INTERVIEW: George K. & Irini T. (INCIRRINA)

QUICKIE OF THE WEEK: A short interview with George K. & Irini T. (INCIRRINA)

Pix666: Hello Irini, hey George. Thanks for your time. How are you doing these days?

Irini:Hello!Thank you for having us here in Pix666!

George: We are doing very well,these days we are rehearsing for our live show in Cold Transmission Festival that will take place in Cologne 19-20 August 2022.

Pix666: Please introduce your band to the readers in a few short sentences. How did you meet and what was your inspiration to become musicians? What kind of music does Incirrina make?

Irini: Incirrina makes electronic minimal synth music -based exclusively on mostly analogue synthesizers , samplers and drum machines. We are both musicians -pianists and keyboard players,also George is multi instrumentalist.We met each other in September 2014 and we immediately became partners in life.At that time we were members of various other bands, still we both had the same dream ,to form a synth band,and this dream came true with Incirrina.

George: We both wanted to become musicians since our early childhood.After using all the kitchen kettles as drums, I decided it was more interesting to play with keyboards!During our conversations when we first met with Irini,we discovered that as kids we were both in love with Jean-Michel Jarre’s music and we used to play the same themes and tunes from his compositions in small Casio synthesizers.This was a good condition to start sharing our lives !

Pix666: Some days ago your new single ‘Jane Doe’’ was be released. How have the reactions to the new song been so far?

George: First of all ,let’s say here that the lyrics of “Jane Doe” and of all the songs, except for one,in our upcoming album are written by Konstantinos Londos,a very talented poet and writer with whom we are soul brothers .The reactions to “Jane Doe” are very positive and ,although the song is dealing with a hard subject (unidentified female murder victims) ,we hope that we have managed to express musically the atmosphere imposed by the lyrics. “Jane Doe” is a tune with heavy riff and hypnotic drum beat which fits the sense and the meaning of the words.

Pix666: In August your new album ‘Lip Led Scream’ will be released. What can fans expect and can the album already be pre-ordered, and if so, where? Are there any special versions of the album available, bundles or something like that?

Irini: “Lip Led Scream” will be released in 19.08.2022 by Cold Transmission and the pre-order has already started in bandcamp page https://incirrina.bandcamp.com/album/lip-led-scream. It comes in Vinyl, CD and Cassette and also digital format.

George: In this album our sound is much different then in our previous LP. The 10 songs featured in “Lip Led Scream” where written during a very hard period;we tried to turn feelings of internal chaos and fear of a world collapsing outside into expression and into a burst of sounds and rhythms.Solitude, violence, despair, social injustice, biopolitics, but also love and humaneness are the main themes of the album.

Pix666: At the time of the album release, you are playing at the Cold Transmission Festival in Germany. How excited are you to play the new songs live in front of an audience?

Irini: We are really very excited about that and we can’t wait to perform our new songs live for the first time in Cold Transmission Festival at “Blue Shell” in Cologne. It is not only a very important event for us, but also a great opportunity to meet and spend time with people such as the wonderful Suzy and Andreas of Cold Transmission and all members of the bands of the Cold Transmission Family with whom we will have the pleasure and honor to share the stage.

Pix666: How do you generally create your songs? Is there a certain plan? Who in the band is responsible for what?

George: Usually there is no plan at all.Sometimes new ideas come up through jamming ,other times one of us has an idea and the other one adds new elements and develops the first idea,also sometimes either Irini or I composes a whole song and we then assign the parts – decide who will play what.

Sometimes we fit music into the lyrics,sometimes we do the contrary…so it only depends on the moment and the mood. We mainly use analogue and FM digital synthesizers for making music.We get much inspired by each instrument’s unique sound and we love experimenting with new instruments.

Irini: Although we both compose the music,we do have distinct roles as far as the performance is concerned;George is responsible for all drum programming and performing ,additional percussions , bass lines and riffs. I am dealing with vocal lines,melodies and harmonic enhancement.

We also write lyrics sometimes, still we chose to use Konstantinos’ poems because his writing is so extraordinary and expresses in a unique way things we think and feel. He is the secret 3rd member of the band ,as he does not only give us his lyrics,but we also have long and passionate discussions with him while making a song ; his advιces and ideas about the songs are precious , also he has a great musical feel and many times he helped us to overcome musical dilemmas and take decisions that did really work.

