Line UP:
Kostis Benning On Guitars & Vocals
Yorgos Anagnostopoulos on Guitars & Vocals
Pier Favia On Bass
Fotis Logothetis On Drums
Well,Friends Of Aristocracy!
We talk about our newsroom, where in a little while, we will start in all your emotions, Interview 115 of the Aristocracy.Shovel is a German Sludge band.Maybe more Greek than German, but still, a powerful talent.Italian bassist as a break the paradigm. It's worth thanking them and Facebook.Yes, because sometimes a Facebook ad is all I need.
I appreciate that and the band of course.Complete album and they have already been shown to you. Let's get down to business!Hello Felipe!We finally managed to answer your questions! We hope they are good enough for your website!
A1:I would like to know how was the writing process for the album and why it is self-titled? Yorgos Anagnostopoulos:This album was written when three of us started playing together. Most of these songs were the first songs that we managed to write together, after jamming and trying out the boundaries of the band. The core of the band and practically our musical identity is formed through this album, this is why its name is the name of the band. I hope this is understandable.
Kostis Benning:Exactly, this album is like a memoir to us, hence also the latin numbers in the titles, that indicate the order in which the songs were written, and the way we use to communicate about them amongst ourselves. A2:If we judge the sixth song on the album, will we see a pessimistic or realistic view of the band? Justify your answer! Yorgos Anagnostopoulos:This song "IV- A Case Against Optimism" is one of our favourite songs. Of course, it is an ironic song. It stands on the repetition, both musical and verbal, creating a loop; a vicious circle. It This song ,in my mind, represents a machine doing the same repetitive function until it overheats and explodes. This image of breakdown can be either realistic or pessimistic but it definitely expresses each of us separately.
Kostis Benning:I would add, that this song has also an essence of self-irony. Everything doom is always about how life is bad and, you know, we took it a step further, having this repetitive “life is a misery” lyrics. But besides that, it is not about pessimism or realism, our music is about exorcising all these negative thoughts and feelings we all do have. A3:According to your description on your Bandcamp, you have influences on Black Metal. Which style of Black Metal matches Shovel's proposal? Kostis Benning:I grew up listening a lot of old school Norwegian Black Metal. There are many things that we are completely against, especially the newer generation of neo-Nazi black metal bands. But it is undeniable, that the original bands developed a new, dark and raw way to express their feelings, that for me reaches a performative level beyond what we knew until this moment. I still find this an inspiration! A4:Fears inspire all of us musicians or not, but which fears were fundamental to the creation of the third song? Kostis Benning:The third song of the album, “VI. Scars of a Dark Past”, describes images of a dystopic future, a hypothesis of a future world build on our trauma, on our scars. If we have to connect this with the feeling of fear, I would say it is the fear of a bleak future, if we do not change the way we live and interact with each other and the planet we live on.
A5:How come emerged the invite to Vasilis Avgoustakis? Yorgos Anagnostopoulos:I have been a good friend with Vasilis from our late teenage years in Athens. I have always admired his voice also his work as a musician with Rosebleed, Than.eye and other projects he has formed through the years. Since he moved with his family to Berlin we started playing together forming a rock band that is still in the making. With Shovel we share a studio and after years of hanging out were have all become friends. And of course at the time of recording our album we all felt we should include his aethereal singing in one of our songs and you can really listen why this was a good idea. We are very grateful to him and very happy he gave his input.
A6:I had feelings of claustrophobia in some songs. In which songs, can we say they are bigger?
Kostis Benning: I think that it is in “V.Maere”. A bit about this song: Maere is a mythological creature that sits on peoples chests as they sleep and creates their nightmares. This song is heavily influenced by these nightmares, where you feel unable to move or scream. But also in “III. The Fall of the Sun”, as it describes ones struggle to feel alive, to find purpose, without any success. A7:What kinds of complex emotions are addressed on the album?
Kostis Benning: The album is about all the emotions we want to exorcise from our lives. It is about despair and claustrophobia. It is about the loss of meaning and purpose. It is about all the dark places we have gone to, collectively and individually, especially during these last complicated years! A8:What´s bands influence Shovel?
Kostis Benning:I think each one of us brings their own influences. We discussed above about black metal. We also listen to a lot of rock together. Of course the whole doom, stoner, sludge etc scene is relevant to us! But everything that is interesting, can be an influence. For me, I can mention some bands, that I think inspire our sound, like Amenra, Mantar, Entombed or even All them Witches and Queens of the Stone Age. But as discussed, the spectrum is wide and we are always open to new music! A9-Why the band have this name?
Kostis Benning:This is actually more of a funny story, we were discussing name ideas for a long time. At the same time, whenever we were heading to our rehearsal space to jam, we would say we go “shoveling”, as it was summer and playing doom was kind of a physical activity. So at some point we thought “hey! That’s a cool name!” and we kept it. I still believe it suits our sound well! A10:It's two questions in one just like I did in the first question ok? How and when did the move from Greece to Germany happen?
Kostis Benning:We didn’t move to Berlin as a band, but as individuals. Fotis, our drummer, was in Berlin since 2011. I met him actually in Berlin in 2012. But Yorgos and me, coincidently moved here in the same week in 2015 and knew each other from our studies. With Pier we meet also here, a couple of years ago, and he has been living in Berlin also before. A11:Some literature or film inspire the band? Kostis Benning:Nothing that has been a direct reference for the songs in our album. But of course anything dark that we watch, I can think now as an example Black Mirror, might have influenced us in one way or another. Also on literature, I was recently going through the pages of “Burnout Society” by Byung Chul Han, and I think he introduces some interesting concepts, that are inspiring. A12:Not that I don't find the Roman numerals charming, but is there any special reason they're before the names of your songs on the album?
Kostis Benning: As mentioned before, these numbers are the order in which we wrote our songs. As these were the names of the songs for us for a long time, we decided to keep them also in the titles! A13:This album is conceptual? Kostis Benning:No, not the way people usually define concept albums, at least. This album is more of a memoir. It is the natural flow and evolution of what defined “Shovel”, it is the feelings and ideas we shared in the studio all these years. A14:What´s the idea behind atwork´s album? Kostis Benning:The artwork was made by Lisa (etions formidables), so she could say something more about it! We just asked her to interpret our music in a visual way and we clicked directly. For me, the figures and colors of the artwork depict a society spiraling into the void, a moment before all gets lost into chaos. But that’s just me! A15:What would the 2022 Shovel say to the 2019 Shovel? Kostis Benning:Play more gigs, the lockdown is coming! A16:How band arrive to Argonauta Records? Kostis Benning: Argonauta is one of the best labels producing heavy music at this moment in Europe, so when we finished our album, we communicated our interest to work together to Gero and his crew, they liked our album, and here we are working together! A17:Last question and again two in one. Pier Favia must be Italian correct? Regardless, what influences did he contribute to an almost all Greek group in origin?
Kostis Benning:Yes, Pier is Italian. As we don’t judge people based on their country of origin, I would talk so much about nationalities. What is interesting, is that the other three come more or less from the same scene, so we have much more similar set of references. Pier carries his own references, his own originality and this is what makes him also a unique member of our band.Yorgos Anagnostopoulos:Well he is contributing the bass guitar sounds and he is our pizza expert.