FOFI ROUSSOS is the
Olympian voice of the Greek rock band 4BITTEN who have just completed a marathon run of shows
around Britain and Europe to promote their latest album DELIRIUM.
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Hi Fofi - please introduce the bandmembers to us, tell us who does what, when you
first got together etc, and a bit of background about you all.
4Bitten is Fofi on vocals, George on guitar, Angelo on
drums, and Akis on bass. We got together in December of 2002. George and Akis
have been friends since grade school and all through high school and college,
they were in various bands together. In early 2002 when I met the two of them,
they were in a cover band and were looking for a female voice... so I auditioned.
We hit it off right away and realized that we had similar influences and dreams
so we decided to put our own band together. Akis brought Angelo in and we got
together in a studio to jam. The rest is history I guess.
You've toured with some great
bands including UFO, MSG, Dan Reed etc., and I've seen some very enthusiatic
comments on your Facebook page during the recent UFO tour. How was the tour for
you?
It was without a doubt the highlight of our career so far!
All of our experiences with all the other bands we've been fortunate enough to
play with have been amazing! With Dan Reed for example, we still keep in touch
from time to time. But our tour with UFO was the first really extensive tour that
we've done, the crowds were bigger, we played in more countries, and in bigger
venues, etc. And what made this tour all the more special for us was UFO the
band, the crew, and the UFO fans... everyone treated us really nicely, we got to
hang out with UFO a bit, we got to drink a few beers with the technicians, and
just the whole atmosphere was really friendly and positive. George was taken (as
we all were) every night by Vinnie Moore's performance because he is a guitar
player that George really looks up to, and he turned out to be just as amazing as
a person. I could go on and on really... there aren't enough words to describe
what a great tour it was!!!! And the UFO fans were very enthusiastic every
night!!
I love the artwork on the latest
album. It really shouts 'Delirium!' (and looks a lot like your drummer). Who is
responsible for the artwork?
The artwork on Delirium is by the same artist as the first
CD 'No More Sins'.
He is a Greek artist who goes by the name of Zila. We had a very good
collaboration for the first CD so when we were ready for the second, we began
checking out some of his new work and we all agreed on the same cover!! And Zila
too, once he heard the title agreed that the one we chose was 'the one'... and
no, it's not Angelo...
The album has had fantastic reviews, mainly down to the strength of the songs and
your amazingly powerful voice. How do you go about writing the songs?
There's not really a specific recipe for how we write the
songs, although the majority of the songs were written in similar ways
(unintentionally)... George usually comes into the studio with a riff and a
general idea of how he would like a song to go... the boys start jamming on the
riffs and ideas, each bringing different things into it, and usually changing it
totally along the way. Since I'm always around during this creative process, I
will usually get inspired and start humming a melody or a phrase that fits and
then I build on that... I think since it's very much a group effort how we put it
all together, everyone's influences and character really come out and that's
probably why the songs are so 'strong'.
With all the recent problems with the
economy in Greece, in what ways has that affected the music scene over
there?
When things are difficult, people in general tend to find
release in music and Greece is really no different. Greek people and the Greek
culture have a very strong tradition in their music, but more and more are
finding it easier to express themselves through rock music. There are lots of
great musicians, great bands, but not enough places to play... but we are
definitely seeing MORE bands. The negative side to this though, is that pubs and
venues still tend to have high prices considering the situation, and the majority
of the time people don't come out to see a band because of the ticket prices. For
example, because we have SOOO many bands, there are gigs EVERY night. A few years
ago, people would have gone out every night and seen maybe 2 or 3 gigs a week.
Now, if they know there's a gig (even local) that they want to see, they won't go
to any other concerts to save up money for a particular event. And this also goes
for bigger names coming from other countries (US, UK, etc). Promoters are very
hesitant to bring bands because they aren't sure if they're going to have sales.
We've also seen promoters and artists cancel concerts due to low pre-sales, and a
lot of times in my opinion, these events wrongly get canceled because people wait
to the day of a concert to make sure they have money and they prefer to buy their
tickets at the door. Hopefully this situation won't go on much
longer...
What's been the best gig you've ever played, and what made it so?
I'm not trying to be diplomatic but I honestly cannot pick
ONE gig that really stands out! Without any doubt though, for me at least, the
best gigs we've played so far were on the UFO tour...
Which are your top 5 bands to listen to, and what's the best gig you've ever
been to, and why?
I'm a real classic rock girl, especially 80's rock... I
listen to a lot of Thunder, Bon Jovi, Whitesnake and Heart (one of those bands
are CONSTANTLY playing)... and I also listen to a lot of Alterbridge. The best
gig I've been to... oooooo that's tough... I've been to MANY Bon Jovi gigs (I
cried every time), Whitesnake, Thunder, Heart - the list of the bands that I've
seen in my life are really endless but I think the one concert that really made
its mark on me was Def Leppard in around 1988, when they did the 'Hysteria' tour.
I was just a baby so to speak then, and it was one of my first concerts, but it
was a dream of mine to see them live since I had been 8 years old. Anyway, I had
a front row seat, side stage and with the strum of the very first chord something
changed inside me and after about the first 30 minutes, I remember deciding that
I wanted to make people feel with my music what Def Leppard made me feel that
night - they changed me forever.
Any special highlights from the road?
Lowlights? Embarrassing and/or Spinal Tap moments?
Lots of highlights, so many in fact, that if there were
any lowlights they were quickly forgotten! Spinal Tap moments... hahahaha, just
about EVERY night on the UFO tour was a near Spinal Tap moment. But the one that
I will NEVER forget, is when we were on our way from Caen in France to Madrid in
Spain and our GPS lost its signal and we ended up on some mountain with only a
few hours left before we were supposed to be on stage!!!! We all thought that it
was over for us! We got to Madrid about half an hour before doors were scheduled
to open and when we got to what we thought was the venue, there was no sign of
anyone about! We rang a doorbell and a guy came down only to tell us that the
venue had been changed! When he saw the absolute panic in our faces he tried to
give us directions to the new venue (in Spanish, which NONE of us can speak) and
to reassure us that it was very nearby! We reached the correct venue 15 minutes
before doors were due to open!
The highlight of that for me was that Eric, UFO's guitar tech, soundchecked my
mic so that I could take a breath and get ready to go on stage, and the crew
helped the boys set up and get ready!
I can laugh about it now but it took me a few days to get over the
shock!
What's coming up in the future?
On June 3rd we are supporting Uli Jon Roth in Patras. We
are very excited about this gig - especially George because Uli Jon Roth has
influenced him a great deal. The first three Scorpions albums with UJR are
historical albums, and probably the best Scorpions albums. In fact, on this
particular show he'll be playing songs from those Scorpions albums so it's sure
to be a great night!
We also hope to do some more touring before the end of the year and some
festivals. The boys have had lots of inspiration and they've started working on
new material. We'll keep everyone posted!
© Get Ready To Roll - 21st May
2013
