. And in the meantime I write new songs every now and then…

GEORGE: In the Melodic Rock scene it’s very difficult to stand out and shine among the rest, due to the
high quality that is needed, do you believe that the band’s charismatic lead singer will help you stand out?

JOHN: I believe in every style of music you need to have good songs and of course good production.
Elisa is a great singer and really a nice person. We’ve been playing together for almost 6 years now.
She comes from a music family so she had a musical past before we met. I really believed in her since
the day one, even when not everyone agreed at that time.

But I really watched her becoming better and better each day. I believe together we both grown up musically all
these years. So she did a great job on this album and we are all proud of her. I’m very sure that in whatever
project she will be part of in the future will be great every time. The album wouldn’t be the same without her.

GEORGE: For the past 4-5 years, we’ve been seeing a boom in Melodic Hard Rock.
Do you believe that rockers want more quality in the music and listen to more of this genre?
What is your opinion on this?

JOHN: I believe that this style of music has much more fans than we think. Looking back the catalogue of songs
that we love is endless. And there were many of our favorite bands that stayed alive all through the years.
So they kept making music no matter what. Older generations followed them and new ones added.
And of course human kind is always thirsty for melody.
It’s in our nature. We need this kind of feeling.
So that leads to the future of it.

GEORGE: In recent years, the music industry has changed.
We see that a lot of people prefer digital purchases, which are more convenient, faster and more accessible.
What are your thoughts on the future of physical copies, such as CDs?

JOHN: The world has changed due to internet. Our daily lives changed as well.
People don’t buy albums any more as they used to. They prefer downloading which is easier as you said.
You may put out a production that cost you thousands and people will hear the song through mobile phones
and i-pods etc. In the old days people would open the booklet read it carefully with desire and excitement.
They would even smell it.
Now few people want that. So the future of CDs is uncertain.

GEORGE: It’s not just the music industry that has changed over the years.
Nowadays, we see social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc...) have become hugely widespread.
How much support do these sites offer to a band and in what way?

JOHN: Well even though internet has caused other problems it surely has a lot of benefits.
Social media sites have surely helped us. This is how it works now and must be always aware of it.
These sites will surely make you easier known to more people and they help you spread your music and work.

GEORGE: Thank you for your time, I wish you all the best for the future!
The last words are yours for this interview.
Feel free to say whatever you want to all BeRock Radio’s minizine readers!

JOHN: Thank you very much again for your kind support to our music and for having us here!
I wish you all the best for your work that is really important for us and all bands. Keep it up!
I would like to wish to everybody a very Happy Christmas time full of love, happiness and joy and of course
full of Melodic Rock!!
Rock on!
With appreciation.



George "Snaki" Karatzas
For BeRock Radio's MiniZine (2017)
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