Labros

0:16LabrosI'm Labros and I'm the drummer of 1.000 Mods.

0:19HostHow was the gig yesterday in Budapest?

0:23LabrosIt was the best way to start our tour. It was one of our favorite venues called A38. It's a former ship that is on the river and it held like 650-700 people. It was sold out and it was like people going crazy since the first song, so we really enjoyed it.

0:42HostDid you stay after the show at the Merch?

0:47LabrosYes, yeah, most of the times, yes.

0:49HostTouring musicians, do you have touring musicians, right? Is it just three of you?

0:55LabrosIt's the three of us and now we have a guitarist. Yes, we have a fourth, I mean we are still a fourth piece, but we have a new addition as a guitarist.

1:04HostYes, that's what I mean. I couldn't get online like the name. Can you tell me a little bit more about it?

1:08LabrosYes, of course. Our former guitarist, Yanis, also one of the founding members,

1:17Labrosleft at the end of 2023. And then the three of us recorded the new album, we got in the studio recorded the new album, and since April, yes April 24, we started touring again with some friend of ours taking the place of Yanis. The first half, I think the half of 24 was with Marios, from Blaine Kandinsky, more like Mathcore band from Athens. And since last November, we played with another Yanis, Yanis Fotiadis, who is part of the Greek underground Stoner Rock, Heavy Rocks, you name it, since the early zeroes. So he has been at a real legendary band called Lord 13, and then he was playing also in other bands and stuff. Now I think this is going to be like the 30th show with us or something like that.

2:15HostAll right, all right, all right. Because on Instagram you don't tag people that much, so that's why, okay, or maybe it's my research ability or something.

2:25LabrosHe's also really shy, so he doesn't want us to, you know, to push his name.

2:30HostYeah, that's what I mean. It's not only your fault. Yeah, that's the thing. So like with the album, like with the new album, I like the really album. I'm your fan, by the way, you don't know, but maybe I discovered you back then from the van days when it just came out on YouTube, like probably most of the people, and then I disappeared. Not you disappeared, but I disappeared for some time and came back. Like, and you're like fresh, familiar, but fresh. And you know what I mean. Yeah, of course. And I know that with each album, it's like, it's a statement of what you were listening to, like, like influences and stuff. With this album, like I see several, and I also read comments like you read comments on Reddit, right? Kind of.

3:15LabrosNot so much Reddit, sometimes on YouTube, but the last couple of years, like really, really less than I used to do.

3:22HostRight. So I feel like a little bit of influence, like, for example, Uncle Acid and like a little bit sounds on some songs, not the whole thing, but on couple of songs.

3:32LabrosI think it's mostly Black Sabbath that Uncle Acid are influenced by, as well.

3:38HostYeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The origin, but that's what I saw immediately, like, like, as a comment, right? Like, like, like, I mean, I, but there's some, a little bit of sounds and it's exactly what you said, right? But in general, like, I see that it's like, it's, it's, you, you can see that you were listening to, to, to music that you were not listening before, maybe, or maybe you came back to what was from the beginning. So what, what, what was it?

4:01LabrosI think it's the, from the, the last, the last one. Of course, for example, Black Sabbath have been the core of our influences since day one. And all the music that we grew up listening to was, of course, Black Sabbath, but also bands that were influenced by Black Sabbath. all the Stoner Rocks in and the heavy Rocks in is mainly influenced by the first four or six albums of Black Sabbath. And, and, and, to this day, it's one of our, maybe our, our favorite band in the world. But, for the last album, I think we, we did, we incorporated some influences from the 70s, but maybe the more, the more late 70s, like, where music started to become darker and heavier. And also some from the late 80s, early 90s, with some more post-punk influences, and some more dark, more dark stuff. And I think all this combined, of course, with our already, let's say, home, home base of influences like the Stoner Rock, heavy rock core or whatever. Yeah, of course. And we, as with every, every different album, we try not to stay on the same place as before. And we evolve as persons, we evolve as musicians, and we try also to incorporate more, more new stuff. So, yes.

