Alejandro Arroyo catches up with the Greek superstar Stelios Vassiloudis ahead of his visit to South America.
Hi Stelios, Thanks for your time. We saw you’re going to be visiting south america soon… Can you please tell us which places are you heading?
Stelios Vassiloudis: hello Alejandro – it’s my pleasure. I am coming back to Argentina and Chile, two of my favorite countries in the world. I will be in Buenos Aires, San Bernardo and Mar Del Plata in Argentina and Santiago in Chile. Everyone knows that both countries have a very deep connection with electronic music and the people are very fun loving and expressive, so I expect the parties will be really special!
Your last EP with Sasse @ Audiomatique’s Steve Bug Label was amazing. We have been relating your sound with the “simplicity” concept. The right elements making a very tasteful and elegant combination. Has your sound always head there? What about your beginnings?
Thank you very much! I know what you mean. I think the older I get and the more mature my productions become I am discovering how powerful simplicity really can be; when you focus on only a few really strong elements and how to make them gel and groove properly. I’ve always tried to produce music in this style but only recently managed to understand how to approach it.
Tell us a bit about the equipment you’re using at the studio and which instrument or software is your favourite at the moment.
My studio equipment is pretty standard and it’s been the same for the last few years. I learned how to produce using logic on Apple computers so in the studio I’ve got a XEON running a MOTU 828 into Dynaudio BM5a’s and that works fine for me. For the last 2 years I’ve been totally hooked/dependent on Maschine. It’s incredible…
Regarding your Greek origins, How’s the scene in that part of the world? is electronic music a growing, established or unknown culture?
Things are slowly getting better here. The economy is in a very slow but steady recovery and I guess things are starting to look better. Greece never really had an established electronic music culture but people have embraced it more and more over the years and I think there has been real progress. There are lots of parties and promotions groups popping up so things can only get better from here on!
What things make you feel inspired? What do you enjoy when you’re not making music?
I draw inspiration from pretty much anything including all clichés such as movies, books, art, other music, breakups, makeups etc when I’m not making music I usually enjoy watching a good movie or playing sports.
What are your opinions on the current status of electronic music worldwide?
It’s hard to say how artists are responding to the changes in the music medium because I still feel like we are in a state of flux. With the speed the technology advances it’s really hard to say where we’re headed or how artists are going to continue to be relevant or financially viable-unless they’re making money playing gigs.
Name us a big and an undiscovered label you’d like to work with.
They’re very hard form being undiscovered but I’d love to work with Ghostly International. Everything they touch turns to gold.
Is there anything upcoming in terms of productions? What can we expect from Stelios Vassiloudis in the future?
I’m in the middle of working on my album and it’s going very slowly so nothing too exciting for the near future I’m afraid!
To end up with, we would like to know which new talents had catched your attention recently and you’d like to encourage to keep them on.
Recently I’ve been loving what Johannes Brecht does as well as Dauwd. Really intelligent stuff!
You can follow Stelios Vassiloudis on Facebook by clicking here
