interview with Witness Apathy
Can you tell about your band? Witness Apathy is a five-piece Metalcore band from Athens, Greece. The band consists of Constantine (Vocals) , Abso (Guitar/ Backing Vocals) , George (Guitar) , Matt (Bass Guitar/ Backing Vocals) and Jimmy (Drums). All members are from Athens, Greece as stated above.
What was the ambitions of the band when you started? Our goals and ambitions haven't changed much since we started. We've never set a limit to our dreams and hopes. Our aim is to make at least realistic step forward every day, which will lead us to a great progress, through the years!
Could you explain your music to someone that haven't heard you? Well. we're still working on our sound in order to make it more unique. So far, it's been about raw breakdowns, catchy melodies and melodic riffs! Although, every track we've composed until now, is quite different from each other, and they all combine different aspects of our thoughts and influences.
Where was your first gig? Our first gig was back in 2013. In Santacore Comes to Breakdown Vol.2 @ Seven Sins Club in Athens! It was a two-day all-around Metalcore fest and it was a blast!
Where was the latest gig? Our latest gig was Fight Fest: Round 2! Fight Fest is a festival we run as a band every year combining bands from different aspects of the extreme sound. Metalcore, Deathcore, Hardcore etc.
Who writes your songs?/ who writes the music who writes lyrics? We all contribute in ways in the composing part. Lyrics are a never ending fight between Constantine, Abso and Matt.
What's good/bad with the band?/What genre do you feel you are? What's good is the connection and the spirit between the members. We all share the same dreams and have a great bond, which makes us have an awesome time no matter what we do. What's bad is that at the moment, our vocalist, Constantine, has to go through a nine-month army training ( Yes, that's a thing in Greece, and unfortunately it's mandatory. ) So, that kind of sets back some of our plans, yet we've organised a different kind of schedule, which we think will work out for the best. Our genre in general is Metalcore, containing elements from relevant sub-genres.
Why did you pick that particular style?/What are your songs about? The reason we play that kind of music is because it's the kind of music that makes our hair stand and our hearts beat faster. We write our songs about different issues we're concerned about and they express whatever's in our mind at that point in time. Our inspiration may come from all sorts of stuff. Be it Plato's writings (that would be Lightcide) or some random incident or thought.
Do you write your own material or mainly covers? We used to cover tracks of our favourite bands back when we started in order to fill our setlist in our early gigs. That was a temporary thing, until we composed more songs. So every time we played more original songs and less covers. to the point where we now play no covers any more. At least live, that is.
Have you made any albums?/If yes what are they? No, we do not yet have any albums released. Currently, we are preparing the remaining tracks for debut full length album. So far, we have released one single called 'Alaska', which can be found in our Youtube Channel, and all our other social media profiles.
Do you have any clips on YouTube? Yes, should someone visit our Youtube Channel, they will find the lyric video for our debut single 'Alaska', and various videos from our live performances!
What year was the band started? The band was started in the summer of 2013.
Where have you played from then till now? So far, we have played many gigs around our hometown, Athens, including some of its biggest venues (Gagarin 205, Kyttaro Live Club). We've also shared the stage with different great bands such as Kin Beneath Chorus or Mindthreat. Look them up they're both awesome! Apart from all these, something really awesome is soon to be announced, so unfortunately we cannot spill the beans just yet!
Is it always the same songs live? Actually no. That is the exact opposite of our live policy. We have never played a live show with the exact same playlist as the last one. We always tend to mix things up a bit!
What has been the best/most promising gig so far? I think we'd all agree that would be Fight Fest: Round 2. This festival is always special for us, because it was the first gig we ever ran as a band and we didn't expect it to be so good and be embraced like that by the people around here! This year's Fight Fest was definitely our favourite gig to date. Until the next one!
What are the plans for the rest of the year? This year will be dedicated to composing and recording our debut full length album! We already have some great tracks down, and more of them keep coming, so we're all very excited with the album's progress!
