Athens, Greece experimental, mathcore actย FRIEND OF GODS have debuted a full stream of their new exciting record ‘You Gotta Look Good In This Fuckin Business’, a record that’s a mixing pot of chaotic twists, noisy experiments, raw garage feel, and cotagious hooks that make this EP feels like lighting a fuse and detonating a huge bomb. Be sure to check it out, scroll down to check out mini-interview and leave your thoughts on this effort in the comments section below.
Track โTerrible Best Friend” featuresย lyrics taken from Christos Pitharaโs poem of the same nameย from his poetry collection โฮฮฮฅฮฮฮฃ ฮฮฮกฮฮฃยจ. The title track includes a saxophoneย line written & performed live by Vassilis Zarikos, somewhere in Samothraki island.
Who are you & what the hell does your name mean?
Hello IDIOTEQ! We are three troubled musicians from Athens, Greece. We play some kind of math-punk thing. Itโs chaotic, itโs aggressive and itโs sloppy at times. We put a lot of energy in our playing, and we like to mix things up all the time. Our name is basically a bad google translation of a Greek suburb. We have nothing to do with any god or religion whatsoever. We just liked the sound of it.
Tell us a few words about your latest release โYou gotta look good in this fuckin businessโ.
Well, this is our second self-financed work, after our debut album โmad music for the apesโ, which was released almost 2 years ago. It is a much more focused album in terms of sound, production, performance and songwriting. It was recorded live at unrealstudioz.com. Itโs not a concept record, yet we feel one must hear it in its entirety to fully understand what weโre all about. Thereโs a lot of mood and dynamic changes in there. Two full years, documented in 20 minutes worth of music, so itโs intense in its highโs and its lowโs. For the time being, weโre releasing it in digital format, and you never know, if we win the lottery, you might see some vinyl or something.
What about the artwork?
Itโs a hand made illustration by an exceptional artist named Christina Tsevis. She is responsible for the artwork on our first album also. We gave her the title โyou gotta look good in this fuckin businessโ and this is what she came up with. Obviously she was inspired by Kafkaโs novel โThe Metamorphosisโ which kind of gave us a new perspective on what we wanted to say. Itโs like โyou gotta look good in this fucking businessโ, but who decides what looks good or not? Who decides what is a piece of art and what is trash? You know.. perspective!
lease share a few words about the Greek scene.
We are very proud of our local scene. Thereโs a lot of really good music coming out of our country these past few years and from many genres. Check out insect radio, blame kandinsky, rita mosss, calf, ruined families, minerva superduty and chronoboros. And those are just a few of our personal favourites. Thereโs a whole lot more going on so start searching and you will find exceptional stuff. Trust us.
Should punk be political?
We think punk shouldnโt be anything. If punk HAS to be something, then itโs definitely not punk any more. We are not political. Not because we donโt have an opinion, but because we prefer to talk about other stuff. After all thereโs a lot of bands, especially now, that do that job very well. For us, our band is more of a psychology project. We try to deal with our own personal issues. Weโre using the band to become better people and better musicians. And for us itโs not about playing fast or aggressive either. The most โpunkโ track on our new record is the album title track. Itโs a good friend of ours we recorded in samothraki island, playing his saxophone all by himself. No guitars, no screams, no blast beats. Just a friend playing this really depressing melody on a saxophone. Now that, to us, is punk.
So, what next for you guys?
Right now, we are very excited about this new album. A video clip is also being prepared for the final track and we are pretty damn proud of how its turning up. Other than that, itโs LIVE, LIVE and then some more LIVE. Thatโs what we love most anyway. We are by no means a studio band. We just got back from a mini tour in Greece and have some shows coming up in Athens. After that, its time for us to tour Europe and we are working on that right now. Weโre really not good at planning, but weโre really good at getting things done. Itโs like a train that must keep going for us, but we have absolutely no idea where the hell weโre heading. Weโre just going. Just keep writing music, keep playing live, keep meeting new places and people. Keep doing stuff. Thatโs whatโs next for us. Keeping the band alive.
