Incirrina is a Greek duo project founded in September 2017 by George Katsanos
(synthesizers, samples, drum machine, vocals) and Irini Tini (synthesizers, vocals).
Their music combines elements of dark/minimal wave, electronic, ambient and
experimental sounds. They have been inspired by William Blake and they have
musically arranged a selection of his poems. Their first digital album "8.15"
was released in December 2018.
By seeking the meaning of your name Incirrina, I found
out it is suborder of the order Octopoda. A fascinating name choice, full of
mystic. How did the name come about and what did you have in mind for the group?
Irini: First of all, we would like to thank you Nick and DIE SEELE for this
interview!
Well, the
group’s name history is that: when we first started to play together as a synth
duo in the autumn of 2017, we wanted to find a name that would depict our love
for synthesizers, or something that would “fit” to our style of music, but we
could not find something appropriate that didn’t exist already. Then we thought
of searching in the field of marine life, as we are both fascinated by
dolphins, whales, strange sea plants and animals of the ocean’s mystery world…so
we came upon “Incirrina” which is, as
you said, a kind of octopus. This strange-looking creature, with its unique
behavior and its moving agility, is known to be symbolic of grace and
flexibility (something we all musicians need, as far as fingers are concerned!)
also of logic and intelligence. We had in mind that we would be inspired by
such a symbol and that we would do our best to express our deeper thoughts,
emotions and musical ideas through our music.
Your music is described as electronic/new wave/minimal
synth, genres that originated in the 80s. How would you describe your music?
George: The music of this decade is deep in our hearts and minds. We both grew
up listening to bands like The Cure, Joy Division, Kraftwerk, Depeche Mode,
Siouxsie and the Banshees – just to name a few of them -also Jean -Michel Jarre
-whose electronic compositions were a great inspiration for us at that time -
Nina Hagen, Japan, Tuxedomoon… We would describe our music as “electronic” and
“minimal” because we use exclusively electronic instruments (mostly analogue
synthesizers and drum machines of the 1970s and 1980s) and our songs have
minimal musical structures, short repetitive patterns, plus monophonic melodic
lines. Although musical terms and genres sometimes are not quite “appropriate”
for all of the songs or pieces a group creates, the general aesthetic of our
music is better described as “new wave”, with some elements of darkwave also
(for example the use of minor keys and introspective lyrics based on William
Blake’s great poetry).
Like many acts that follow the minimal synth direction
you are a duo. Do you feel constraint by being only two people in the band or
is this a conscious choice? For example, the use of drum machine compared to a
real drummer.
Irini: We think that, for electronic bands, two people is an ideal condition.
For us, it happened naturally, as we can easily understand each other and we
can rehearse and jam at any time; the one has an idea-a “riff” for example, or
a harmonic sequence- and the other will add his/her own ideas, and then
this evolves and becomes a musical piece
or song…What really matters is not the number of a band’s members but the way they interact
and they understand each other (as musicians and as personalities, of course).
Being a duo has also the advantage of being flexible in rehearsals and concerts
–and it is really practical, with electronic equipment we can rehearse at 3
o’clock in the morning without disturbing the neighbors! Also restrictions many
times are helpful, because you are “obliged” to do your best with few materials
(hands and instruments in our case).
As far as drum machines are concerned, they
cannot really be compared to a drummer, they belong to a different world, and
of course a band’s sound is completely different when it uses a drum machine.
It is not “better” or “worse”, it is just different. For us it was a conscious
choice to use drum machines, as we both love their sound and this “mechanical”
way of drumming (and George is really fond of drum programming) -but this does
not mean that in the future, we will not play with a real drummer, if we feel
the need to do so.
You use analogue equipment when playing live. What
does is mean for you as an artist to use strictly analogue equipment? Is it
true that when you want to make a specific sound you have to use the right
equipment, something that cannot be produced by computers?
George: This is exactly the same thing as we discussed above about drum
machines and real drummers: analogue and digital instruments are both
marvelous, nothing is better than the other, so it is a matter of taste which
equipment a musician uses. We prefer using analogue instruments, like Mini Moog
and Korg MS10, synthesizers that were the sound-basis of many bands for
decades. You can create wonderful sounds with them, either bass sounds or lead
ones, it feels like you are “sculpturing” the sound with these instruments-
although one of their characteristics is that they do not “save” the settings
–alterations you make (once you turn the power off, then you have to make the
sound from the beginning)-this, apart from being a “disadvantage” ,is also
fascinating and challenging. So the answer is “yes”, the right equipment is
very important in order to create the sound you have in mind.
