Apostolos Ntias: 'My songs are personal experiences'

The Greek songwriter, on the occasion of the release of his latest record titled 'ΕΝΤΕΚΑ' (which we've shared our impressions of in this article of ours), talks to us in a wide-ranging interview. Apostolos Ntias opens up to us, here on Fuzzy Hound.

Apostolos, welcome to Fuzzy Hound! What are your current feelings about your album "ΕΝΤΕΚΑ"? Are you happy with this release? Did it achieve its purpose?

Good evening to you too! Overall I'm extremely pleased and happy with ΕΝΤΕΚΑ, especially when it comes to the production side of things. As for the release itself though, I honestly don't know how to judge it yet. On one hand, a year and a half has passed since it came out, but on the other hand, because of the pandemic, it feels to me like it's only been three months since it dropped. As for whether the release achieved its purpose, ask me again in 1-2 years, because we've been in a standstill for a year now and generally we're still at the very beginning.

Tell us a bit about this work and what prompted it. When did you compose the tracks and by what criteria did you choose them for the album?

I don't remember having anything specific in mind or any particular plan when I started thinking about making ΕΝΤΕΚΑ. There were quite a few songs already from before, and others were written more recently. What I do remember is that I wanted it to come out as a complete body of work, which is why I chose to put out a full record instead of releasing singles every now and then.

Together with my producers, we chose to include these eleven songs that ended up on the record because we felt each one carried a "different" message to convey, regardless of when the song was written. To give you an idea, there's a song on the album that I wrote 11 years ago, and there's also a song that was written just a month before we went into the studio. As a first album, I wanted there to be a variety of themes I wanted to touch on. Both lyrically and musically.

"ΕΝΤΕΚΑ" has a pure-blooded rock character with Greek-language lyrics. What's your view more broadly on the contemporary Greek-language rock scene?

I don't quite know how to answer that… Unfortunately, the circumstances have been such that for many years now there hasn't been a Greek-language (truly rock) scene. There are some excellent musicians and bands, but these are more or less exceptions and not something you'd call a "scene". I genuinely hope that at some point there really will be a revival of the rock scene in Greece!

What are your influences more broadly? Which artists or bands do you "owe" the creation of "ΕΝΤΕΚΑ" to?

I think it's simply a result of my overall influences. Like for example Elvis Presley, Queen, Led Zeppelin, Dio, GnR, Ac/Dc, Deep Purple, Uriah Heep, U2 but also relatively newer ones like Madrugada, Radiohead, Damien Rice, Eddie Vedder, Dropkick Murphys, Audioslave, SOAD and so many more! And of course the Greek rock scene with Τρύπες, with Ξύλινα Σπαθιά, with Υπόγεια Ρεύματα, with Παύλος Σιδηρόπουλος and with Βασίλης Παπακωνσταντίνου as just a small point of reference.

Lyrically, what inspires you to write and why did you choose Greek lyrics for your songs?

I write almost exclusively from personal experience, without particularly filtering the topic. It's whatever moves me in the moment. What mainly occupies me though (as it turns out) are social issues, matters of inner searching and freedom, and obviously love. Now, why Greek lyrics… Because that's how my songs feel somehow more genuine to me…

Generally it's easier (for me at least) to write English lyrics than Greek ones, and the reason is that English words are shorter, with fewer syllables, so fewer "notes", so you can fit a lot more meaning or story or detail into the same melody. With Greek lyrics I almost always feel like I want to "stretch" the melody to fit more lyrics in. Despite the difficulty of it though, I feel overall that it's more right for me.

All music and the artists who represent it have suffered more or less during this pandemic period. How did you handle this situation and what do you expect to happen from here on?

Personally, beyond all the unpleasant things this situation brought, which are more or less the same for all of us, I feel like I've transformed on a personal level over the past year. I don't know if that happened because of the circumstances (lockdown) or if it was just meant to happen, but either way, that's the truth. On the musical side now, during the first lockdown there was a surge of ideas and creativity, when suddenly the world stopped moving, obligations stopped, and suddenly there was an abundance of free time available. During the second lockdown though, for me it was the opposite. The whole situation started to stagnate, so to speak.

Movement gives life, and we all found ourselves in a state of stillness. How much more can you really "draw inspiration" from your own house's walls?! As for the future and what's coming, I have no idea. Whatever it is, unfortunately, it feels kind of bland to me…

Is there a chance you'll perform live now that the situation has improved somewhat? Do you have live plans for the immediate future, or more generally?

There already are, and there will be (as long as circumstances allow), plenty of acoustic live shows. However, I'd like to do a full album presentation with a full band once a few more songs from the record have been released on Youtube, and also once we're a bit more certain about the health situation. So that's something I'm pushing back for later.

Are you working on anything creatively these days? When should we expect the follow-up album to "ΕΝΤΕΚΑ"?

I'm preparing new video clips, but not yet a follow-up to ΕΝΤΕΚΑ. The truth is I want to give plenty of time to ΕΝΤΕΚΑ. I want all the songs on the record to be released with videos, and generally to give the record enough time to develop. There's already material for the second record, and there are also new songs being written as we speak. My goal is for the second record to come out right after the release of the last video from ΕΝΤΕΚΑ. 

Apostolos, thank you so much for being here, and we wish you all the best with everything you do! You can close out our conversation however you like!

Thank you so much for the company! I'd have a lot more plans if circumstances allowed, but for now I'll settle for shooting a few video clips and preparing their release.