5:26HostYeah, yeah, yeah. And I know that you, you, you already answered, like, many times, like, because everybody asking you the same question, like, when you were going to get the van two or something like this, but it's mainly... It's never. Yeah, but it's mainly, yeah, but it's mainly asking people who discovered only one album, Stoner Rock people. It's like an amazing album, but then you started to experiment and, of course, they will, like, it's not their thing, because they just want Stoner Rock or something like this. But, of course, you,

5:51Labroseven Black Sabbath was experimenting. Exactly, exactly. And, and I think the main problem is that, for example, me, when we recorded the Supernova Vacation, I was, like, 22 years old, 23 years old. And we, we composed all the songs during our really early 20s, like, complete naive people, young guys, and at the same time, complete naive musicians. And, of course, not at the same level that we are today. Not that we have reached a good level, but still. And, but, but, you know, life felt much more chill out and easier back then. Now, it feels completely different. Also, things all around us change. Yeah, I was about to say, no, I've changed a lot. We all change. Exactly. So, I think, expecting a Supervan Vacation number two, it's not going to happen. Maybe another, more Stoner, more, I don't know, psychedelic heavy rock or whatever will happen, but it's not going to be. I think, what people enjoy most about Supervan Vacation is that it gives them a feeling of freedom and that you don't care of, of anything and you are going for a, you know, for vacation the whole year or whatever, which is something that I think it's not easy to happen in our lifetime, in our life nowadays.

7:16HostYeah, I mean, I totally agree. I mean, it's a specific album in a specific time and you were in a specific people and it was completely, and now people just want nostalgia stuff because they also feel, they also grow up, they also want to remember the good times when it was like Stoner Rock and it was like without, it was analog and stuff and now it feels, and I think streaming was like not so much back then. Not at all. I think we started having songs on Spotify like two years after we released Supervan Vacation. Yeah, yeah, yeah, because I discovered it on YouTube. YouTube was a thing and people, and that's a thing also, they experienced the album as an album because it was a YouTube thing.

7:57LabrosExactly, exactly. Now it's, this doesn't happen anymore and also I think also the era of video clip doesn't happen anymore because back, I mean, when we, when we released the Repeat Exposure 2 with, we did our first video clip with Electric Carve and got really popular and everybody found us also, new people found us through this video clip or whatever. I think nowadays also video clip has died because YouTube as a, as a medium of music has died in general. Yeah, I can tell you because I was

8:28Hostmaking music videos and then it became like really hard, especially after Corona and then it just died down. It's just people still make music videos, but I fucking make music videos and I'm not interested in music videos at all at the moment. So with this album, you said that you're like all around. Have you noticed like what changed about you? Like, like, uh, of course skills you grew up and stuff like, uh, like, like, like as an artist, but have you noticed that there's something that, that, that, like something changed in comparison to actually the last album, not the band? Yeah, yeah, yeah. First of all,

9:06Labrosit was the first time that we recorded as a three piece. So it was something completely new. And it was also the first time that, uh, uh, we managed to record in Athens, uh, in our hometown, uh, with, uh, with, uh, we, uh, we, uh, youth of descent. We, it was the first time that we recorded it abroad. We went to Seattle and we recorded it with, uh, Matt Bales. Yeah. An amazing producer and, uh, I mean, one, a crazy, a, a, a, a machine on recording. And, uh, we managed to bring him now in Athens and, uh, we knew him better as a person and how, how he works and he knew us better. So it was really much easier to do, like, to work again with him. So in our hometown, uh, with a person that we already know and know better and know how he works. And we also, it's the first time, for example, that we managed to bring so many guests to our records because every time we're recording somewhere else and, uh, it was not, uh, easy to do it. Now we have, uh, two guests on vocals, one guest on percussion, one guest on, uh, Hammond, one guest on cello. I mean, it was, it, yeah, yeah, yeah. It made us easier to try new stuff.

10:21HostYeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Was there like a, was there like a, like, uh, have you decided what kind of album do you want to make or was it like one piece by piece that you gather together? And plus also, was there material that you didn't put on album? Uh, as, as every time we never, uh,

10:39Labrostry to, to, you say, to say, to say, yeah, let's do this. This is a, this is a way. Yeah, yeah, yeah, never. But, uh, there was some material already from a COVID era because we released the the previous album during the first quarantine and then we were just in home for two years. So, some ideas started, uh, being created back then. Uh, but also we created a lot of stuff like, uh, three or four months on the pre-production, let's say, of the album. Uh, so it's like a balance

