Selefice – Interview
Interview with Pete Devine of Pete’s Rock News and Views (https://petesrocknewsandviews.com)
(Answers: Manos Michaelides – bass, backing vocals)
PD: What type of artist are you?
MM: Hello Pete and thank you for your interest in our band. SELEFICE is an Extreme Metal band from Athens, Greece. Doom Metal is a basic ingredient in our music, but you will also find in it influences from the whole pallette of Extreme Metal (Thrash, Death and even a few Black Metal passages) plus elements from Progressive to Psychedelic Rock.
PD: Tell us the brief history of yourself.
MM: The band was formed in 1990. A demo cassette tape was released in 1991 to spread the word and in 1993 the full length “Where Is The Heaven” was released. The band went to a long hiatus for a quarter of a century to return stronger than ever in 2017. After severely rehearsing the old songs, we hit the Athenian stages while preparing material for a comeback release. “I Met a God” Mini-Album was released in May 2019.
PD: Who are your musical and non-musical influences?
MM: Undoubtedly, all band members agree our musical influences are bands like Candlemass, Black Sabbath, Metallica (especially the golden decade 1981-1991), Slayer and Paradise Lost, but we also draw influences from Pink Floyd, Camel, The Cure and countless more acts. Non-musically, SELEFICE work has been influenced by the writings and aesthetics of H.P. Lovecraft. In fact, even our name is a misspelled Lovecraftian work.
PD: What are your dreams and goals?
MM: Our dreams have partially been materialized. We are here, stronger than ever, creating our own music without any directions, releasing it and having fun at live shows. We are proud of the positive response we have from both the old and new generation. As human beings and as artists we always set new goals that we work hard upon. Our next goal is the band’s first full length since 1993.
PD: Who writes your songs, what are they about?
MM: The core of most of our songs is created by Miltos (vocals, guitar). Miltos has the talent to come up with a song where he has everything set in his mind. He knows exactly what every instrument should do and he knows his vocal lines and lyrics. Nevertheless, we are absolutely free to add our own ideas in. Every song is actually structured in the rehearsal room. The lyrics basically deal with the darker side of 
human thought, religious non-sense, paranoia and dark imaginary fields.
PD: How do you promote your band and shows?
MM: SELEFICE is a live band. We love the stage and enjoy to communicate our work with people. In fact, this is how the songs for the Mini-Album “I Met a God” were chosen. They were first tested live!
PD: What do you think about downloading music online?
MM: Although we are an old band, we are not nostalgic. We live in the age of computers, internet, information and social media. That’s something we cannot ignore. On the contrary, we use it to promote our music through our channels. Downloading music is absolutely fine. I see it as tape-trading back in the days with the exception that it is faster (laughs). However, we are always thankful when someone spends even a penny for our band to purchase a physical product. Please remember that your support is of great importance for the artists. We owe our existence to the support fans showed us from the beginning and “I Met a God” is dedicated to them.
PD: What song do you wish you’d written and why?
MM: Tough to answer for the band collectively, since everyone has his own favorites. I will answer this personally. I would love to have recorded a single note in Death’s “Individual Thought Patters”, my all time favorite Death Metal album. I am sure many disagree with this choice and I also love classic material like “Leprosy”, “Spiritual Healing” or “Scream Bloody Gore”, but in “Individual…” the band reached a limit. A top class line-up, brilliant songwriting and production ideas, tech/prog atmosphere while the songs remain memorable are things you cannot find everyday. Top class for me!
PD: What are some of your pet peeves?
MM: To narrow it down to 3 that would be injustice, arrogance and disrespect.
PD: What is your proudest moment in music?
MM: For sure the respect we get from people after our comeback. We didn’t return with any “rock star attitude” nor for making some special live shows just for the remembrance of the old days. We came back 
to create new music. We do it with great respect for our past, but we write music for today. We believe the result is still SELEFICE.
PD: So what are you working on at the moment?
MM: We are working on new songs. And we are always open for live shows. Whenever a song is ready, we test it live. In fact, after “I Met a God” was recorded, we already have played 2 new songs in our live shows “Innsmouth” and “Gates of Dawn”. Our big goal is to have enough songs and budget for a full-length release. We are also open for live shows in our homeland Greece and abroad!
PD: Tell us about your next shows and why we should be there.
MM: After successfully appearing in the “Room of Doom Fest II” and although we have in mind to self-organize something, we don’t actually have a timeplan for coming shows, but we are always open to proposals. SELEFICE live shows are hauntingly creepy, they are different and we try to carry away with our music the audience to SELEFICE! Thank you for the interview, Pete. We appreciate your support!
Selefice links:
Band/Artist location – Atens Greece
Facebook – You Tube – Discogs – Bandcamp –Instagram – Last Fm
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