Its
business as usual in The Smokey Bandits house: bass lines come and go,
trumpets sitting lazy in the living room, accordions and trombones
melting around, congas, maracas and bongos arguing about the last
Tarantino’s film, flutes want to take the leadership, old-school
Waltzes n’ Tangos drinking a big bottle of champagne, guitars and
Rhodes sitting comfortably in the sofa watching (one more time) “Smokey
And The Bandit” (their favorite film). Everything’s so “everyday cool”
that you might ask yourself if this is “the normal” for every house. If
you take a look at the walls’ corners you might discover the grooves
dynamics sitting there quietly. Even their girlfriends don’t know that
they are there. And all of a sudden you can imagine it: two Dark
Knights walking in extremely dangerous neighborhoods of Gotham City
alongside Almodovar, Guy Richie, Danny Boyle and Quentin Tarantino!
It’s time to direct a film. But is this true or another fake dream?
At
least 20 years have passed from the first time that The Smokey Bandits
have seen Chet Baker in television, singing and playing his trumpet.
Since then they have believed that he has always had the “golden
touch”. He had people eating music dreams from the palm of his hands.
Those years Margaret Thatcher was still in power. Ronald Reagan was
President of USA. Berlin Wall stood still. Nelson Mandela was in prison
and apartheid was “the king” in South Africa. But things always change.
A social and cultural revolution was ready to take the lead.
There
were hundreds of illegal warehouse parties all over the world mixing up
music and people. Vinyl was power and you were buying music from record
stores. There were no CD mixers. Only yuppies had mobile phones and
those had the size of a brick. It was a time pre-email and
pre-internet. It seems unbelievable that we have survived! And now………
we feel Out Of Space! The Future is calling us.
We need a unique
n’ true sound necessary to give the justice that each season demands.
That’s why The Smokey Bandits respect Chet totally. This might sound a
little bit blue or old-fashioned but they cannot be phony in front of
you. They want to share only true stories and honest music with
everyone. They spent hundreds of hours inside their studio talking,
making music, smoking a lot of cigarettes (when their friends came in,
the smoke was so much that they usually complain……. “Hey! It’s so
Smokey in here!”), cutting 50s and 60s Jazz n’ Swing samples even
thought they didn’t actually use any of the cuts (just the same chilly
feeling you’ve got when you find an incredible sample to a long-lost
buried vinyl………. it feels like you’re a music Bandit). So this is the
beginning in a long-distance trip, the “Debut”, an album with no genre
or style cause it’s a new style on it’s own! Wicked, honest and true
music for everybody……
If this is the end dear friends we have to
remind you how great it is to breathe the air. We will listen, once
again, to Chet singing that love’s a losing game, we will pay our
telephone bill, we will turn the electricity off and we will give our
respects to the poor child down the road……..The Smokey Bandits are
here!
'Pale Penguin'
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SMOKEY BANDITS BIOGRAPHY.
Introducing the brand new project by
Dimitris Nassios aka Quasamodo & George Fotiadis aka Basement Freaks.
We started working on the Smokey Bandits project on Oct '07
in Athens, Greece @ Quasamodo's Studio and ended with the
final recordings and mixes in Thessaloniki Greece on Feb '09
In the last 2 months of the production we set a workshop in the
studio of 'Nasa Funk' where we recorded some of the best
musicians of Thessaloniki.
Our sound is mostly influenced by cult movie soundtracks
from directors like Quentin Tarantino,
Guy Ritchie, Danny Boyle and Pedro Almodovar
The basic concept of the Smokey Bandits music was to bring
music from different decades together, or to
put it differently, modernize yesterdays sound into something
newer generations can appreciate today.
The second basic concept was to bring traditional music from
all around the world together, starting with the exposure of
our own musical roots; these roots being Greek - Balkan
Mediterranean - Mexican - Surf - Western -
Brazilian & Afro Latin music all written in the 20th century.
We started the composition by cutting samples from old records
of Swing - Jazz and some traditional music.
Then we added our own beats and bass-lines using a large range
of musical styles such as
(Nu Jazz - Breaks - Dub - Broken Beat) & (Swing - Tango - Waltz).
Smokey Bandits have made a remix for Chris Joss - I Want Freedom
and got it released on ESL music.
We are currently looking for a label to release our debut album.
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Our 1st album is dedicated in the memory of "Ioannis Fotiadis" R.I.P
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A few words about our friends musicians:We have to start with somebody, and this is George Bogkias, our
main trumpet player. From classic Jazz to Balkan & Mexican,
George's trumpet is always blowing the right hook.
Pasqual Karvuniaris is actually the student of Mr. Bogkias.
He is a new trumpet player from the North of Greece who has
the amazing ability to make his trumpet sound like a clarinet!
Responsible for the Balkan accent on trumpets,played straight
from the heart,really closed to the authentic roots sound.
Nick Tourbis aka founder & drummer of Nasa Funk is our main
percussionist who has added all that Afro & Brazilian
vibe with his congas to the rhythm section.
Nick plays the Cajon like a Catalonian but when he goes to
the bongos, then he creates a unique middle east feeling.
Kostas Kopanaris has also added some Latin rhythms to the combo!
Mike Vrettas is a super talented composer, musician and violin player
from Thessaloniki - Greece.It was a piece of cake for him to tune
his violin into our sound.From Smyrna to Buenos Aires, Mike has
filled the instrumentals with the perfect lead!
Yiannis Marinos is the man with the trombone! Classic, Jazz, Experimental
and Reggae flavors from the best trombone player of North Greece
and probably the only one with who has this unique kind of formula!
Michael Weisberger is a New York saxophone player with a really
big sound and a really old horn. Came across our studio for a few hours
only and blessed us with the original New York afro funk sound.
Herfried Knapp is a Viennese upright bass player that worked
with the 'Bandits' through the internet.
Herfried has deliver some very hot & funky bass lines,
all recorded in his studio in Vienna.
Akis Hatzisakoulas is a jazz musician & composer who has played
guitar & flute. Funky & oriental flutes followed
by Jazz & Evergreen guitars and all that from the same person!
Thanasis Dzingovic is the guitar player with the jaguar sound!
Influenced by western music & surf he has been able to bring back
that original sound!
He is a member of the Stereo Vibe studio crew,where we did the
recordings of VIbraphone,Klavi & Rhodes.
Orestes Benekas is a keyboards player & a sound engineer.
Also member of Stereo Vibe studio, he recorded for us his
funky reggae analog keys!
Dimitris Aggelakis is a vibraphone player.
Mostly influenced from acid jazz, Dimitris has produced a unique
atmosphere with his incredible 'Smokey' sound!
Prodromos Kaltsidis is our accordionist.
His sound is influenced straight from the roots of Greek music .
Lifetime melodies full of strong emotions.
Manolis Delotis plays the Tzoura, a Greek folk string instrument.
Traditional sound which brings to mind
the classic feeling of our summertime holiday in Greece.
Jedi Scar Tissue has created an amazing space with her voice,
it is called yodeling, singing without spelling any words .
Orestes Pangkalos is our Sub -trombonist!!! An artist which we find
difficult to give a clear description for!
All musicians have given us all the rights to cut & edit their recording
sessions to finally produce the unique sound of Smokey Bandits.
