Alt Rock Vocalist Livan (INTERVIEW)

He is on his way to Pittsburgh to play a show. He is smoking cigarettes and telling me exactly how he feels about the music business. He does not hold back. If you haven’t heard of Livan yet, you need to check him out. He spent some time recently opening for Alice Cooper yet he is not metal nor alternative nor straight-ahead punk. He is all of these things and much, much more as proven on his last two CDs, Off The Grid and Happy Returns. Born in Greece to political parents,

Livan speaks with the mannerisms of someone who is extremely intelligent and super confident. Raised in London during the punk movement, he fell into drugs and prison but never lost his spirit. In this revealing interview, the musician known as Livan talks bluntly about his views of the current music scene and how Bruce Dickinson may very well be the smartest rocker in the business.

I’ve heard you had a really tough time when you were young and that it ultimately almost destroyed you. What happened?

How did you hear that? (laughs) Well, it depends on what you mean. Are you referring to the drugs and all that stuff?

Yeah, and your parents were politicians in Greece, and I just wanted to kind of know how all that affected you growing up. If you don’t want to talk about it, I totally understand.

No, I don’t have a problem with it at all. Life experiences are what make you as a person, isn’t it. And that includes what comes out of you as an artist. Music is something that comes out of the soul and the soul is manufactured by experiences. It has affected me quite a lot. A lot of my music is quite political and one of the most important values that I was taught as a kid from my father and my family was the most important thing in this world is freedom. And that freedom, not in the Braveheart sense, but freedom as in the freedom to be who you want to be and express yourself as you want to express yourself. That is a virtue and a privilege that we have that people forget.

When you are living in times of democracy, which is a great blessing, we tend to get a bit slacking and complacent and forget about the most important thing, you know what I mean. You sit there and think about problems, you got this, you got that, but you don’t really think, well, at least I’m free. So, yes, there is quite a lot of political influence but there is also a lot of other influence. These were the punk days and it was quite rock & roll for a moment but then it got quite ugly. I lived in the streets for a long time. But it’s what grinds one’s character. It’s far from it but that kind of stuff is not what I write about. I try to not be self-indulgent in my writing, if that covers your question.

Did you grow up in Greece?
I grew up for a certain bit but then I moved to London at the age of twelve.

How did you like London compared to Greece?

London is where the heart of the musical movement I was into; it was bursting at the time so it was a great place for me to be. I loved London, I still do.

So tell me how you got into music and how/why you chose this to be your life instead of something else.

Well, actually, I had been dabbling in bands since I was very young. My father did play the piano but I don’t think that was what lured me into it. The music in itself is an expression you create but you can do music in your back room and nobody knows about it. The question is, why did you go public with the music (laughs)

That’s a good way to phrase it

Yeah, yeah (laughs) well, I’ll tell you why, because any other musician that will tell you why otherwise is lying. The only reason anyone goes into music is because they’re seeking recognition. I don’t know if they want to admit that. You want to have your work recognized and you want your void filled by being accepted and finding identification through your fans. So in a strange sort of way, it’s part of the egomania that all artists carry. They do tend to disguise it with beautiful words but that is the truth (laughs)

Who did you listen to when you were younger? Who spoke to you?

Bowie, Pink Floyd, the Clash; my favorite band of all time, you probably wouldn’t have heard of them, The Alarm, but they were a very influential underground punk band in the UK, but I loved music in general, you know. I love a lot of American bands as well. I was a huge fan of the Allman Brothers for years. Music that is actually believable and that talks to the soul. I guess later on with the goth movement, The Mission, The Mercy, Bauhaus was another band I loved, to name a few.

You play several different musical instruments. Which one was the first that you learned how to play?

I started playing drums (laughs). I never really learned to play them properly and I don’t play any instrument very, very well. I play well enough to be able to perform live and to write my music. But I’m not a virtuoso guitarist or bass player by no means. I play piano, guitar and bass. That’s about it really.

Do you remember when you started writing songs?

The first song I wrote was a song called “Ride To Freedom”, which is actually in my first album. I wrote it about twenty years ago but I only released it about five years ago.

Is it easy for you to write?

It is not as easy as it used to be.

Why do you say that?

