Friend Of Gods is 3-member band from Athens, Greece. They like weird harmonies and melodies, uncomfortable rhythm patterns and mixing everything together, to create something unique. We had a little chat with them and we offer you this interview.
Welcome to DT. Tell us a few words about the group, when and where did you get started? How did you meet?
Thanks for having us Downtuned! We are a three piece from Athens, Greece and we play a sort of experimental / garage / math / punk thing. We all knew each other, because we all had other bands in the past. These bands kind of sucked so we decided to join forces and make another one that sucks even more. We call this band Friend Of Gods.
Which are your musical influences?
Hmm... Let's see. Quite a few actually. I think our main influence is Mr. Bungle as far as how we approach songwriting and just mixing everything together. Then we really like the attitude and energy of punk bands like Bad Brains, Dead Kennedys or even the early RHCP. And more recent math rock/ punk bands like The Dillinger Escape Plan, '68, Retox, etc. These are probably our basic influences but all three of us listen to a lot of music in general, way outside the punk-metal spectrum.
What are your lyrics about? What catches your interest?
Understanding ourselves and the world we live in, is what catches our interest. We talk about personal issues and stuff that affect our lives personally and as a band. Most of the time, our anger is directed towards ourselves. We prefer creating pictures and emotions than being literal. We like to give room to the listener to interpret the song the way he or she wants to. And we definitely don’t like being political for the sake of being political.
Is the communication with the crowd something that you care about, in all levels, or do you do music for yourselves?
We do music for ourselves that's for sure. But we would be lying if we said "we don’t care about what people think". Of course we write the music we like to hear and we definitely don’t make money out of this band, so why settle for anything less than what makes us happy? But we also care about what people think about our band, even when we act like we don't. Everyone that plays music does that. Everyone. It’s like asking somebody if he still masturbates. Of course he masturbates, EVERYONE FUCKING MASTURBATES!
Do you feel like you’re a part of a particular "scene" in which you would like to join and contribute or are you indifferent about it?
Honestly, no. We don't like scenes to begin with. We think they’re kind of corny. You know? Like metal bands all looking the same. Then you have your punk bands, and your hardcore bands and your stoner and post bands. And they all have dress codes, and behavior codes, some scenes even have rules about what you can and can't eat. That’s boring and kind of lame. We believe things become interesting when you mix them up together. So we kind of created our own scene, R.O.U.F.A. records. For the time being we’re organizing live shows and promoting records through this label. Some of the bands we support are Rita Mosss, Chronoboros, One Leg Mary, Idiot Stroszek. These are all completely different sounding bands but they approach music with the attitude we feel is the right way to go and the formula is very simple: write good music, play great shows and don’t be a dick while you’re doing it.
How do you imagine the band will be in ten years from now?
I can't even imagine what the world will be like in ten years from now, let alone the band. I hope we still exist. That’s the main goal. We're humble like that. But if this whole thing explodes and we for some reason start making millions, snorting cocaine out of supermodel's asses, we won't say no.
Which famous artist would you like to do a guest appearance on a record of yours and why?
Damn! So many! I can get really greedy with this question! Maybe Jello Biafra just because he's so fucking cool. We really love his lyrics, and his wittiness and the amazing stage presence he has. Or even Les Claypool maybe, for the same reasons. And King Buzzo of course!
What plans do you have for the near future?
We just released our new EP "You Gotta Look Good In This Fuckin Business" and we completed a small tour in Greece. We are about to release a video clip for the track "I see them with no teeth”, and a live video from our album release show in Athens... Other than that, we are also writing songs for our next album, and planning a European Tour, hopefully towards the end of the year. Hopefully…
We wish you good luck to whatever you’re doing, the epilogue is yours.
Thank you Δowntuned! We wish you luck too! Keep up the good work! And for anyone out there interested in three dumb mofos banging the shit out f their shit, keep in touch!
by Kavaldi
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