Pix666: Social media and music streaming are both a blessing and a curse for bands. From your point of view, what are the advantages and disadvantages of this development for your band. How much do Incirrina use social media and where are you represented?

Irini: It depends on the use of these tools. I used to find very unpleasant the fact that ,if a band does not have a“profile”in social media, it is as if it does not exist at all. But either we like it or not ,nowadays a band cannot expect that people will get to know its music without presence in the world of internet.The advantage is that everyone has now the possibility to upload his/her music and gain audience.

The disadvantage is that someone may feel “lost” and overwhelmed because of the amount of information and of the quantity of things that are happening every single moment. Still the most important and magical thing is that ,no matter where you live, your music can be reached and listened to from people in the other side of the world, everywhere where there is an internet connection…

George: Especially during the years of the pandemic, social media helped us keep our music alive and communicate with people sometimes thousands miles away, who would listen to our songs,play them on radio shows and mixclouds ,write us comments and thoughts about them…and this was really important when nothing else happened as we were all closed in our homes.We mainly use facebook,instagram,youtube ,spotify and the bandcamp platform and we try to have a regular presence in these media,when we have something to share,a new song,video,photograph,news about upcoming releases etc

Pix666: Your band is celebrating its 5th anniversary this year. What are the milestones in Incirrina‘s history so far – but also the experiences that you will never forget, such as funny moments during video shoots, etc.?

Irini: Well, we formed in 2017 and when we uploaded our first digital EP in December 2018,we had not exactly realised that this would be the beginning of a wonderful musical journey…This led to our first LP “8.15” which was released in 2019 by “Geheimnis Records”.Then another important moment was the release of the digital maxi single “Utter” in 2020, in which we started exploring new sounds and instruments.

Then the collaboration with Konstantinos Londos and the creation of “Lip Led Scream” during 2021…we really dived into our inner selves while making this album.And then the signing with one of the top labels –Cold Transmission – in the beginning of 2022 and the upcoming release of our 2d LP. Also a great experience was our first live show abroad in April 2022 in “Slowclub” in Freiburg.

George: During these years we had the chance to get to know and work together with many wonderful and talented people ,such as the photographer and video artist Gwgw Galanopoulou and the film maker Nickos Chantzis (“Press Eject And Give Me The Tape”)who filmed the videos for “Dance Of The Dark” and “Careworn Face”.We had much fun during the shooting of the video for “Careworn Face”,together with the performers and dear friends Alexia, Magda, Sonia and Eirini ;it was a really hot day of May and we were standing and walking for hours outdoors, all in black and going up-and-down the roads and passengers were staring at us as if we were aliens.

Pix666: … and what are your dreams and wishes for the future. Maybe a festival you would like to play, a band you would like to tour with or a duet with one of your favorite singers?

Irini: I would really love to meet Minuit Machine, Hante and Kælan Mikla … and of course it would be extremely exciting and a dream for me to tour or collaborate with them,I am very much fond of their music.

George: During the last years we missed live music playing and we hope that the situation with the pandemic will end as soon as possible…and that we will have more chances to play in concerts and share our music with people in real life.We would love to play in a festival such as the WGT or similar festivals for dark /electronic music.

Pix666: Do you have any other news about the band or some interesting personal things about you that you would like to share with the fans?

Irini: We are currently working on the visual aspect of our band ,collaborating with new people and preparing some new things…more to come in the next months!

George: We hope to meet you in Cologne in Cold Transmission Festival 2022 ,19-20 August in “Blue Shell”. We will share the stage with IAMTHESHADOW, ULTRA SUNN, Grey Gallows ,iamnoone, CIRQUE D’ESS, THE ENDING NIGHTS .A really strong line-up!

Pix666: Thank you very much for the interesting answers – Good luck for the future and stay healthy!!!

Irini – George: Thank you very much for having us here in Pix666,it was a pleasure!Cheers!

https://www.facebook.com/Incirrinaband

https://incirrina.bandcamp.com/