Editor: Gogo Dimopoulou

 

G.D.: You have appeared at the Music Hall, Technopolis, and the ancient temple of Olympian Zeus. Do small music stages bare the same interest for you?

 

Theodore: Maybe even more. Every venue, every stage is completely different and the atmosphere created is usually different and this is terribly interesting for the musicians who play there. The audience is also different, because the audience that goes into venues such as Fuzz is different from the audience you will meet at the Concert Hall. Small venues are equally attractive. I am very content in every venue, because I try to explore the diversity and how the audience accepts all the work me and my partners have made.

 

G.D.: You have written the music for the Greek-American feature film Bourek. What is the difficulty in writing a soundtrack?

 

Theodore: When writing music that someone else has asked you to and both the idea and creation are someone else’s, you ought to serve their thoughts and not your own ambitions or your own artistic world. So, when a director asks you to write music for their own work, either for the cinema or the theater, you should treat him with respect, understand what it is that he does, to not surpass the limits he sets, but at the same time to be able to create your own world and your own meanings through it. I find it a great challenge.

 

G.D.: For years you have been a London citizen and now you are one of Athens. Have you noticed differences in the style of music you write according to the city in which you are?

 

Theodore: I have lived in London for five years and now I'm in Athens by choice for a year and this is mainly because I have realized that I can set the circumstances and my music more easily in Athens. Nevertheless, the differences are enormous. London is a city that inspires you to isolate and try to create things in a slightly strange way. It pulled something "autistic" out of me. I was alone in the house so my existential issues and all my thoughts were influenced enormously by my life in London and helped me create one and a half of an album. I find myself in Athens very consciously. There's something else ... there is the sky, the sun that you can hardly find in London and there is also something intimate which is very important to what I am going through at the moment.

 

G.D.: Studio VS live performances

 

Theodore: Since a very young age I realized that I have very strong feelings even when by myself on my piano and even more when someone is near and listens to me playing. Creating something in the studio gives me satisfaction and I find terribly interesting how you can mold and make it into something else, taking your time, listening to it again and again, talking to people about its effect, putting the minds of others in it. A live performance lasts two hours in which, what you have created you share there and then, and there are three factors: yourself and what you have created, the people with whom you share the stage, and there is also the audience. The energy of these three combined create a magical effect.

 

G.D.: Your favourite album?

 

Theodore: I still shudder when listening to Dark Side of the Moon of Pink Floyd. I think that if there had to be only one album in the world, this would be it.

 

G.D.: Would you like to share an important moment from your to-date musical career?

 

Theodore: The moment I was playing in front of the temple of Zeus and on the left I noticed the Parthenon lit. It was my favorite moment of all those I have experienced until now.

 

G.D.: What are your plans for the future?

 

Theodore: In May 2016 my album It is but it's not will be released abroad as an actual edition, which makes me very happy because I've worked very hard to accomplish this, and many people have worked with me. There will be concerts abroad to endorse the album. Also, with the rest of the musicians we are in the creation process of new material, which will take time, of course, but "moments" of this have already started to come out and today on your stage we will play something from this work and we will experiment on this, something we have never done so elsewhere.