Because once you start getting into the industry and reach a certain level, and you’re sort of in the middle of the road where you’re not just starting out but you’re not quite at a stage where finances are rolling in and you’ve committed to doing this full time and you’ve got to feed your family, the passion and the creativity kind of gets lost because you don’t have time. You’ve got to book shows and promote them and no one is helping you and it’s a very, very tough business being a musician. So unless you reach a level where you kind of step over that middle of the road area and you actually go a little further on and you have the luxury of sitting back six months and writing a record, it’s very difficult and inspiration kind of leaves you and is replaced by stress.

I can only be honest on that one. I’m not going to lie to you, that’s the truth. It’s hard. You know every now and then it happens, a little moment comes in and you know, I’d love to be able to write more but I don’t have the time. You know, musicians have ended up not being musicians anymore because the music industry is almost completely destroyed. So musicians have become managers and promoters and bus drivers and roadies. We do everything now … It’s kind of become very difficult for us.

What would you say is your most personal song that you’ve written?

There is a song on the record before last that speaks to me called “When The Lights Go Down”.

Why is that one so special?

Because I’m sort of a romantic bitter man that likes to sort of (laughs). No, it’s because, I don’t know how old you are, Leslie, but when you move on in life you realize that people are not very selfless. When you’re up, you have people all around you. When you’re down, people just disappear and it hurts quite a lot. Realizing how lonely you are and how very few people actually care is what this song is actually about.

What was it like playing in a band in your early days in London?

It was really hard and it was awful but there was so much more excitement and so much more drive back then that you didn’t care. You just went around in a van and played to sort of a man and his dog and thought, ok, tomorrow is going to be a better day and you ate crepes and drank lager (laughs). And then occasionally you had a good night and you thought, dah-dah-dah. We’ve done quite well in Europe and we’ve got a certain following and are able to go out and play in front of quite a lot of people and our records do well. And now that I’ve decided to come to America and do it, there’s times where I have to sort of go back to that (laughs).

It’s quite difficult because it’s so very unpredictable. You might go and do a show one night, like we’re playing all over America and we’re getting sort of hundreds of people going on Facebook saying, “Come and play” and you go and book a show there and nobody shows up (laughs). So it’s difficult. We still get paid, that’s the good thing because obviously we’ve got to the level where we’re getting our guarantees but it’s embarrassing and hard. But if you want to be true to your music and not sell out, that’s what you’ve got to do.

Sometimes it’s not your fault as a musician. Sometimes the promoter for the venue just doesn’t promote the show.

The promoters do not promote but let me tell you one more thing. The other problem is the actual people. And I’m frank about that. And these are not people like our fans, it’s people in general, this is what the world is today. People will follow like sheep. They will go and fill up venues to watch your Lady Gaga or whatever other act that is out there that has been manufactured. But they won’t go and watch bands like myself and many other bands out there that are the real deal. They go out there, play a great performance with great musicians, put on a killer show and play good music. Rock & roll is dead, do you see what I am trying to say? It’s not alive anymore. But there are still people out there that still believe in it. It’s an emotional satisfaction. I know I sound bitter but that is the way I see things.

Some people aren’t as vocal about things as you are. They’re almost afraid to say, “I don’t like this” or “I support that”.
That’s because they think that by trying to do that they will get a better shot. And they won’t. So you might as well be yourself and if you get your shot, people will like you for what you are. You can’t con people. When you go out on that stage, people love you for what you are. It’s the only way for anyone to be successful with anything. Whether it’s music or anything, just do what you really want to do and you’ll do it well. That’s my motto, anyway.

Well, how has it been traveling around playing in front of Alice Cooper fans?

You know, it’s been really, really amazing. In fact, it’s really amazing playing in America because the fans in America are much more sincere. You know, I prefer them to the London/European fans a lot because the musical academia seems to be more advanced. They know more about music, they’re more respectful, they’re willing to give a new band that they haven’t seen a chance. So in that sense, it’s very, very optimistic and it’s been a lot of fun.

The other thing is that the average age of the Alice Cooper fanbase is sort of slightly older, which has it’s minuses but it also has it’s positive things because they have the ability to compare and to listen to it and to look at the show for what it is as opposed to whether it’s a trend or not. Do you see what I’m trying to say? Generally, it’s been really great, the shows have been going really well, we get them up in arms every single night which is amazing. But it’s not always the case. We did a big tour with Aerosmith and we didn’t have the same response. Now that we’re doing the Alice Cooper tour the response is really, really good. It’s a joy.

