Elias Zaikos of Blues Wire | Maria Tsiaousi Photography
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) Elias Zaikos – BLUES WIRE
Synonymous with the Greek blues. They started in 1983 as Blues Gang. About that time they recorded the first blues album in the history of Greek discography.
“It was” Dig it ” which as an everyday expression means to understand what I am saying, to make it your own. But very important for us was the second album. We recorded it in the studio of Nikos Papazoglou, in Agrotiko: we gathered about 50 friends, drinks, music and Nikos was recording for us. In 1986 we were renamed Blues Wire 031 – from the automatic dialing number of Thessaloniki at that time. Abroad we were called pure Blues Wire and we were left … ».
Elias Zaikos speaks to us, the Greek bluesman, on the occasion of the unique appearance of the band in Athens tomorrow Friday.
The Blues Wire on stage
Maria Tsiaousi Photography
Until 16-17 he listened only to Greek music, but when he came in contact with foreign, progressive rock then, « I sank. I was fascinated … I still listen to all these music search groups – Camel, Van der Graaff, Jethro Tull: they took me to a world I did not know who he was, but I wanted to go. Many may describe this music as talkative or vain, but I look at the positive side. Guided by my deep curiosity, because I always read the information on the cover, who plays what, I started to see under the pieces, discovering who the composers are … ».
So from Zeppelin it came to Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters and the blues. He started playing guitar “slowly”, at the age of 20, and in 2-3 years he released his first album. He remembers having a headache the first time he heard the music that marked him: “Muddy Waters'” Hard again “. Three guitars, two accordions, bass, drums. Nobody played chords, everyone played shapes. It was unprecedented, it stunned me. And of course he captured me. I loved them for the feeling that you listen to the musician, his expression, the improvisation and that was what was tragically missing at that time, where the focus was on the song, the singer, the aunt and the composer, but the musicians were never given importance. I felt that it is a kinship music with rebetika, because it is a folk music from people to people. It sounds political, but it is also musical, I felt the correlation and I saw that on the other side of the Atlantic people honor musicians … “, he tells us with almost youthful enthusiasm.
And he describes to us his impression from a country concert, where after the song a solo cycle began: banjo, violin, guitar and at the end of each cycle the whole theater, which they may have been old and cowboys, he applauded. “It may sound vain, but I really wanted to experience that feeling, the attention to what I play. I also had a deep subconscious impression that the world of this art is unique. “I felt in a sense safe to deal with the blues because I felt that he is not old and I still feel it, we are close to 40 years but I can still play …”, he tells us, confessing how he was introduced to music. And he mentions the words of his friend and collaborator on the bass from the beginning, Sotiris Zisis, that “we wanted to play music, we did not want to become virtuosos in musical instruments. And we listened to a lot of music, of all kinds, not just blues … “.
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What has he learned from this musical journey of so many decades?
“We feel lucky that we are still alive … At least for me and Sotiris the life we live is the life that the music itself taught us. She gave us and she blesses us, we know that and that really fills us with incredible joy, despite the problems that this occupation brings especially in Greece … These things are cultivated as you grow up and learn yourself and the world around you, nothing it is not separate from our presence as beings and as citizens. We learn things, we manage some, we believe them and we try to give them a push together with others. It is not something that is easily politicized, there are militant artists, we are just people who love and respect freedom and man, justice, equality and all these values that make us better people … ».
Blues help a lot in such a conscious state of a person. He was not left out of the developments at all. The music is changing, new genres are emerging, with a different lyrical focus, but the blues have never been apathetic. He has always had a hand in this music and that is one of the reasons I believe it will never go away. Rap, hip hop, punk, rock and roll, but the blues are always there to lend items and offer. He is not indifferent to the evolution of the spirit, not only of music. We white children can not fully understand how he was born, raised and shaped, but we can get a good idea if we love and respect it … “. How did they say it on their first album? Dig it.
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From Odessa and Messolonghi to Keratsini 