How do you get psyched up for a gig? I don't think we need to do anything specific in particular. Every 'gig day' is a special day. I'd say it's our 'adult Christmas'. We always wake up excited to spend the whole day doing what we love the most! This is why we can't wait to hit the road in the future for a tour!
Is it easier to get your inspiration from older bands or from bands more modern? Inspiration comes from all sorts of music. We have various influences in the way we make music. Generally our sound is more modern-like so I guess you could say we find more inspiration in modern bands.
What's the first step when making a new song? Up until now, we have tried different ways of approaching the whole composing procedure. Usually, it starts with ideas coming from the guitars which get built gradually.
How do you feel about the downloading of music instead of buying albums? We think it's inevitable nowadays. We know most people, would rather buy the records they like, but considering the world financial crisis, that's has come to be as a bit of a luxury unfortunately.As a band, we'd rather have our tracks downloaded (in a decent format that is) than ignored. That's our first track 'Alaska' is free to download on sites such as Soundcloud or Bandcamp.
Besides your own music, what genres and bands do you listen to? Apart for our common love for kind of music we play, we all enjoy different kinds of music too. Including Rock, Metal, Pop Punk, Dubstep, Drum n Bass music among others. To name loved bands for each member in Witness Apathy would end up in a long, long list so I think I'll skip that for now!
What would be your greatest fears for the future? Disbanding. Hands down. Though I don't think that's a very possible scenario.
When you are on stage, what do you fear most then? Matt. Our bassist. We are afraid of him on stage. Everyone else should be too. Check our live videos and you'll get why.
Have you been part of any other projects? Yes, apart from each member's personal projects we have we have, from time to time, helped friendly bands that needed our help in any way possible.
Have you been in any other bands? Yes, all of us used to play in other underground bands here in Athens, before we started Witness Apathy.
How important are your fans? VERY. Fans are the most important source of support and a motive for the band to keep doing what they dream of. Every time someone spends even a minute off their life to listen to our music or come to our show, we appreciate it. It means the world to us.
What's the funniest/most memorable thing a fan has done for you? It's hard to name one incident. But what stands out for me is the amount of support we received back in summer 2014 when we organised a gig called 'Outbreak'. Many kids, helped us unconditionally in all sorts of ways you can imagine. From promoting our gig to helping us clean up the venue (blood paint EVERYWHERE) after the show. Shout out to all those awesome kids!
How often do you rehearse? Once or twice a week at least.
How often do you rehearse? That's tough to pick. Personally I'd pick 'Promises Burnt our House Down' and our most recent unreleased track which is yet to be named.
Do you have any webpages? Well, we don't have an actual website yet, but we have pages in most of the social media there is. Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Grooveshark and many more which you can learn about in our Facebook page!
Describe your show, visually and musically Spontaneous, violent and weird. Kind of like a brutal stand-up comedy show.
How do you view the music industry of today? Just like any other field it contains things that will get you hooked and some really, really bad stuff. To generalize though is unfair. The fact that mainstream music is filled with bad pop music (yes I need to to give emphasis bad, because 80's pop music was awesome), doesn't mean that's all you there is nowadays.
What advice would you like to give other bands? I don't think we're in a place to advise other bands. We're still learning too much, so I guess we're the ones that need advice from more experienced bands! Yet, what I would like to point out from what I've learned so far is that bands should try to make themselves better, and not make other bands seem worse. Positive competition is always fruitful.
What are the biggest obstacles for a band? Time and money. You need to find both in order to keep doing what you do. Nowadays, they're both hard to get, but I think everyone can manage if they're dedicated enough.
Whats your Pre-show ritual? Nothing special actually. We usually get warmed up for the gig, swallow Monster drinks and act stupid as always.
Do you have anything to add? We would like to thank you for showing interest in our band with this interview and tell everyone to expect big things from us in the future!