Athens born twin brothers Al and Emil Rivers have experimented together musically since the age of 13. Via ska, progressive rock and punk, the classically trained musicians have finally settled on psychedlic pop as their genre of choice. With debut single ‘Toast The Toaser’ set for release on May 10th, the Rivers twins took a moment to educate us about the Greek music scene. Greece doesn’t currently hold the best reputation for pop music - how would you describe the scene? Al: I guess it depends on the kind of pop music we’re talking about. If we’re thinking Britney Spears and Madonna type pop music then you’ve got some really great pop music in Greece that does really well. I’m thinking people like Despina Vandi and Sakis Rouvas. I wouldn’t really call that a scene though in the traditional sense of the word as it’s very mainstream stuff. A night at Bouzoukia (the venues where these artists perform at) can be quite fun though from what I’ve heard. It’s not really the kind of pop music I’m into. Alternative Greek Pop, Rock music and even traditional Greek music was very strong in the 60s, 70s and there’s even some cool 80’s stuff. Some of the best music I’ve ever heard and I’m not just saying that cause I’m Greek. Later I’m not really sure what happened. I’m thinking stuff like Dionisis Savopoulos, Nikos Xilouris, Mikis Theodorakis. There’s an endless list of names of people who made EXCELLENT music. It obviously helps if you can speak Greek though so you can properly get into the music and the words. If you can’t a re-
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ally cool band to check out is Aphrodite’s Child who sing in English. It’s Demis Roussos and Vangelis’s first band when they used to play together. I think they were quite big in the late 60’s. Emil: My latest experience with Greek pop music was a couple of months ago when I was invited to a ‘private’ concert of Sakis Rouvas featuring Ukranian singer Lenka in Athens. I was expecting a ‘Bouzoukia’ style staging but this was way more extravagant than traditional ‘Bouzoukia’ clubs. Like entering a Coliseum waiting for Gladiator to come out of the stands, everyone was anxiously waiting for Sakis to make his appearance. And when he did there was a roar from the ‘mob’ of both men and women from all different ages who were truly ecstatic to be there. The crowd was dispersed into groups assigned to tables reserved in advance with Whiskey and Vodka bottles on every table and ‘throwing flowers’ were going round for 100 Euros a pallet. Rumour has it that a table tab went up to 9000 Euros when a celebrity sat with one of the groups and everyone around them began throwing flowers at them [Crazy Stuff]. I wonder if the CRISIS is really as bad as they say it is in Greece?
Alongside Greece taken up residenc the UK - how hav scenes effected yo
Emil: We first starte when we were 13. W punk and ska music really well in the gig we went to uni in th playing in a band an to progressive rock w which was quite exc open to experimen styles even if some o going over 8 minute our sound ‘psychede write a catchy tune it.
Al: I don’t listen to anymore but it has me as I used to liste I was a kid. It’s very is about love. I try to about love but still ab about love in one wa
I don’t think Portug fluenced me that m nice to listen to live