Good evening, guys, and welcome to Metal Invader! It’s our first time hosting you, so I’m glad for you making the time for this interview! Is everybody well? How are things flowing these days?
Good evening to you too! It’s an honor for us to be hosted at Metal Invader! This interview happens to find us in a very important time period, because three very important things are happening for Leftover Bullets. The first is that we’re in the process of composing the songs that will be the successors of “Virtue & Vice”, the second that we are way too close to solving the problem of the rhythmic guitarist that emerged with the departure of Yiannis Tentsos, and thirdly we will share the stage with one of the biggest rock bands of our country, Nightstalker, that we love and respect, together with friends and fellow compatriots, Shotgunz! Cannot wait to this to happen!
Four years have passed since the creation of Leftover Bullets and you have already acquired a fairly fanatical crowd, especially in our city of Thessaloniki. What do you think this is due to?
More likely to answer this is the fans themselves, but we translate it as a result of the loyalty and dedication that we all put in in what we do without deviating right or left, and in dealing with the band itself and its ‘idea’ seriously, responsibly and with prospect.
How did Leftover Bullets come to life? Whose idea was it and how was it implemented?
The idea came by Giorgos Karathanassis, who together with 2 members from Rescue Remedy, i.e. Yannis (mentioned before) and Anestis Pilatos, plus the drummer Spyros Kitsios created the original Leftover Bullets but we believe that the main seal came with the arrival of Giorgos Dimitriadis in drums and Giannis Vogiatzis on vocal duties. Also, Dimitris Argyropoulos’ addition for the bass position 2,5 years ago was also of key importance.
What were the initial goals of your band? Do you think you have succeeded some of them in your four years of existence?
We are on schedule. From the very beginning we sat down and we saw objectively everything that we might encounter either within the group itself or due to external factors, so when we started dreaming, we didn’t fly our kite high. We knew a little of what we would find in front of us. The original goals were to make a decent first album, with much essence, and not to let it just happen, to work after it was released. We think we have kept our line. Recently, with the completion of one year since its release, we count 4 Video Clips and one Lyric video all for songs coming out of ‘Virtue & Vice’. We had successful album presentations in Athens and Thessaloniki, we played in other cities, we made a tour in Bulgaria, the fans were multiplied, our reputation grows steadily, we think we are doing well taking into account the general state of country music-wise! However, you know, expectations will always be greater than achievements; otherwise it makes no sense…
Where did the band’s name come from and what’s the concept behind it? Bullets for whom / what?
We named the band “Leftover Bullets” (Remaining or rather abandoned Bullets) a period when the wave of new and active people moving abroad was massive. Many of our friends fled to other countries at that time, so we stayed here to feel a bit ‘abandoned’, but we never felt useless. We are and will be “Bullets”. With any translation that may have!
Musically speaking, you move towards Hard, Heavy and a bit of Southern paths, with a bum twist. What are your influences? How much did everyone’s musical background play a role in shaping your own sound?
We have stated in the past that our main influences are rooted in the hard rock of the 85 ‘- 95’, we never question this, but it is not a rule in building our sound and compositions. We will always try to evolve, but with the unchangeability of being honest, that is, not pretending to be what we are presenting. We think that listeners regardless of acceptance or not, deserve to get something real. As for the second part of your question, we are of the same age more or less in the band, so music tastes are similar.
Lyrically speaking, your themes revolve around both social and personal contexts. What’s the message that Leftover Bullets want to convey?
We believe in what rock ‘n’ roll is about. That’s who we are. We believe that both world-wide and here in our country, the rock view is now needed more than ever. This reaction is necessary because it’s not so directly expressed in any other kind of music. Fortunately or unfortunately, there are millions of reasons to be angry with what’s happening around us, and we feel the need to let our own personal cry and incompatibility in a society that we feel is plasticizing rapidly to be loudly heard. Oh, a bit of badass attitude never hurt anyone. Anyway, many things around us have turned into wuss material. Even the most personal lyrics, either erotic or inner psychic ones, come from this very same prism.