11:15?between, uh, stuff that were already grew inside us and stuff that we, there were born like just before and try to, to do it as, uh, as, uh, better as we can. On the other hand, uh, it was just only one song, God's and Hammer, uh, is, uh, was created as a four piece with, uh, Yannis back then. And all the rest of us, uh, all the, the rest of the songs, uh, was just from the three of us. The, the, the,

11:41Hostthe first question is no. Yeah, the first question is no, it just came how it was. Yeah. Yeah, but it's, it's, it's, it's a thing. It's just some people do, some people don't. Like, I remember, like, I know that the Cora Hayes is, like, one of your big influences, right, Stefan? Like, when I, like, uh, when I asked him, like, about his stuff and he went on completely, like, he went deep into what his music and, like, he's, like, if I want to make, like, a good pop song, I can make it. No problem. But what it is, like, he went deep into it. By the way, like, I, I read that you, you talked to him, like, uh, and it was, like, really influential for you, like, to talk to him on, on the same level with Cora.

12:19LabrosOf course, of course. He, uh, he's one of our main influences and, uh, uh, he, uh, first of all as a musician, but also as how he managed to do everything by himself, has his own label, I mean, his whole approach to the whole thing. And, uh, in, uh, about, I think, half an hour or one hour, uh, uh, Busplay Mario from Cora Hayes will come here to have a beer. Ah, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, yeah,

12:44Hostno, I know, here's the guy. Uh, um, I wanted to ask you, like, what did, because he gave you advice, what kind of advice he gave you, like, regarding staying healthy, right? Like, how do you stay healthy, like, on this tour? Like, how are you gonna, do you have some tricks? Uh, on this tour, we, we met,

12:58Labroswe met, uh, Stefan again, uh, in New York last year, uh, two years ago, uh, when we played both Desert Fest, uh, New York, and we're already on the road for, like, 10 days, and had, like, 45 days left. Yeah. All right. And he, uh, and he told us, guys, how are you going to survive? You have to eat healthy, uh, you know, don't, uh, smoke every day, or whatever. And, uh, and I told him that, uh, we're in the fucking USA, you cannot eat healthy. We'll try to... Like, you fucking have to. You're an independent artist without, like,

13:34LabrosBut, yeah, uh, uh, funny, the funny thing is that, uh, because we were traveling with a, with a kind of a nightliner, a cheap nightliner from USA, uh, our driver gave us a, a really good, uh, solution, and we, we did, uh, subscribe at, uh, at the gym that is all across USA, and we, uh, and, and we, desubscribed just to use, you know, the bathroom and the showers, etc.

13:58?Ah, ah!

13:59LabrosBut, uh, most of us also exercised, uh, during the tour, so it got us, it's, we stayed healthy with this way. Ah, all right, all right. And I never expected that I would do this in my life. Ah, okay. So it helps. It,

14:13Hostit helps. It, uh, so, are you going to do this in Europe now?

14:171000modsUh, there is no, there is no solution like this in Europe, unfortunately.

14:21LabrosAnd we still tour by van in Europe.

14:23HostSo you have to pick up your gear and that's the thing. Okay, so what's the plan now? You're going to tour. It's a big tour, two months and a half almost, right? In Europe.

14:33LabrosI mean, Central Europe is like one month, it's 30 days with 28 shows. And then we go back home just for a week and then we head back to Balkans for 15 shows in 17 days.

14:44HostYeah, classic, classic thousand miles. It's like a touring life back in action. All right, man, anything else to add? No.

14:54LabrosI hope you enjoy the gig tonight.

14:56HostYes, of course. And everybody, it's more for the people who, because this episode will come out just in a couple of days, for all the people, what to expect. Are there any surprises that you want to hint at the upcoming shows?

15:141000modsProbably... How wild it's going to be?

15:16LabrosIt's going to be the usual wild. Sorry for this. But... Amazing.

15:231000modsEven more than before.

15:24LabrosIt's crazy. It's going to be crazy. But there is a real hint I can give you. It's that probably we are getting back on the road in Europe in the wintertime. And it's going to be like something really special.

15:37HostAll right. So it's going to be probably some different cities, not the same. Some familiar, some not. Some festivals, some not.

15:451000modsI cannot tell more.

15:47HostI see the eyes, I know. All right. Which song should I put at the end of your band, of course? Good introduction to your band for the people who don't know. Which is highly unlikely that people don't know you if you listen to me. But still, you never know, you know?

16:041000modsYes. Gray Green Blues. Gray Green Blues.