Category: Specials

 

 

 

Hi Alex, welcome to your personal edition of „Music & Interview“. Let‘s don’t waste time and start right now. Please tell us something about your childhood & youth. Where were you born and how did you grow up? Into what kind of music did you fall in love when you started listening to music (being a teenager)? When and how did you discover techno? What situation/event had such a strong impact on you that you started to dj and produce?

Hello dear Jurgen. Thanks for the invitation – I love what you do through NovaFuture and that means a lot to me. I was born in beautiful Crete, the big island in Southern Greece, however I moved to Athens when I was still very young. We had a very tough life financial-wise but yet fulfilled with love when I was a kid. When I was 15 I lost my beloved dad in a terrible accident (whose details I don’t want to share publicly) and that in a way led me being homeless. I lived in the streets for quite some time which was nightmarish but yet the biggest school in life. It showed me the very depths of darkness so I can appreciate much more the light now. People who haven’t experienced darkness take some very valuable things for granted and therefore it is way harder for them to become happy. I feel happy everyday for the fact that I have a roof over my head, food to eat and so lovely friends/family. I feel so happy that -maybe as dark techno DJ in Berlin I shouldn’t say this as I’m supposed to be always angry and sad (joke)- I regularly catch myself even singing on the street. That period toughened me up and brought me so much darkness that I now can take this ‘darkness’ (through raw dark techno) and produce light and smiles on the dancefloor.

After I somehow managed to return to “normal” life after living on the streets, and being slightly more mature from other kids at school, I learnt to play drums and I joined a street-punk band called “Τα Αρχιδια” which in Greek means “The Testicles”. That was my first touch with music. I liked punk and classic rock music. A while after my cousin (the son-in-law of my mother’s sister) showed me electronic music through psychedelic/trance. He was the leading member of a psychedelic band called “Space Odyssey” (they had appearances at Transistance and all those big trance compilations). I explored psychedelic/trance for a while but it wasn’t exactly my cup of tea. I wanted something let’s say in between punk/rock and psychedelic/trance. And there the greatest love of my life (alongside Liverpool FC) came: TECHNO!

I was almost 18 when I started going to raves and techno parties. My first ever club night was 14 years ago when I was 17 to 18 at Athens’ most underground club at that time “Luv” which had invited DJ Hell. He blew my head off and that was the start of everything. I started digging techno record labels and artists, started going to more and more techno events and meeting people from clubbers to promoters, and very soon started working first as a PR to techno events. I remember I was getting 1,50 euro for every person I was bringing in my “pay-guestlist” and I was making some bucks. I was doing well and then I started climbing up the Athenian techno scene and by 20 years old I was already a promoter together with some partners. Meanwhile I was focused also in school and I got into a good university where I had started studying business management and marketing. And that’s how I started managing artists and record labels. We were bringing big international names to Athens and some became clients for artist/record-label digital services. The very first one I worked for was UMEK and his label 1605. Then more and more followed with some such as my brother Marco Bailey and his label MB Elektronics (and now also MATERIA) being still with me until today, without stop. At age of 23 I went to UK to take my master and one year later, I moved to Berlin where my music management agency (Advanced) started expanding and my dream kept unveiling itself more and more everyday.

So yes, I started and I was for a long while just label/artist manager, booking agent and event promoter. It was a bit more than 5 years ago when I started exploring DJing/producing and I created the Abyssal Chaos alias. I received some judgement at the start which I understand and accept. Most people were like: “look – the booking agent and promoter who became a dj”. Especially in Berlin, with so many artists existing around who unfortunately see you as “rival”, it can become really toxic. That however made me work harder and harder, and I believe by now, I have made most of them to shut their mouth when it comes to the “Abyssal Chaos” matter. Having said that, I’m having my 30-tracker album out in March and I’m beyond excited to show it that to you!

 

 

Let’s talk about producing. What are your general inspirations for starting the production of a new track? How do you start with a new piece of music? How looks the whole production process?

As stated above, I’m still quite “new” with producing. Just 5 years which for me is still not much. It could be for someone else but for me, that I have to do office work 10-12 hours per day, I haven’t invested that much time as 5 years might imply. Due to my office work I listen to insane amounts of music and every little thing is an inspiration. Sometimes a demo from an unknown artist can be an inspiration. Or a track that I will listen at a club. I get some ideas in my head and then try to make something in the studio. Sometimes something else pops up in that process. So, let’s say that I just “go with the flow” when I work on something.

 

 

One track seems to have a very special meaning for you with a strong message: „FCK NZS“. Could you please tell us something about your reason to compose this one? What is the story behind it? Usually techno is not very political but in the past few months there were several demonstrations in Berlin eg against the right-wing party AfD. Do you think more producers & DJs should stand up and articulate their opinions?

Techno is an expression – of acting/doing/being. I want my music to mean something about me in many ways. And the whole part of me is all the way against fascism, racism, sexism…

Indeed more DJs (especially in rave scene) should stand up for especially a matter like this but honestly I do believe not many want to lose potential fans. Getting out any message like this limits down the target groups of an artist. I knew that releasing this track, right immediately all the techno-lovers who happen to be racists or sexists (oh, the irony…) immediately stopped being my potential fans. In the madness of social media and in an ocean of artists, where artists go hysterically crazy for the numbers of fans, almost everyone wants to get the maximum possible and therefore don’t want to limit down anyone. They just make techno hoping as more as possible people will like it and like their facebook page – no matter who.

Personally, I want to really and intentionally filter my fanbase. I don’t know if it’s right or wrong, in a way techno should be for everyone and some people tell me that I can’t say “far-right party voters are not allowed to listen to me” because it might make me appear one of them BUT I show my middle finger and here is why: The term of democracy is created for and based on high values such as freedom, human rights, acceptance, self-expression and equality – those values are absolutely broken by what the nazis/fascists/racists/sexists represent – it’s the ultimate contradiction. They can’t play a game if they don’t accept/follow its rules, right? That way I exclude far-right fans from my music and that track is there to shout it out loud for me. Techno supports the actual spirit of democracy -freedom, acceptance, equality and unity- way more than any political party. Fascism has no place in the world and I want to shout that out through everything I have – my techno included. In my opinion techno is very political and whoever can’t see this, is ignorant. My personal humble (but maybe wrong) opinion.

(Video for Abyssal Chaos’s “FCK NZS”)

(cover artwork of Abyssal Chaos’s album “Dark Fairytales”)

(Advanced logo)

(facebook banner for “Sweat” party series)

(Video for Nitzer Ebb’s “Murderous”, released in 1987 on Mute)

(full stream of Abyssal Chaos’ “White Wolf” from the EP of “The Wolf”, out on Advanced (Black))

(Abyssal Chaos on tour)