Please introduce yourself..

Just me or the band ?

Just you please we all know the band.

My name is Sotiris Vayenas. I am responsible for the lyrics of the band. I am also writing songs, play guitar, sing and I am one of the original members of the band and I've enjoyed the ride with SEPTICFLESH till now.

So please explain why most of the SEPTICFLESH fans are not seeing you on tour with the band.... They see you on the promo pictures, they read your interviews and even hear your voice on the live shows, but they never see you.

Well yes ... You know I don't do it on purpose or because I like the mystique or something like that.. I have many obligations in Greece and that is the reason. The other guys have a lot of offers to play live shows and I don't want to stop the band, because in this case we would do less shows. So we decided that it's best to use our session guitarist Dinos who is good guy and also great guitar player. At the beginning when I was not on all the shows, I was skeptical for the idea to appear just for some fans .. it just didn't felt right. But as time passed we all had a second thought and we felt that If I can do some shows it will better then not to do anything. And so we are at this phase right now.. and I try to gradually extend my presence on the live shows. But I cannot follow big tours.

So do you think that the linup of the band at this phase is stable?

It is stable yes. We all feel that SEPTICFLESH cannot exist with at least one of us 4. Me, Chris, Spiros, and Fotis.. who has become a very important part of us. So considering everything we all are the band. It is impossible to break it on smaller parts. The chemistry won't be the same.

The last album The Great Mass is considered for an Album of The Year by many worldwide medias...

...Yes..

If you had the chance now to change something in it, what it would be?

I don't like to change things on the albums because I believe in the spontaneous combination of minds and when you predict every note, every word and second you will lose the spontaneous feel of the album. Even some older albums like "Esopron" for example that didn't had the chance for perfect sound, are unique and have their aura. The aura of the moment when we recorded the album. So I'm not thinking what would be better and what could be done. When we complete the album we all feel relief that we had finished very hard work and we are happy that we progressed with the band and we took the next step. We continued what we did and we are pushing ourselves to do the next album.

So what is the next step?

We are not predictable band. It's difficult to say. We know the things that we like in SEPTICFLESH and the things we want to keep - For example the orchestral parts of Christos because they had become an integral part of the musical composition but we don't know the tempo of the album it might be faster or slower. We also don't know the mood, because there is new mood with every album that comes out naturally. Our way of composing is to create lots of ideas in the beginning and then to start picking the suitable for us. It's a matter of inspiration and what ideas will come to us in order to build a new album. I admit that I continuously write material even after the release of The Great Mass. When I have an idea I don't waste time and I record it to keep it and when all the guys are ready and if we are not exhausted from the live shows, we get together and discuss our ideas. Of course I'm he first to present my ideas because I had enough time to think for everything. I wait for everyone to be in the mental state to write some new material and then we all can start to focus on something new.

While we are on the thread of Ideas ... Most of the fans think that the main idea behind The Great Mass is combination of The visual art of Spiro (Seth), the music of Chris, the soul and lyrics of Sotiris followed by the apocalyptic rhythms of Fotis......

Yes, yes!

...... But what exactly is the main idea behind the album.. the main message?

The message is that we are focusing on Art and not only music. The music is only one part of the art the visual thing is another part, the concept the lyrics and the poetry is also another part of the art and we focused on the artistic side of SEPTICFLESH. This is the reason why I think the album is not so easy to listen at first. You have to dive deep inside... to grasp the wholeness the album. It would be easy to do another album like Communion but we decided to risk. Of course we were afraid from the reaction of the fans. We taught that some people might say that the orchestrations or the songs are too complicated. We actually we didn't care because we saw the whole picture like some kind of art. And if you know what are you doing and you have the ability to convert your emotions to art then you can touch the soul of the listener. That is the main strategy that we used on the main album.

So do you think that this formula of writing and recording is successful?

Yeah is like giving to each – other. In this way the small idea grows..

Aren't you having arguments between each other?

Of course we have!... because we all have strong opinions that's why. This is also part of the process. It is very important for us to find the common ground. For example sometimes I create a song that I really like but someone of the other guys is not thrilled about it – then the song its out. Because even if one member is not excited for the song this is the indication that the song is not good. All four of us must be excited for a song so it can get a place in the album. This also is helping us to pick from the lots of ideas and to find the common ground .

Ok so now a painful question....if SEPTICFLESH were not a band and the members were not a musicians . What were the band members going to do instead?

As a job?

Yes

Well we all have a backup plan!

Yeah I know that

Seth is an artist and I guess he would focus on his visual arts. That's easy. Fotis teaches younger drummers and he enjoys....

But.. remember he must not be a musician.

Oh, not a musicians at all?..

Yes

Oh Then we will commit suicide...(Laughs)

This is the second time I hear that..

Yes his is impossible for the band and for me too. When the band split up after Sumerian Daemons it was impossible for me not to write songs. You know I didn't had a band but I had my guitar and ideas. It was impossible to turn OFF the switch

So it is like what the other guys said "This is a poison and there is no Antidote"

Wes exactly we can't find antidote for this .. Or actually we don't want to find it (laugs)

So how actually the reunion happened?

Well we can say that the timing was right and we were mentally ready to be again together. Also we needed some time to focus on our personal goals. Because you know to be in a band is like to be married. And we had to give everything that the band needed and demanded, but we were not ready. There was a time when everyone wanted to do something for himself. Chris for example wanted to study classical music, which later was very useful. When time passed and we achieved our own goals we felt it is time to give more time to the band and we decided to reunite.

Ok so now for an ending I would like to ask you to leave a massage for all the fans of SEPTICFLESH and the readers of RockliveBg.com.

You are the reason that we still exist and we are grateful about it... because SEPTICFLESH is been part of our lives for many years and we want to give our work as offering. So a big "Thank You" to our fans. We are committed to evolve as a band and produce emotionally intense albums in the future

Thank you very much for this interview, I hope to see you again live with the band

Thank you, see you soon