que pasa, que pasa, la musica en casa, vol.2

andreas patsalides exclusively @ slaughterhouse

*slaughtering: interviewed andreas patsalides

listening to your tunes, it seems that you have a range of musical influences. how would you describe your sound, any recommended listening to people that like your style?

first of all, I would like to say that I’m really happy to be interviewed by your blog. well, to be honest, there are quite a lot of influences, since I like to listen to all sorts of music, but I consider bob dylan as my major influence.he actually combines american, irish and english folk music with rock ‘n’ roll and blues.he has not only been a musical inspiration to me, he has been influential as far as writing lyrics is concerned, as well; in the form of short stories. other artists, who have influenced my musical style are nick cave and the band madrugada; although their sound is a bit more electric than the sound of bob dylan.

how do you want people to listen to your music? do you want them to listen closely and put on their headphones and think? what is it that you want people to get from your music?

this is a really interesting question! since I consider my songs to be small stories, I like it when people take some time to think about them and create images in their heads while listening to my tunes. I don’t think there's an obvious subject in any of my songs; i use quite a lot of words which have more than one meaning, so it is definitely better when people develop their own ideas about each one of them.

you write the songs yourself...would you say there's an autobiographical element to anything you write?

most of the songs I write, describe memories of mine in their own way. I’ve been happy, I’ve also been sad and I believe people get the idea while listening to the songs. another characteristic of my lyrics is that i kind of like protesting against things, which I really hate, such as war and violation of human rights in general.

if you had to choose a quote (or a line) to describe what motivates you day to day, what would it be?

I’m glad you’re asking me this! there’s a short part of a song, which I wrote, entitled “el niño’s last waltz”, that says:

“the saint will be the devil, cause the devil’s the saint, till the day they meet each other again”

I just want to explain the meaning of these lyrics because I don’t want to be misunderstood. I personally think that everything has two sides, a bad one and a good one, a holy one and an evil one. when these two sides become one, a much more interesting and complicated side is formed, which could easily puzzle almost everybody.

what's the saddest song you've ever heard?

there are actually two songs, which I consider to be the saddest songs I’ve ever heard. the one is entitled “epitaph”, written and performed by the british progressive rock band “king crimson”, in their debut album “in the court of the crimson king”. the other one is entitled “invitation to the blues”, written and performed by the american singer /songwriter tom waits in his studio album “small change”.

which songs do you perform most frequently? do you ever play any covers?

I always enjoy playing cover editions when I perform on stage, such as “ain’t no sunshine” by bill withers and “wish you were here” by pink floyd. but there’s a song, which I always play either for my friends or on stage. it’s a song, written and performed by bob dylan, in his studio album “john wesley harding” ,entitled “all along the watchtower”. I love performing this song as it’s possible to create a medley starting with it’s first verse and ending with it’s last one. there’s also a greek cover version of this song and it’s always a part of the medley, which usually consists of “all along the watchtower”, “don’t fear the reaper” by blue oyster cult and the greek cover version of “all along the watchtower”.

what's up next for you? any big plans?

to be honest, I don’t have any big plans. my main aim is to finish my “multilingual communication & translation” degree at the university of applied sciences, cologne, germany, but I surely want to perform my songs more often, either in cologne or back home.

slaughterhouse's favorite andreas patsalide's tune,

"the tango with the fire"

check out andreas patsalides @ http://www.jumpingfish.gr/andreas_m_p