Conceived as a project in which sounds and visual illusrations are brought together into a coherent whole, Voidhead compose hypnotic and moody peans to the beauties of a natural landscape that's gradually becoming a much sought after rarity. At the helm of HeadToAvoid Recording, their recently launched, independent label, Voidhead set out in their own terms and with lots of enthousiasm to lead a new experimental, noisy, "post" wave within the greek underground. "Land", the band's first EP will be out by the end of March.
- Who are you?
+ Voidhead consist of two guys based around Athens, Hellas. We started this project six months ago in order to experiment with other forms of music we always wanted to explore. It was weird because its purpose was nothing more than an idea. Nevertheless, it was my partner’s, Helm ’s, and my friend’s and co-owner ’s of HeadToAvoid Recordings, Kwn ’s, idea to push this further and make Voidhead an entity.
- What have you been up to lately?
+ I play guitar for a band called Straighthate four years now and we have already released our debut album through Blastbeat Mailmurder/Productions. Helm is a comic artist and a brilliant musician who has made his band, Locust Leaves, his sole purpose in life and puts all his creativity into art in general. HeadToAvoid Recordings will soon release their debut. As far as Voidhead in their entirety are concerned, we already played our first live gig two months ago.
- What was it that made Voidhead what they are today?
+ We always wanted to play spiritual music that would come to be part of a trip from our own point of view and aesthetics. We wanted to do something different as far as the musical standards of our land are concerned. We decided that it would be just the two of us because in the past we tried to form a band but unfortunately, it didn’t work. We are writing and recording the music in our homes giving the freedom to each other to contribute to the songs in general without censorship and without having troubles in communication. I always wanted to collaborate with Helm cause in the past we had played several times together and we had seen that we communicated both musically and spiritually. So, with the addition of our illustrations, Voidhead came to be what they are today.
- Is there a special concept behind what you do?
+ Voidhead’s concept is solely based around nature and the vibes generated by it. We adore the physical beauty of nature as something that stands above man and his need for material wealth. That’s why we will always refer to it as our motive for music and visuals. We all live around places where such beauty peaks and that gives us the opportunity to appreciate it and its vibes a lot better than if edged with cement blocks and human coldness.
- What do you mean when you say musical “experimentation”?
+ It was never our goal to do something that would fit in any frame of music or thinking. We want to experiment in a way of enfocusing on a particular method of songwriting as well as in a specific way of managing the sounds and the effects. This is just the beginning of things to come and as we go, people will see what we mean when we say experimentation. There are a lot of things going around in our minds and when the time comes, all things will blossom in the way they were originally conceived. But it’s kinda early to speak about all that.
- How come post rock and ambient, styles not new at all, are still considered experimental by many?
+ It’s a matter of perception actually. It all sums up to how you choose to move and draw on these two specific genres and use them in order to make your experimentation fuller. Besides that, I think it’s a challenge to create music interesting and innovative taking paths previously unexplored. In these days a lot of bands consider themselves to be post rock, ambient or whatever without mixing their tunes along with a concept. It has been observed that in order to play post rock nowadays you have to sound like Mogwai or Explosions In The Sky for example. But it’s not like that at all. Every band that claims to follow the path of “post ” music in general should go on and play differently because the word "post" itself is a prefix for experimentation. Take for example Godspeed! You Black Emperor, Tarentel or Tortoise, you would say that bands like these go on and play post rock but sound so far away to one another. I mean that’s what these forms of music should be, it’s all about difference at the end of the day.
- Why do people always create side-projects in order to “experiment”? Why don’t they experiment with their main bands?
+ That happens for two reasons if you ask me. The first one is that in the main band, there might not be the appropriate ground for experimentation and the other one is that you, as a person, might wanna experiment but that’s not always the case with the others. Besides that, a project is always something really different, very personal and there’s not any limitation towards it coz it doesn’t fit in the band -standards. You see, when it comes down to trying different things with what is considered to be your main act, it will never be at the same level with what you would do if you were on your own.
- You seem to put a lot of effort into your designs/illustrations. Do you consider the visual aspect of your work to be as important as your music?
+ We always encouraged the visual aspect as something that, combined with the music, should give the whole picture of what we’re doing collectively as musicians. You see, the mind, from it’s nature, tends to create visuals when it’s hearing sounds, so by putting all that work into our visuals, is like giving the listener an idea of this entity that we consider a band. We don’t see why people don’t consider the covers, flyers and posters as art that goes hand in hand with the music.
- The music business is going through some hard times. How do you feel about that? Does it affect you in any way?
+ Nowadays, it’s known that things are really hard but it’s how you react to it that matters. That means that you are bound to create, from doing the artwork to recording and composing to playing live, the best possible result in order to rise above all these thousands of bands. You have to spend countless hours on your music, always trying so that your work breathes an aura of renewal. To achieve such an end, you have to be loaded with perseverance and patience. In a few words, you have to know exactly what you have to do.
- What’s the connection between Voidhead and HeadToAvoid Recordings?
+ HeadToAvoid Recordings was at first launched as a label that would release the music of Voidhead. Instead of that, we realized that there was potential for this to fully shape into a real label. In fact, we discovered some really cool people interested in releasing their music through HeadToAvoid Recordings.
- Why are you releasing your music on your own? Is it just a necessity or a conscious, deliberate choice?
+ It’s absolutely a deliberate and conscious choice. It’s DIY ethics that lead to such a decision. The reason this is happening is for us to have artistic freedom and complete control over our releases. Parallel to the above mentioned, we sensed an immediate need to push a new wave within our local music scene. It’s really nice because in such a short time the reactions that we gained were only positive and we are really glad for it.
- Are you planning to release other people’s music too?
+ Ok, here is the plan. First of all we are going to put out Voidhead’s first EP entitled “Land” this coming March. Then comes a double 3” cd split from Kommpound (www.myspace.com/kommpound) and Pascal Cretain (www.myspace.com/pascalcretain) which is also a split label release with our brotherly Blastbeat Mailmurder/Productions. After that comes Helm’s band which go under the name of Locust Leaves with their debut album “Here In The Neverwhere”. And the last one scheduled is an EP from local pioneers Noiselust. Besides all that, we will try to organize attractive concerts with music and artists that we consider as top notch.
- Favorite Greek bands/projects/music/art?
+ Straighthate, Noiselust, Konkave, Sun Of Nothing, Dead Congregation, Nightstalker, Greet The Dead, Paraside, Inveracity, Kvazar, National Pornographik and last but not least local scene legends Hibernation.
- Favorite international bands/projects/music/art?
+ Neurosis, Earth, Sonic Youth, Techno Animal, Joy Division, King Crimson, Melvins, Tortoise, Godflesh, Grief, Kyuss, Tribes Of Neurot, Knut, Breach, Swans, Napalm Death, Acid Bath, Pan Sonic, Autechre, Helmet, Tarentel, Sabers, Tarantula Hawk and a million more.
As far as art goes, we all like some of the great painters such as Rembrandt, Munch, Bosch etc., and a lot of contemporaries also such as Arik Roper, Seldon Hunt, Savage Pencil, Dennis Tyfus, Ed Repka, Steven O’Malley, Aaron Turner, John Baizley and the list goes on.
For more info on Voidhead or HeadToAvoid Recordings and for coming releases visit our websites www.myspace.com/headtoavoid and www.myspace.com/voidheadz. Also for more info on our graphics/designs/illustrations email us at viralgraphics@yahoo.com. Thanks again for the support and take care.