Being
one of the few keyboard players in my country,Greece that
are really into metal sound gave me the comfort to choose
between offers that interested me or not. As a result was
the ROCK OF GODS 1996(first ever open air festival in Greece!)
where I played for FATAL MORGANA who were the opening act
for Slayer,Saxon Blind Guardian and Rage,or the supporting
act of KREATOR (Jan 1998) where I played with techno-thrash
progsters ACID DEATH. Then was the live-on-the-air appearance
of TIDAL FLOOD(instrumental prog-psych rock ala Ozric Tentacles)
in the Jammin´ live show on Greek ET3 channel and the
recording of the keyboards in power metaller´s CASUS
BELLI debut CD that released from Greek Sound And Vision Records.
In the
meanwhile I got a diploma in classic organ (based on suites
and fuges by J.S. Bach as well as modern jazz pieces for pedal
double scale organ), theory, classical harmony and history
of music, things that basically helped me more to learn how
to study and analyze a musical piece rather than playing fast
or improvising.
Right
after this, I had to join the army which took me 1.5 year
of doing almost nothing music-wise but the best was yet to
come! After finishing my military duty I joined NTX (Nipto
Tas Heiras) a crossover hip-hop nu metal band that already
had released a very interesting debut cd which was advertised
by TV and had good airplay. I made some live gigs with these
guys that helped me a lot in developing a more steady and
mature playing especially on stage. For a while it seemed
like I was losing my heavy metal identity and then, was the
call from Efthimis Karadimas the lead singer of NIGHTFALL
who was inviting me to join this famous band and play live
in one of the biggest heavy metal festivals of the world:
WACKEN OPEN AIR 2001! As soon as I got back from Germany,
I started working on my first solo work while I was playing
with power metallers CASUS BELLI which also was a great experience
because the level of the musicianship of the members was very
high and our gigs were apart of a true metal experience a
very good show-off, too. At one of that gigs I was seen by
Sakis from Rotting Christ who spoke with the guys from SEPTIC
FLESH and by the end of summer 2001 I joined them and started
a series of very hard working rehersals in order to start
touring Greece and Europe for the promotion of their latest
release Sumerian Daemons. Meanwhile, my debut cd Turn Of My
Century was released from Finnish prog label LION music and
started taking amazing reviews from all the world which, along
with the numerous gigs with Septic Flesh, helped me to grow
my reputation within the metal fans. Later, I also did some
session recordings for STARQUEEN (FIN) and Greek epic metallers
BATTLEROAR, I released the forgotten recordings of my power
metal project IMAGINERY (initially named MIRAGE back in 1996)
and I also recorded all keyboards for NIGHTFALLs latest release
I Am Jesus for Black Lotus Records.
At the
time being,and after the split-up of SEPTIC FLESH, Im a standard
member of NIGHTFALL,working on our new cd and DVD as well(I
also run a video-clip making company named Progressive Vision
Group) , played some guest keyboard solos on the 2nd cd of
MAGIC KINGDOM (soon to be released through LMP)and I got this
great invitation by mr Gus G. for joining FIREWIND on their
Japanese and European tour. My second solo cd Imaginary Force
is finished with a release date around April and I also record
the 2nd cd of IMAGINERY play modern power metal with Swedish
Bjorn Jansson singing in the vein of J.S Soto and Jorn Lande
and
THE BEST
IS YET TO COME!!!
I
started playing keyboards when I was 10 years old and only 4
years later (1992) I bought my first guitar which seemed to
excite me much more, as the only thing I was playing in the
keyboards till then was the crap they used to teach me in the
conservatory.Of course I was only 14 years old then and I had
no musical preferences or anything like this. But this until
the last days of 1994 when I first came in touch with the music
of Dream Theater and other keyboard oriented bands.Soon I noticed
some keyboard players like Kevin Moore, Jens Johansson and the
mighty Keith Emerson the sound of whose has influenced drastically
my way of approaching the keyboards.The most important thing,
though was that I soon developed good improvising ability which
was the only thing which opened doors in finding more bands
to play with as a session member apart from my standard band
which has been up till then SKYWARD later renamed to RETROSPECT.
