ARETI KOKKINOU
Interview conducted June 05, 2020
By Dan Locke
Areti Kokkinou is a Greek composer, arranger and also guitar and mandolin player. She has played in numerous concerts and studio works.
ΤΗΕLMA KARAYIANNI / ARETI KOKKINOU
What is your upbringing?
Αρετή Κοκκίνου: I wasn’t brought up in a family of musicians. I was born in the city of Athens, where I have mainly lived and worked ever since.
How did you discover music?
I really can’t recall. I started playing, without guidance, several simple musical instruments available around at my pre-school age. Radio was very popular at the time and played every day at home, Greek music mainly. I tried to reproduce every melody that came to my ears with a little keyboard available and sang a lot, although I have never wished to become a singer.
How did you start to write music?
A few years after I started playing with local bands. But there was still much to learn in order to do things professionally.
Do you remember how you got your first guitar?
Yes, when I was eleven. My mother brought me my first acoustic guitar and I started lessons immediately at the local music school. After a few years, I decided I would like to practice on classic rock style, quite popular among Greek musicians at that time. I bought my first electric guitar with much excitement.
And do you still have it?
Of course, both of them.
Let’s talk about your latest release “NO TEARS IN A BLUE MOON”. Is there a story behind it?
This is part of my common work with a person I love, the female poet Mary Grammatikakis. As an English teacher, she can also write lyrics in English. We had worked together in several performances regarding poetry and music.
Where was the video shot?
To tell the truth I don’t know. We had prepared the audio and wondered about the visual part for YouTube upload when another friend of ours, Katerina Vasilakou, listened to the song and made this video for us. It was a nice surprise. Now I think of it, all the creative part of the song turned to be” female business”.
The song reminds me of the 60s hit “Aquarius”?
To be honest, I had never thought of it. Indeed, the meaning of the song lyrics is very close to the optimistic and humanitarian spirit of “Aquarius”. And there are common references to the sun as a symbol and craving for world peace. People still fight for these ideas
I am sure Mary didn’t have the song or the musical in mind when she wrote “No tears in a Blue Moon”. These are ideas and references also found in her Greek lyrics and poems.
As for the music, the two songs are of quite different mood, I think. “Aquarius” is an extrovert melodic pop song, while “No tears in a blue moon” is more mystical, acoustic rock with ethnic elements, like the traditional stringed instrument “lyra” played by the folk musician Othonas Bikakis.
How was it to work with Dimitris Samartzis and Mary Grammatakakis?
Dimitris was the main singer of the album. Thelma (Karayanni), the singer of this single is a guest artist in this album. All of them are friends I love and have worked with in several projects. Apart from work, we have often shared bottles of home- made wine or “raki”, the famous alcohol drink of Crete, Mary’s home island.
How soon will the album be out? And can you tell me about it?
In fact, “No tears in a Blue Moon” is a single from Mary’s personal album under the title “Body and Soul”, released three years ago.
Three songs with my music are included in this album. I have also played guitars and done more of the arrangements.However, this single will also be a part of another acoustic-ethnic rock project you will hear from me soon.
What is your favorite track on the album?
I have no favorites! I love each one of my songs. As it happens with children, though, the youngest is the most caressed and beloved.
How do you stay healthy while touring?
I am not sure there will be much touring this summer. At that time of the year we used to have busy tour schedules, as Greek summer is, by tradition, full of events all over the country. This season is completely different and uncertain and artists are badly struck, as few of them are rich enough to go thought it easily. In our –fewer- performances all of us intend to follow all the hygienic instructions given to protect ourselves and others.
What are you’re feeling about streaming music?
It is an interesting alternative. I have done a couple of streaming during the lockdown. It cannot replace live concerts’ unique experience, definitely the excitement is not the same. However, it is an easy way to communicate your live performance unlimitedly to everyone that has access to internet connection. A different, new situation which could add new perspectives as far as performance is concerned.
Digital vs. vinyl?
Vinyl sound quality is unique and incomparable to any digital means. But things cannot go back. The vast majority of people (I can only talk about Greek people, of course) will listen to a song on Spotify or YouTube, even if the vinyl or the cd with the song stands on a shelf nearby. I am not an exception to that, I am afraid.
What song from the past is in your mind right now? And what is the meaning that song means to you?
I can’t name one and only song from all the ocean of Greek and international songs I have loved and cried with. For some reason I found myself thinking of “The show must go on” by Queen. Maybe because lately, I have been thinking more about people fighting for a good reason all over the world “holding the lines”, despite their personal pain, trying to win life.
How do you feel the Covid-19 virus going to affect the music business in the future?
Frankly, I have no idea what will happen in the long run. Here in Greece the majority of the music business and people involved have suffered deeply. The future remains uncertain. New live entertainment formulas may be developed, which is the good part if artists and art workers benefit from that. Many unemployed people are the bad part. I feel the whole situation will gradually recover, with the weakest left behind as “victims”.
What have you been doing with your self-quarantine?
At the beginning I felt deeply depressed thinking of all this situation. Then I slept a lot, since I had spent years of non-stop day and night work. Then I found myself in a daily routine taking my dog for long walks to pleasant sites of my area I hadn’t discovered before.
Have you discovered or rediscovered any new hobbies?
Not really, but at last I had the chance to enjoy long nice talks with friends without having to look at my watch.
Lots of people are doing nightly concerts over either YouTube, Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. I see you were doing “Staying at home with our writers”. Tell me about that project?
I am impressed you searched for it. This has been one of the activities organized by “Bookia”, an important site dealing with literature, quite well established in Greece. I was interacting and playing music accompanying the poetry performance of Dimitris Verykios, a well-known Greek actor with deep knowledge about poetry.
Do you think it will be possible to make a living doing concerts this way?
For the time being, this way is not established yet in order to be widely profitable. On- line performances in Greece are still considered as a substitute of the real live thing, mostly offered for free. I can’t tell yet whether on-line concerts are a real commercial tendency. The future will show.
First it was an article in the New York Times, then Rolling Stones talked about it and finally Live Nation CEO said that concerts may not start again until fall of 2021. Do you think this could happen?
I really hope this will not happen. However, small local performances could be supported to make up for the loss. The whole structure of music business will reorganize if all these huge productions and festivals cease work for such a long time.
With Social Distance being the norm, do you feel that it maybe the end of music fest for the next couple of years?
This is a whole new situation, l of course. I really can’t say. As I told before, I strongly hope this won’t happen. I think governments and local authorities should support festival activity under safe conditions to help art go on.
What about Holographic concerts in our living room?
Well, it sounds science fiction to me. Why not, though?
Any plans to tour?
Some small lives in Athens, few concerts around Greece, much studio work for this summer.
How do you see yourself in the next five years?
I hope I will keep enjoying setting up new exciting projects being healthy, and having added five more years of experience!
Anything you would like to say in closing.
It’s our duty to care and stand for the fellow human, for the environment, for justice, in order to “to let children smile to the sun”.
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