TONN INTERVIEWS: MISFORTUNES
Image © Ioakim Vasileiadis
TONN founder, Mary McIntyre, talks to the man behind Misfortunes, Ioakim Vasileiadis, ahead of the release of his second album on TONN, the fantastic ‘The Isle Of Tomorrow’.
Mary: Was there a defining moment that you recognise as the starting point of Misfortunes or did it come about as a gradual development of your involvement in music?
Ioakim: I started being passionate about music at the age of 16. Since then I have always been involved in playing music with friends. From that point on, I have been a member of a few bands, playing electric guitar, bass and keyboards and later on synthesizers and drum machines.
When I bought my first synthesizer, I asked a friend of mine, Markos-Valsamis, whose writing I admired, to give me lyrics for a song. That was in 2014 and the song was Κατάληξη. When I wrote the song, I realised I could make music I really liked all by myself, so I would say that was the starting point.
Mary: What do you consider to be your most formative musical influences that have helped shape the Misfortunes’ sound?
Ioakim: The sound of Misfortunes will perhaps reflect influences from a mixture of many bands I love. These would no doubt be bands from the dark wave, post punk, synth pop scene from the 80s until probably early 00s.
Even though the similarities may not be too obvious, I feel I have been very influenced by the sound and song writing of early Clan of Xymox, Depeche mode, VNV Nation, Front 242 to name a few.
Mary: Do you have a particular process that you always adhere to when it comes to writing your music?
I actually don’t really enjoy writing lyrics. That doesn’t come effortlessly. It’s quite a struggle for me, so I’m usually the lyricist of just 1 or 2 songs in every release of mine.
Image © Ioakim Vasileiadis
I’m very fortunate that some of the people I am closest to in life are not only very skilled at writing, but also very much interested in being part of the project. In a way, I consider them Misfortunes members. On my new album, ‘The Isle Of Tomorrow’, I collaborated with four lyricists, some writing in Greek and others in English. In some cases, I may have an idea of a song title, like ‘Blood Disco’ for example, which I thought makes a great song title. So, I describe how I imagine the atmosphere of the song, and one of my lyricist friends writes the lyrics.
At other times it may be a broad idea I have for a subject and after discussions and alterations, we make it into a song. It’s a creative and collaborative process, which I really enjoy.
Mary: When it comes to composing and recording, how do you normally work? What is your set-up?
Ioakim: Everything I record, I do in my home studio. Writing a song involves many hours of improvisation, until I feel I have an idea worth exploring more. I use mostly hardware for writing the songs and then record them with a digital audio workstation.
I recently had a conversation with another synthesizer enthusiast. We started talking about the equipment we use. He was so focussed on telling me about all the synths he has and how proud he is of them. At some point, I realised that this conversation may never lead to the important part, which is, what do we actually create with them. And it didn’t. We never said anything about the music we make, which was quite strange, I think.
I think that this sometimes happens with people who are into synthesizers. This fascination with the hardware is sometimes a little over the top. I mean, I also believe that playing music with hardware is so much more fun that doing it with software, but the important part is the song writing intent that you have. No hardware can make great songs by itself.
So, at the end of the day, it’s not important for me what equipment someone uses, but the actual outcome of this process, which is the song. And a good song may in fact be made solely from the use of VSTs. I really don’t get why the listener should care about the equipment someone uses to write his/her songs.
Mary: Turning to the new album, ‘The Isle Of Tomorrow’, could you tell us something about the significance of the title?
Ioakim: It refers to the Diomede Islands, between Siberia and Alaska, separated by the International Date Line.
Because of that, Big Diomede, the Isle of Tomorrow, is almost a day ahead of Little Diomede, the yesterday Isle. Inspired by this, I collaborated with Constantinos, who wrote some wonderful lyrics for the song ‘Diomede Islands’. It’s from these lyrics and song that the album took its name.
Mary: Is there one particular track on this new album that is a favourite or has special significance for you?
Ioakim: I would have to say that 'Είμαι εσύ' (‘I am you’), has become a favourite of mine. When I initially considered the lyrics, I thought they were very good, but maybe difficult for me to turn into a song.
I reluctantly tried improvising with them and came up with a basic melody, which I thought would be possible to experiment with.
To my surprise, the bassline of the song led me to write some melodies, which altogether constitute possibly the best song I have ever written
Mary: When I first came across Misfortunes, I was very struck by the imposing synthlines, which create a dramatic quality. The track, ‘Mercury' from the new album, is a perfect example of this. Does that come about naturally as part of your process, or is that something that you consciously work on constructing when you are composing?
Ioakim: I also consider that my music's strongest part is probably the synthlines you mention. So, in a way, subconsciously I almost always put them in my songs. Luckily for me it comes very naturally when composing a song and usually it's the synthlines that help me judge whether a song is good or not.
Mary: 2020 has been an incredibly challenging year, for so many reasons. What are your plans and aims for Misfortunes going forward into 2021?
Ioakim: Misfortunes is primarily a studio project, so the pandemic did not have the impact on me as it did for touring artists who were prevented from playing live. I always had in mind though that at some point, I would try to present my songs live with more band members, but life priorities kept this back until now.
Practicing the songs with other people would require too much time that I don't have at the moment, so I decided to give it a go by myself. I prepared an hour set to play live in 2020 but that didn't happen for obvious reasons.
Maybe when this is all over, I will try it. Writing new material is the main plan for me for the rest of the year and 2021.
‘The Isle Of Tomorrow’ is released on TONN Recordings on the 24th September, 2020, available via Bandcamp or direct on the TONN Recordings website.
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