Interview with ACCELERATOR

The Band: Accelerator

Country: Greece

http://accelerator-band.com/

https://www.facebook.com/AcceleratorGreece/timeline/

Interview by Vpower

Accelerator is band from Greece that has released his first full-length album in 2015 under the name of "Accelerator". If you don’t know them this a good moment to start with it, high quality Heavy Metal seasoned with a little of Speed Metal, Power and even Hard Rock. A cocktail they prepare with especial care and a long experience in the Metal world. You will not regret to dedicate some time to listen to this guys, word of Vpower. 

Hello guys and thank you for this chance to talk to you. The ancient history of Accelerator takes us to a band called Deceiver, a cover band, right? What songs you used to play?

 Hey Alberto! Indeed, we started as Deceiver around the winter of 2007. We started by playing covers of our favorite bands like Judas Priest, Flotsam & Jetsam, Tokyo Blade... Anything that was fast-paced was good for us. The name change emerged around 2009.

But after some time you realized that have your own compositive talent and you made a step forward. When did you realize that you wanted to do something more than play other bands’ songs?

Our first songs were written within the first few months that we got together actually. The covers were there only to bond us as a band, and to have material for our live shows.

In 2013 Nicholas Adam, guitarist, took charge of the vocals, Is that the moment when you said, OK guys, we are serious now, and started writing songs as crazy?

 Nicholas never stopped writing songs. When Mike, the previous singer, decided to leave the band, we were forced to go into a hiatus as a performing act, but the rehearsals and meetings were still there, just less frequent.

For being previously a guitarist and not a vocalist, I’m qiute surprised with Nicholas Adam’s singing. Have you been training to improve your skills or it’s more a natural skill that you just discovered?

He was always doing the backing vocals and he always helped the previous vocalist with his techniques. Nicholas has a bit more than 15 years of classical training, it was never a matter of "can he sing"; it was a matter of "is the color of his voice likable enough".

 In 2010 you released a three songs demo. What is the link between tha recording and the your fabulous new album “Accelerator”?

 "Mirror of Madness" didn't make it to the album, we feel it needs a complete revamp, and maybe it will appear in the second album. "Higher Than the Sky" remained intact when it comes to the song's structure. From "Sirens" we kept like 1 or 2 riffs and used them to create "Accelerator", the self-titled track.

By the way, just happend to think about it, why the name of Accelerator? It has some especial meaning for you or it is more an acoustic question?

 That was an idea of Mike, the previous vocalist. At that time all our songs had parts that were really fast, so I guess that played an important role.

  

Well, let’s analyse your brand new album a little. It’s basically a 80s Heavy Metal album, however, we still can find Power, Speed and even some Hard Rock rythms.  

 Totally agree Alberto. 80s Heavy Metal is what we were going for. The Power Metal factor is a remnant of our demo-era style, Mike's voice was really matching for these types of songs. On the other hand, Speed Metal and Hard Rock will always be a part of our music.

 Great riffs and solos... Do you compose the songs around a riff? How is the process?

 Usually riffs are the foundation, yes. It's the most natural way to write when your guitarist is the composer.

 What are the lyrics about?

Quest for inner peace, passion, love, war, nostalgia.

Greeks all the way, for sure. By the way, it seems you have left your past as a cover band behind, as you didn’t include any cover song in the album

 There were thoughts about it, we wanted to cover a non-metal song. Unfortunately there was not enough recording time. There might be a single release on the internet soon, who knows!

You have released “Accelerator” with the label 91-77 Distribution. I don’t know what they think, but if I was the manager of that company I would be dancing on the desk for signing a so promising band as Accelerator, apart of giving an extra salary to the employee that fished you. How did it happen and how do you feel about it?

 One of the guys at 91-77 is a friend of Nicholas and Tasos, he knew the band since before the demo. When he found out that we're about to release a full-length, he set up a meeting with the label and we just made it happen. They take good care of us.

Good for everybody. Well, you are from Greece. When I traveled to some big festival un Europe (KIT; Bang Your Head, etc), the Greek guys used to tell me that if you don’t play Epic Metal in Greece then you are less than nothing. How true is that?

 Haha, I'm not entirely sure if that's true. Right now there's a huge influx of Thrash Metal in Greece, bands like Exarsis, Chronosphere and Bio-Cancer are touring all over the world; not to forget the amazing Suicidal Angels, I doubt there is any thrasher that hasn't heard of them, they're already a classic band.

Hmm very interesting info you give us about other Greek bands to check out. Nicholas Adam (guitar, vocals) and George Pagonakis (drums) are founding members of the band, since 2007. Did you expect to reach this far back at that time?

  

 We did, but we also expected everything to happen a bit earlier in time. The member changes unfortunately didn't help.

Imagine Gus G. wanna enter the band, but you must play just what he likes. You would agree?

 And be forever known as "Gus G.'s band"? Nope!

Would he really want to join our band anyway? We're kind of raw and unpolished.

Hahaha I suppose, as good Greeks, that you like basketball. Well, without harshness, what do you think of Pau Gasol? (Spain defeated Greece in the quarter finals of the recently ended European championship)

Who's that, the new guitarist for WarCry?

Jokes aside, no one in the band really follows sports. They stopped serving their real purpose (competition instead of rivalry) a long time ago.

Well, but you know WarCry... I don’t know what is worse hahaha. Jokes aside, too, what are the bands that have influenced you more?

 I'm sure you can hear a lot of Judas Priest, Savage Grace, Exciter and anything NWOBHM in our songs.

 Do you have touring plans inside or outside Greece?

 If a good opportunity arises, definitely!

 Well, thanks a lot, guys, and congratulations for your awesome work, I look forward to see you in a live show some day.  

Thanks for the interest Alberto! Just wanna remind everyone that they can listen to our songs for free over at Bandcamp, it's a good way to get to know the band. Cheers!