Madeleine Lithvall

The Finger Band with Lia by Madeleine Lithvall.

When the singer of The Finger Band got in touch with me a few weeks ago to share their new single I Don’t Believe My Eyes I was immediately hooked… and intrigued. For here was a band based in Greece, but bearing all the hallmarks of 80s new wave influences from the UK. Then diminutive singer Lia Siouti sent me a link to the whole album – a glorious mash of anthemic walls of sound and heartfelt thoughts – and I just had to know more. Singer Lia answers the questions with producer Sotiris Noukas – read on to find out how The Finger Band got together and what it’s like to make music in the throes of a major economic and political crisis.

I Don’t Believe My Eyes by James Grover.

What inspired the sound of your new album? I like it because it sounds quite heavily 80s…. was this a conscious decision?
Actually, this wasn’t a conscious decision, it just came out during the recordings. We just put in what sounded good to our ears, and what we thought would fit the songs. Of course, this could be due to our influences. We are all kinda stuck with the earlier days of music and not so much with that is coming out these days. We are mostly influenced by the sound of the 80s, but not by any particular groups. We love so many artists, but we tried to stay not so influenced, we wanted to have our own sound. That’s why during the recordings, we rarely listened to anything new.

How did you all meet and when did you decide to become The Finger? What was the deciding factor that brought you all together?
Before the formation of the band, we all kinda worked together in several projects. The link that brought us all together was Sotiris actually. Our guitarist and producer. He owns the recording studio, where we all met. At some point, we were all at the same state, where we wanted to do something new. We were talking about it for a long time, but the timing wasn’t right I guess. Not until some of the projects that we were involved in were finished and we decided to form the band.

The Finger Band by Scott Nellis.

When was the album written and what inspires your lyrics? Can you tell us the story behind a couple of tunes?
We began to write the album around Christmas of 2010. But then, we had only written one song and we weren’t even officially a band. That first song was Too Slow, which is included in our album. We started to write new songs, six months after that and after the release of our debut single Die! Die Superhero! in June, 2011. And it was the fastest release we’ve made so far! We wrote it in a week, and released it immediately. During that period, in Greece, the demonstrations had began, about the financial and political situation. This was actually the inspiration behind the title and lyrics of the single. We wrote it while watching news on TV and we were so furious with what was going on. That is actually what most of our songs are about, but we don’t talk only about politics. We have written a couple of love tracks too! Who doesn’t need one more love song?

You are self releasing your debut album in mid March. How hard is it to make music in Greece at the moment and what is the music scene like?
Well, unfortunately, there’s not much going on if you choose to ignore the mainstream scene. There are many great bands and musicians in Greece, but there aren’t many stages left to perform. Record stores and record companies have been shutting down too, so we’re left to swim with the big fish! There are only two major companies and it’s pretty difficult to succeed if you’re an unsigned band. The indie music scene is slowly dying, I am afraid. The only positive thing I guess, if you can call this positive, is that during sad periods inspiration grows and new ideas are born. Maybe we’ll find a way to work it out, till the hard times are over.

The Finger Band by Aliyahgator.

On a more broader note, how are you coping with the political and financial troubles in Greece, and how do they impact not only your music but your lives?
The situation in Greece right now has really affected everybody, without exceptions. The high, the mid, the low class. Everyone. As musicians the only thing we can do is talk about it. And we do it, a lot. You simply can’t stay uninfluenced by what’s going on. If you live in this situation every day you start thinking about these matters and that’s passing them into your songs and music. Living with all these troubles in your head makes you wanna express yourself even more, let it out of your system.

Why is it so important to reach out to a global audience and how have you set about trying to do that, and how did you find me?
Actually, the kind of music we write could never find a wide audience in Greece, unfortunately. Besides, I believe every musician’s dream is about getting outside of the borders of his or her own country. We use the internet a lot to achieve this. We are on facebook, twitter, blogs etc. and we love socializing. That’s how we found you!

The Finger Band by Catherine Askew.

What are your hopes and aspirations for 2012?
We want to reach more ears and hearts! We want people to know that good music may come from every corner of the earth. And we want to start writing the second album soon!

The debut album I Don’t Believe My Eyes can be listened to in its entirety above: I urge you to give it a whirl! The Finger Band will be self-releasing the album on March 15th 2012 – available to pre-order on Bandcamp.

Written by Amelia Gregory on Thursday March 8th, 2012 9:10 am

Categories ,Aliyahgator, ,Andy Haralanis, ,Catherine Askew, ,Die! Die Superhero!, ,Greece, ,Greek, ,I Don’t Believe My Eyes, ,James Grover, ,Lia Siouti, ,Madeleine Lithvall, ,Nick Ditsias, ,Sakis Azas, ,Scott Nellis, ,Sotiris Noukas, ,The Finger Band, ,Too Slow

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