Irini: On the other hand, the last months we have fallen in love with a
digital synthesizer -a Yamaha reface DX (“descendant” of the historical Yamaha
DX7 of the 80s) and we have started to use it; the technology of FM synthesis
of this instrument is very nicely combined to our analogue instruments and has
also the advantage of “saving” the sounds you create. Sometimes, with the
analogue instruments, it is really difficult to have enough time to fix the
appropriate sound for the next song during a live show (when recording, this
does not matter), so the digital synths give you the freedom to be quick and
accurate and this is something we cannot deny.
Computers are of
course one of the most useful tools of our times and a musician can do
extraordinary things with them…but one needs to have the appropriate knowledge,
and we both are not acquainted with computers in music making… To be honest, we
are “old-school” people and we want to have real buttons and keys to play, we
are afraid of screens! Only once in my life I used a computer during a live
show (10 years ago, when I was playing with another band) and in the 3d song…it
stopped functioning…It was a disaster… of course this does not happen if you
have a good computer and you know how to deal with it...but for me it was such
a shock that I decided never to take this risk again!
We see from your visuals that you love black and
white. Is it the atmosphere and nostalgia it brings out that attract you?
George: We really love black and white, as we also adore silent black and white
movies. It is exactly what you said, this atmosphere and nostalgia that is
brought out, attracts and inspires us. We have the chance to be friends with a
talented video artist and
photographer, Gogo Galanopoulou, who has already made 2 clips of our songs (“A
little Girl Lost” and “The Smile”) and we agree to this, that black and white
aims to the essence and truth, it does not restrain the emotions and lets you
free to feel and imagine… Nostalgia, dream-world, poetic atmosphere, the
impulsion to run away from “reality”, the abstraction , the surrealistic and
expressionistic way of perceiving things…also introversion and a kind of melancholia…all
these are closely related to our inner-self - and
using black and white in visuals is consistent with these emotions, also
with the lyrics of our songs.
You have played live many songs that are not on your
first digital album "8.15". Are these new songs that will be released
in the future? Will we be having any physical release by the band?
Irini: Our first digital album is a 6-track album, so many of our songs that
we play in live shows are not included there. At this moment we have finished
the recordings for our first vinyl LP that will be released by Geheimnis
Records in the autumn –and we are really very happy about that! This album will
include 10 of the songs we have with lyrics based on poetry by William Blake,
also an instrumental track (“8.15”, after which the whole album will be named,
like the digital one). Apart from these, in live shows we also use to play 3-4
more songs with lyrics by Blake and 3 with lyrics of our own-but these will not
be included in our first release.
The darkwave, minimal synth scene is still going
strong after all these years. What is it do you think that makes the scene have
a longevity? How do you see the scene here in Greece and in general?
Irini: The truth is that this scene has a longevity because it consists of
significant bands that play really good music, with pulse and emotion, with
respect to qualities such as finest sound and instrumentations, strong beats
and taking riffs, meaningful lyrics, lack of “busy” instrumental solos and
vocals that do not aim to “show off” the singing “abilities” of a performer but
underline and express deepest emotions and the atmosphere of the music … It is
also a scene that consists of people whose way of life and thinking is strongly
connected to the way they perceive music and art in general, and this is really
important. We are a small country and this scene is a minority in comparison to
other musical genres here –and it has always been an underground scene, as it should be…because underground is where
–at most cases- real and also revolutionary things are born and developed.
Since the 80s the scene is evolving and I think we have great bands that are
acknowledged here and abroad, and new bands that come up and this is really a
comfort…to see that, in a rapidly changing world, some things do not change,
some of the musical values, beliefs and loves we had as teenagers, are still
alive…Perhaps this sounds “romantic”, but I think that this scene is alive due
to this…dark secret love...
What are your future plans? Anything you would like to
share with us?
George: Our plans include composing new songs and instrumental pieces,
rehearsing, searching for new sounds and evolving our music. And after the
release of our LP “8.15” we wish, of course, to do as more live shows as
possible! We enjoy composing, jamming and rehearsing, but nothing can be
compared to live playing and sharing music with other people…
We would like to
thank you warmly for this interview and congratulate you Nick and “DIE SEELE”
for the great work you do, it is very important that we all people of this
scene/community keep supporting each other in all ways possible !
Photos : Gwgw Galanopoulou
Interview : Nick Drivas
Photos : Gwgw Galanopoulou
Interview : Nick Drivas
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