Music sometimes seems to have an almost magical quality … It can predict events that have not yet happened.
In fact, there are songs that foretell events that will happen and will change the course of social life in one way or another.
No matter how they started to be created, in the end, they ended up predicting a situation like another Calchas.
Something similar happened with the song “Ocean” (Ωκεανός) by Giannis Biliris which was written in 2012.
A song that without “knowing it” predicted the dreary reality of September 21, 2018.
I remember you… you asked me how it would look to me,
your touch if they told me it was a threat
The inspiration…
“You can say it was made by order.
The bassist and friend we have been playing with for years at Methismena Xotika (Μεθυσμένα Ξωτικά) worked in a publishing house with medical books.
Someone from KEELPNO (before the expulsions and scandals) was chatting with him about possible ideas for an HIV campaign.
Thanos suggested a campaign with songs, clips, live events, etc, and excited him.
I had then started writing songs that were not intended for the Methismena Xotika.
He suggested that I write something and get involved, and I told him that if something came my way I would do it but not in the context of such a campaign.
The next day I did my research and the song was written almost automatically“.
I remember you … laughing and blushing like a child,
when I was praising and boasting about your fight for life
Πλαν Μπι & Τρικοπλοδιά…
“In the Fall of 2013, the first clip with the audio version of “Ωκεανός” is uploaded on youtube.
The version with a full band emerged during the rehearsal with “Πλαν Μπι” for the upcoming live performances, but also for the recording of the album“.
As with everything, such as music, the process of creation is not easy.
However, as it is known, through the difficulties, something original and certainly, something different is born.
“We did not have a guitar solo until a few days before the recordings started.
The bassist and I had just returned from joint and very beautiful summer vacation.
We visited our guitarist to give him a little holiday aura and help him with the solo.
What emerged was an interactive melodic collage with ideas of the moment from all three of us.”
First concert and new video clip for the album…
“The first live with “Πλαν Μπι” took place in an underground passage and for various reasons was a very important event for us.
From the feedback we received, we can say that it was experienced as something special by many others.
It is very interesting that that night in the spotlight was Thanos that I mentioned before and on-camera another member of Methismena Xotika.
Seeing the incredible monoplane of Stelios I thought that he gave us a ready-made clip as a gift.
When we decided to put in some between shots from running movie heroes we came up with the protagonist of “Mauvais Sang” (I just found out that it means “bad blood”..) and the protagonist of “Frances Ha”.
Listening to the same song in both of them, we believed for a while that something was hurting our ears and minds from too much searching or that the videos were confused with each other.
Eventually, both directors we chose used David Bowie’s “Modern Love” to accompany the running of their heroes.”
The goddess of Inspiration appears in even the most improbable places and usually connects seemingly dissimilar things and situations.
In a bowl, if they close me, I will never find
the truth that returns to the ocean
The message…
“I think the message of the song is quite clear.
I chose to present through my own perspective someone who has contracted a serious contagious (or non-contagious) disease.
Some interesting aspects emerged which I continued to encounter even after the creation of the song.
In books (The disease as a metaphor), in movies (Dallas Buyers Club), and in modern domestic life (expulsion of HIV-positive women, Zak Costopoulos”.
It’s something that proves that music, sometimes, becomes a harbinger of what will happen years after the creation…
With a strong feeling of empathy, it seems that songs can be born which they fight against a series of pathogens of our era…
“Conservatism, intolerance, the commercialization of health with a class mark, the businesses of the pharmaceutical industry, social stigma, propriety, voluntary slavery.”
Stern silences, with spells and words,
with prayers, the world was never won
In closing, Giannis Biliris states that if someone else had to sing this song, he would like …
“For obvious reasons, to live and interpret it… Zakie Oh!”
Regarding the course of the “Ωκεανος” overtime …
“May its meaning at some point fade along with the causes that gave birth to it and acquire a historical value. At the moment, the opposite is happening.”
There are no right or wrong songs, but songs with clear messages, which at some point, we should use as examples of what is coming…
I have lived it… goners and dead are all of them,
who have bowed their heads from the first moment
Contributors
- Giannis Biliris: voice, lyrics, music, orchestration
- Adam Zatse: guitars, mix, orchestration
- Thanasis Giannitsas: bass, orchestration
- Giannis Thomas: drums
- Camera – Editing: Stelios Bouziotis
- Lights: Thanos Moutis