Galery

5

4

3

2

1

It happened by chance. For the first time I am teaching music to people who have a true desire to learn. For me this is paradise. It couldn’t be better. I have enough spare time to learn different songs, which is part of my job. I was offered to teach at the university, because those who taught traditional percussion instruments before did not have higher education diplomas and they could not teach according to the law. And because they knew me with the company and with my work in Crete they offered me to teach at the Faculty of Music and Arts. I teach traditional percussion musical instruments to those who specialize and a rhythm course too.

Well, how did you decide to do something different out of the weddings and fairs?

We decided later that we want to play something more substantial so that people could listen to a music composition, not to get drunk, dance and rage. It is different to go to play at a fair - you need no rehearsal, you go there and play what you know and whatever. But endless rehearsals are needed for what we are currently doing to make it. We have our maestro who writes the songs and is the leader of the band - Stamatis Pasopoulos. He is one of the four people from the band who are from Serres. What I feel is good in the band is that there is no someone famous or virtuoso musician to be the leader in the concerts. We are a company, we are very bound to each other and what we do is the result these good relations we have with each other.

If someone wants to learn to play traditional instruments, where to do it?

There are many schools in Athens and Thessaloniki. There is a very good school in Crete - Ross Daly’s Labyrinth. Ross Daly plays the strings, however, he specializes in music of the Cretan lyra. He holds seminars in Crete every summer for two months. People come from around the world and pay very low prices. It costs 250 euros including breakfast and stay and the seminars are held for six days between 6-10 hours a day. I was lucky because I went to Crete, I went to a village called Ahranes, which is very close to the school of Ross Daly, and I found myself to the fountain of music. He has influenced many people. Many think he earns much money from this whole story, but it is not true. He is just wasting his time because he is permanently dealing with bureaucracy. He also has founded a museum of music organs from around the East - from Greece to China.

What do you find in traditional music and how does Motel Selenik develop it and make it modern?

I find only wisdom in musical traditions which is due to the fact that people were playing together for thousands of years and different groups of musical instruments which fit as sound have formed not coincidentally. For example, the sound of the bagpipe fits the drums but uti does not fit the drums. But we in our band play drums in combination with uti, which is modernization. This can not happen at a fair because the drum has ten times stronger sound than the uti, while the drum with the bagpipe or the zourla sounds equally strong. If you want to involve a traditional guitar in a band from Crete for example, it will not happen, it doesn’t fit, although there are many good guitar players who play Cretan music. What fits is lyra with lauto. There is wisdom in this, it is not by chance.

What is funny in our group is that in Motel Selenik we all have nicknames and occupation in the motel. We have a receptionist, waiter, maid, responsible for the lift - that's me; we have a savior, driver of the mini-van. We have nicknames - I'm Julio, Stathis is the Thick, Stratis is the Low, Stamatis is the Long, Panagiotis is Patagos, Kristos is Kavála, Dimitris is Bekos. I even forgot to congratulate Dimitris for his name day because I know him as Bekos. We even joke that we could build a motel one day because there are several engineers and architects in the orchestra.

Tell me about the folk music and the young people – how do they identify with it and accept it?

There are many types of traditional music - some types could be listened and also perceived as easy as Balkan music which involves trumpets, wind instruments and could be easily adopted by anyone.You don’t need to be lighten up. You listen to a Balkan rumba and start dancing. Rumbas are played during ‘rakutsaria’ - this is a holiday in Kastoria, which is celebrated after the New Year, on January 6, 7 and 8. Then bands from all parts of the Balkans come to Kastoria. They play in the streets and all the people run after the bands, drinking and dancing. All are fancy dressed and there is fun everywhere. There are similar happenings during the carnivals too some of which have been preserved since ancient times. Everyone could go and have fun without having any idea of folk music. There are other types of folk music such as the Macedonian and if you go to a fair without being able to dance you will get bored because there are round dances that are complex and difficult to dance. It is not like the music of Asia Minor that is also easy with its belly-dances. It doesn’t make sense to listen to music from Ponta if you do not know how to dance. The question is whether you want to learn and to come to this knowledge.

What are your future plans with the group?

We want to tour the Balkan countries and to play, and to do concerts in Spain. Now we have 25 finished songs some of which are remixes, but are very valuable. We decided to make a CD and have concerts meanwhile. It is still early – the band was formed two years ago but because of the Internet we have become more popular – we have over 30,000 visits in myspace.