INTERVIEW: Konstantin and Dionisis (Grey Gallows)

QUICKIE OF THE WEEK: A short interview with Konstantin and Dionisis (Grey Gallows)

Pix666: Hello Konstantin, hello Dionisis. Thanks for your time. How are you doing these days, are you alive and well?

Konstantin: Ηello, it’s nice to talk to you! So, first of all we would like to thank you for this interview. I’m just fine personally, working from distance, playing and listening to a lot of music.

Dionisis: Ηello, we really thank you for this interview! I’m just fine too!

Pix666: Please introduce your band to the readers in a few short sentences. How did you get to know each other as a band, what was your inspiration to become musicians? What kind of music does Grey Gallows make?

Konstantin: Well, Dionisis and me met each other back in 2014 in Patra. We started hanging around at first and later we discover that we have a similar taste in music, and so it came naturally for us to jam and making plans of forming a band, which would reflect our music preferences.

Dionisis: I would say that we are a dark wave group with influences from the wide spectrum of the 80s and 90s post punk and gothic scene. After we met and became friends, our mutual love for the dark sound drove us to form Grey Gallows, which was the very first attempt to write music as a duet.

Pix666: In about a month your third album “The Garden of Lies” will be released. How did the work on the album go, what obstacles might have arisen due to the Corona pandemic? Were there any differences in the way of working or in the result, who belonged to the production team?

Konstantin: Το be honest, the Corona pandemic didn’t affect us, as far as the writting process is concerned, because given that we live in different cities, we have learned to work from distance. On the other hand, the whole situation and the continuous lockdown had an impact upon our rehearsals and the live concerts we had to cancel. But it also gave us inspiration and plenty of time to focus on the songs and lyrics. So, as far as the songs are concerned, our friend Cleopatra Caido, singer of Meat Injection lent us her beautiful voice in Dissosiation and another friend of ours, Ermis Samsa, gave us the basic idea for At the crack of dawn. We would like to thank them from our hearts!

Dionisis: We are trully happy to have finished this work! It’s the first time to have a professional producer, the sound designer and mastering engineer, Nick (TheMute) Chalntoupis from SoundCave Studios, whose work and aesthetics has contributed the most to the final result. He has made an excellent work and has put his stigma to the sound of the album. We are totally satisfied with the result! Furthermore, we have to mention the perfect artwork by Maria Deligiorgi and the marvelous photo of Marilia Fotopoulou. We thank them both!

Pix666: You recently switched to the German label Cold Transmission Music? What advantages do you hope to gain from this deal?

Konstantin: I can’t hide that we are very satisfied with Cold Transmission, we have developed a very good communication and they support us in every way. It’s a label which really cares and works a lot for its groups. We believe that via Cold Transmission our music will reach to a broader audience and we will gain more experience.

Dionisis: Cold Transmission is a label, which operates in a very organised and methodical way, with pure love for the scene and we believe that every release they make has its own stigma. There are several new and very interesting groups in their lines and we feel it’s an honor for us to be part of Cold Transmission. We consider it as a big step for Grey Gallows.

Pix666: In which versions can the fans buy your album, and above all, where?

Konstantin: It’s great to have our album in vinyl and cd format!

Dionisis: Yes, ‚Garden of lies’ wil be released in vinyl and cd format and it will be available in all merchandise channels of Cold Transmission.

Pix666: Can you actually remember your last live performance? Even though you were busy working on the album in the last year, such a long time without stage and fans must be totally annoying for a band? How much do you miss the stage?

Konstantin: Well, it’s totally devastating for us not to be able to perform live and have to cancel our live concerts. We are a band that seeks to play live whenever we can, so not to have the opportunity to do so, it is very hard for us indeed.

Dionisis: That’s for sure! Our last live gig had taken place several months before the pandemic exploded here in Greece, so it’s a long period of absence for us. Furthermore, we had to cancell a support to Blaine L Reininger, plus another support to a very popular group, things that were very frustrating for us indeed. We have thoughts of doing a live stream but the strict lockdown restrictions don’t allow us to get together and to do so. We have really missed the energy of the live shows, because for us this is the peak of the creation for a band, when its music is shared with the audience live.

Pix666: The pandemic unfortunately still has us in its grip, in Germany we are even in a lockdown again. Nevertheless, are Grey Gallows already planning some concerts for the album release or a tour later in the year?

Konstantin: It depends on the situation, the truth is that we crave to play live, but it’s not in our hand. I trully hope the whole pandemic thing to decline soon and to be given the chance to make a live stream at least.

Dionisis: As we already mentioned before, this thought is forbidding for the time being. If the lock down restrictions start to loosen, we hope to be able to make a live streaming presentation of our album. At least, given the situation, technology can give alternatives.

Pix666: What is the current situation in Greece and especially the mood among the people?

Konstantin: It’s very rough! People are tired of this situation, most of them feel bad and you can see it in the streets, some of them avoid you, generally the forms of communication have been tremendously affected by the pandemic.

Dionisis: I personally see a mental fatigue in my social circle. I believe this unprecedent situation has tested our limits hard enough. The only positive I can see is that the people of arts continue to create.

Pix666: As a musician, you certainly spend most of your time creating music – but what else do you do in your free time when you want to get your mind off things – are there any interesting hobbies that you pursue? 😊

Konstantin: When I don’t write or listen to music, which for me is my personal medicine, I really like reading horror and fantasy books, usually late at night, and in general anything that has to do with darkness and macabre.

Dionisis: My personal escape is music, whether as a composer, or as a listener, and it’s for me a means of escaping from everyday routine. Besides music, I watch movies and series as mush as I can.

Pix666: Do you have any other news, that you would like to share with the fans?

Konstantin: We are in a very creative period, so you will be having news for us more and more in the near future.

Dionisis: We have already started writing material for our fourth album and we would like to make another video for the album, that’s for sure.

Pix666: Thank you very much for the interesting answers – Good luck with your new album and stay healthy!!!

Konstantin: We thank you, the pleasure was all ours! Stay safe and healthy too!

Dionisis: Thank you a lot for this interview, we really enjoyed it!

https://greygallowsband.wixsite.com/mysite

https://www.facebook.com/Grey-Gallows-band-138384996740165

https://greygallowsgr.bandcamp.com/

https://www.coldtransmission.com/