Your cooperation with Miltos Karatzas and the contract with his company cannot go unnoticed. Really, how did this happen and how satisfied are you with your collaboration?
It occurred entirely randomly. Obviously, Miltos was roaming into YouTube, a time when we had our first lyric video (“80’s Child’s” is the song) uploaded. So then, a Monday morning, we received his message saying that he wanted to release the track as a single with his label and asked us to communicate with him. The next day we came in contact, we made an appointment in Athens, and when we got down, we brought him another 4 demos in order to discuss over an EP release with 5 tracks, to get people to know us better. He disagreed and offered us a complete album. Of course, we listened to the advice of a man who was director of the biggest record companies for pretty much 40 years, so after 6 to 7 months ‘Virtue & Vice’ was released. The next month, our contract reaches its end, thus we’re going to take into consideration every single proposal we got so far and reach to a decision that’s best for the band and the new album we are preparing.
In a city like Thessaloniki and in a country like Greece, with all the difficulties and the ‘clouds’ gathering above our heads, how can rock ‘n’ roll be kept alive and offer a way out?
Mmmm! That’s a great question! It’s up to us all, meaning all the artists who belong to the Rock Movement. We ought to make it accessible, meaningful and genuine. We are responsible for raising the numbers its audience, by helping people express themselves via our music and get attached to what they’re listening and by extend to what they see. As we said above, the stimulus exists for rock to thrive. If we look at it through its ‘celebrity’ side as well as many artists do, we will surely fail at everything. If we’re releasing tracks and albums that are rushed and perfunctory, in order to release something just for the sake of it and just because it’s that easy nowadays, then we’ll just bless each other’s beards and no one will ever be interested again in what we do. Lastly, it is fashionable for 4 to 5 outstanding musicians to form a group even though they are already members in other groups, to create music that on one hand is excellent music-wise and perfect technically, though they lack on the other hand inspiration, due to lack of time and the kind of loyalty that every work requires and must have. Of course there are exceptions, but these are just too few. Slackness will not help keep us alive. Even if we just turn to the past and see the big names we all grew up listening to, no Ozzy, no Hetfield, no Angus Young, no Lemmy and so many others had 3-4 side projects to work with on the side. They made us shudder because they believed in this one thing they had and did it well. So we believe that we are the first ones who are responsible for everything. Everything else comes second. Things like the music industry, downloading etc. are things that are true but they are beyond our own responsibility and do not go through our own hands.
Your debut “Virtue & Vice” was released in November 2016. Are there any plans for a new release? If so, would you like to give us some information?
Of course! As we said at the beginning, we are in the stage of composing the new tracks (we are above the middle) and we are very excited about the result so far. The goal is to raise the bar again, and to pull out any maturity that has emerged in us synthetically from the ‘Virtue & Vice’ release so far. We estimate it will be released, if not in the late 18s, then surely early 2019. If you want some exclusive information, we are letting you know that the heroine of ‘Virtue & Vice’ Daza will also star in the second album because we liked it a lot and people embraced her well, so she’ll be back! And something else, we will fight for our second album to be released straight in vinyl!
You are about to perform on the Eightball scene along with Shotgunz and Nightstalker. What have you prepared for us? What to expect from the Leftover Bullets? An intense show like you’ve got us used to?
Yes, we are very excited about this show and we’re looking forward to performing on that stage! We chose this day to perform two new tracks coming from our upcoming album! One is called “Confused” and the other “Free Speech For Sale” and we are anxious to see how the world will react!
Brilliantly! That’s all from me for the time being! More to come on Sunday! Thank you again for making the time for this interview. The last words are yours!
We have to thank you as well for giving us the opportunity to make the band known to even more people. Your questions were on point and elaborate enough. That’s the kind of interviews we like! We’ll see you at the show! Keep rocking guys! You do it well!!!
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