Interview with Pete Devine of Pete’s Rock News and Views (https://petesrocknewsandviews.com)
PD: What type of artist are you?
LT: Hey Pete, we are the Loose Ties, a rock band from Athens, Greece. We are Dinos (Bass), Despoina (Vocals), Pantelis (Keys), George (Drums) and myself, Petros on Guitar. We tell our stories through music, using it as a means to weave our narrative, which deals with our worries, struggles and experiences through life.
PD: Tell us the brief history of yourself.
LT: I’d say that ours was a meeting of chance, so to speak. Pantelis and I in particular, answered an ad posted by Dinos on a musician forum, looking for a guitarist and keyboard player for a funk cover band. We had our first rehearsal with the lineup of the band at the time and hit it off, which got us the gig. Throughout our time as the Loose Ties we’ve had several lineup changes that’ve led us to our current lineup and which has at the same time influenced our musical output as well in terms of style. We’ve released two albums, “Retrospect” in 2021 and our current album titled “Odd One Out” this year.
PD: Who are your musical and non-musical influences?
LT: This is a tough and interesting question at the same time! Everyone in the band has varied musical tastes and I would have to say that this is a key driver for our multifaceted identity as a group. Personally, I am a fan of Prog Rock from the 60s and 70s, with bands like Genesis, Pink Floyd at the forefront and also Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath on the rock side of things. My tastes progressed to Metal during my teenage years, and later on I was (and still am) keen on exploring Jazz Fusion as a genre.
Outside of the music sphere we are inspired by philosophy, mythology, sci-fi and fantasy. Movies are also another source of inspiration for us, and we blend all the above together to “paint” our musical pictures.
PD: What are your dreams and goals?
LT: Our dream is to get our music out to as many people as we can by playing shows, and our focus at present is to get to play more shows abroad. We also want to make a name of ourselves in the Greek local scene. Lastly, we always try to push the limits of our creativity, and we are aiming for just that on our next release, which is, however, still in its infancy.
PD: Who writes your songs, what are they about?
LT: Dinos is the main songwriter of the group, with Despoina not falling far behind! Our songs, especially on our latest album, deal with the concepts of alienation, existential anxiety, and the struggles of urban life. We try to convey our views and feelings with our songs in a memorable way that will hopefully make the listener engaged.
PD: How do you promote your band and shows?
LT: To be honest with you, promotion is one of the more difficult aspects of being a musician. Even though it’s not traditionally in the job description of a musician, today’s landscape requires you to be a promoter, a social media manager, and booking manager as well. On that end, we have decided to work with Angels PR, a promoting agent, to help us take off the workload of promotion so we can focus that part on our music.
PD: What do you think about downloading music online?
LT: I think Spotify has rendered the concept of downloading music obsolete nowadays. Having so many songs just a few screen taps away is far easier than maintaining a catalog of downloaded or ripped songs from CDs. In my opinion it is a convenience, but a dangerous one at that, since it takes away from the process of really listening to an album. I am what you might call a dinosaur in that regard, since I still have my music saved on my mobile phone, which is regularly updated. I like to check out new releases by listening to whole albums, not just singles or hits.
PD: What song do you wish you’d written and why?
LT: Firth of Fifth by Genesis, no doubt about that! Steve Hackett’s guitar solo on that song has got to be one of the most soulful and emotional solos ever written, and a top pick of mine for sure.
Echoes by Pink Floyd comes close second, with its dreamy vocals and beautiful soundscapes, and I would pick Good Times, Bad Times by Led Zeppelin as my third pick since it must be one of the best debut songs of a band ever played, since it’s the first song off of their first album.
PD: What are some of your pet peeves?
LT: Drummers playing chops and fills when I’m trying to tune my guitar or speak to my bandmates – looking at you George!
PD: What is your proudest moment in music?
LT: This has to be the audience singing the lyrics to our songs. I don’t think there’s a 
feeling that compares to knowing that your music touched another person emotionally.
PD: So what are you working on at the moment?
LT: Right now we are focused on playing as many shows as possible to promote our albums and have our music heard. Later on down the line we are looking to write and produce our third album, but that is still at a very early stage
PD: Tell us about your next shows and why we should be there.
LT: Our next show, which we are very excited about, is at Rock’n’Iasi, in Iasi, Romania. This will be our first time playing abroad, so we are very much looking forward to that!
Next come two local shows in Athens, and we will cap the winter season off by traveling to Thessaloniki to play a show there.
Our shows are energetic and you should definitely come, we promise you’ll have a great time!
Loose Ties links:
Band/Artist location – Athens, Greece
Website – Facebook – You Tube – Bandcamp – Merch –
Instagram – Apple – Spotify – Amazon – Deezer – LinkTree –
