LA TULIPE NOIRELA TULIPE NOIRE
Please introduce us your band, when did you form LA TULIPE NOIRE and did any of you play in bands before LA TULIPE NOIRE ?
-Alix: We formed “La Tulipe Noire” back in 1997. The group was based upon a preexisting Greek speaking group with the name “Mavri Toulipa” (Black Tulip in Greek). The latter had released in 1992 an LP titled “The whispers of the wind” (in Greek). After that release we split. I went for studies in Paris. Kontakis went to London. The other boys travelled here and there.
-Hyde: We all had played in several amateur groups before “La Tulipe Noire” but nothing special. So in 1997 the band was: Lena (voice), Kondakis (guitars), Barkoulas (guitars), Alix (Keyboards), Georges Fotopoulos (drums) and me (Bass).
Can you tell us all
about your debut CD 'In the gates of dream'?
-Hyde: It was 1997, we were bored of doing nothing creative and we had missed each other. So we decided to gather again and record an album. I had some material ready, so did Alix. The initial idea was to record a “Mavri Toulipa” second, Greek speaking, album.
-Alix: I remember Hyde was calling me from Athens and he played some of his ideas at the phone! I was telling him what I liked and what not. I had an old piano in my appartment and I played some of my own ideas. So we made a rough scetch of the songs via long distance calls!
-Hyde: One night the connection was rather bad. Alix had a tape in her cassete player with a song she was preparing…
-Alix: And suddenly Hyde asks me, isn’t it rather outstreched to put Arabic words in the song?
-Hyde:An Arab had been accidentaly into the line and I thought it was part of the song! You know it was a quiet part with slow chords and suddenly I heard something like “Allau hallaua kula baula” and then nothing!
-Alix:Finally I travelled to Athens I played the keyboards and I returned to Paris. The others continued with the guitars and the voices.
You've changed from
lead vocalist, but kept a female voice, why the change and why
does your band have a female singer (which I think is great by
the way, because there are not many female fronted progressive
rockbands)?
-Alix: Lena wanted to complete her studies in the classical song. She left the band because she had no free time. I think female voice is equally expressive with the male..
-Hyde: Having a female singer gives a group certain advantages. The singer may be beautiful, she may have beautiful friends etc.
Your music is a
mixture of neo-progressive rock and 80s AOR, which bands
influenced you?
-Hyde: We have no concsious influences. Whether we have unconcsious influences or not it’s up to the listeners to decide. We write the kind of music we’d like to hear if we were listeners.
Your new CD
'Shattered images' has been released via MUSEA RECORDS, how did
you get in touch with that big French label?
-Alix: It was spring of 97. I had returned to Paris after I had finished my part of the recordings we were doing in Athens. Then it occurred to me, why don’t we send a tape to Musea? After all what have the other bands more than us… except talent, skill and means? (Laughter from all). So I told Hyde first about my idea, I told him to tell Lena to sing some songs in English and send me a tape to post to Musea..
-Hyde: … and I told her, they will send you back a bomb!
-Alix: Musea answered and the rest is history.
-Hyde: History has always some black pages!
You're one of the
few bands from Greece I know, do you have any fans out there that
really like progressive rock?
-Hyde: We have a small but faithful audience but I think they are mostly fans of La Tulipe Noire and not fans of Prog Rock in general. That’s anyway the conclusion when you look at the sales of records.
Are there any other
bands in Greece playing progressive melodic (hard) rock?
- Alix: None I’ve heard of. I think we are the only Greek band playing prog rock. There are a few more Greek bands but they are playing progressive metal.
I heard you're
already working on 2 new CDs, if so can you tell us everything
about it? Possible songs, production, same musicstyle as before,
when it is going to be released, etc. etc.?
-Hyde: This happened accidentaly. By the time we completed “Shattered Image” we had written the most part of “Nostimon Hemar”. Then in Summer of 2000 we received an invitation to spent some time to a well known cosmopolitan island of Aegean….
-Alix: ..And we were shocked by the solitude! They were all dancing.. they were all saying they had a great time… they were all laughing whether there was a reason or not and ….. they felt so desperately alone! You could see it in their eyes. And we are talking about young people from all over the world..
-Hyde: We wrote a number of song in two weeks. The songs were a little melancholic ..and we named the album “Faded Leaves”.
-Alix: So we found ourselves with two albums and we had to decide what it will be released first. We chose “Faded Leaves” because in general it is of the same music climate as “Shattered Image”.
-Hyde: “Nostimon Hemar” is another story. The title is in ancient Greek, it comes from Homer’s Odyssey and it means “The day of the Return Home”. It will be a concept album. The songs talk about the modern man. Like Odysseus, he travels in the unknown seas of life looking for home. Looking in other words for a safe end to his journey. Finally our hero realises that, although we are looking for an Ithaca in all our life, it is the journey itself that makes the life worth living. The style of “Nostimon Hemar” will be a surpise for all our friends. I can’t tell you more but it is “La Tulipe Noire” ‘s proposal for the music in the 21st century.
What are the plans
for the next coming months?
-Alix: First we shall complete “Faded Leaves”. We are now at the remixing procedure. We hope to be ready at December of 2001.
-Hyde: We can never release an album on time. Always something happens. We write a new song replacing an old one. We don’t like the guitars and we write them again, or the bass line stinks and we (I) write it again.. etc. As I say: if we were politicians we would be always in opposition because we can never keep our word!!… or we would always be in Government?
Finally, do you
have anything to add to our readers?
-Hyde: Only one promise: we shall always try to give our best in our albums. The final judgment upon our efforts will be theirs.