I try to encourage people to go see live music because it’s so much more alive than, as you say, the manufacturedness of a CD. The musicians are actually playing live in front of you and they work really hard to put on a great show.

And it’s not only that, we live in a world where the mass media is dominating our minds. You go out there and see all the reality shows and all the moral decay that we have succumbed to and people just go and follow and sit and watch. Where is the spontaneity, where is the rock & roll, where is people getting together and doing a show? We used to go out and play in front of the BBC and have thousands of people. We were able to make a change. It’s not a practical change, it’s an emotional one. People, at least for a few hours, got together and they thought, you know what, we mean something. And it’s just not there anymore, it really isn’t.

And that’s really depressing.

It is but you know what? We’ll just carry on doing it. And you never know.

What do you have coming up? Are you going to do another album soon?

I’ve been writing in the last few years and I’ve got loads and loads of songs and I’m kind of a little bit twisted up about where to go with this next album. I don’t know whether to go for a more musical album because our show is very fast-paced rock & roll, very heavy, very intense, theatrical show. But the stuff that I’ve been writing lately is quite different, a lot more intricate musically. So I’m not sure where to go with this. I’m battling with that right now (laughs). What I really wish is to finally find a little bit of time to sit back and actually make that record. There is a lot of good material but I’d like to have more. For every song that I put on a record, I have twenty that I don’t. So what comes out of about a hundred songs you get ten that I think are good enough.

Do you tend to do everything yourself? Cause you have a really good band with you. Are they involved at all in the recording process?

They haven’t been as involved as I would like them to be. That’s a good question, I want to do that record like that. I want to actually step back for six or twelve weeks with a band and write the record live as opposed to writing it and presenting it to the band and they come up with ideas to make the record sell. I want to actually write the record proper old-style. So it takes time. I’m not so sure a lot of people appreciate it but it fulfills my musical artistic need and that’s what I’d like to do. Whether I’ll be able to do it or not is another question.

What would you say is your all-time favorite album and what makes it so special to you?

One of the albums that I think is a genius album is a live album called Alchemy by the Dire Straits. I think it’s a genius album and I think the playing is just phenomenal, the songs are amazing and it’s the best live album, for me.

Where is Mark Knopfler, by the way? I haven’t heard anything from him in a while.

He’s in London. He’s done a lot of solo stuff. You know he’s become a huge collector, collects all sorts of amazing outboard gear. A record that was made in a big studio in London, a tribute to the Beatles and loads of bands and I had the pleasure of being one of them, were involved. And there was a tribute record that we used the actual original equipment that the Beatles used to record their stuff. The four-tracks, the guitars, it was all owned by Mark Knopfler and that’s where I actually met him. He’s a lovely fellow.

One of the questions that I usually ask when doing this is who was the first rock star that they ever met. It’s a fun question. So is there anybody that you have met in the music business that you have been impressed by and had so much respect for?

No (laughs). Not at all. In fact, it’s quite the opposite.

Really?

Well, actually, there is one. One that I’ve become very good friends with and that is Bruce Dickinson from Iron Maiden. I actually had a radio show when I was a kid and it was a quite popular show, rock show, and I was interviewing all of them and sometimes it’s much nicer not to meet those people because you lose completely the myth, it crumbles if you know what I mean. But with Bruce, it was very different. He was very down to earth, incredibly intelligent and well-educated, which is something I appreciate quite a lot, and most rock stars are NOT that. I ended up talking to him and spending a lot of time with him and he was incredible. So I guess that would be Bruce Dickinson.

I will say that I’ve heard that from several musicians who’ve met him.

Yes, Bruce is an amazing, amazing person, an amazing artist. Don’t get me wrong, like we were touring with Aerosmith. Steven Tyler was very nice to us but I didn’t really get to meet him. Another person that I met that I really like and I think is a really great guy – he’s actually a bass player and played for a big band – is Jeordie White, known as Twiggy Ramirez and plays with Marilyn Manson. He’s become a good friend and he’s a really great guy as well. Obviously, my biggest hero is, and you probably wouldn’t know him, but his name is Justin Sullivan. I think he’s the best songwriter in the world. He is a very dear friend and he’s the singer for New Model Army. They’re an English band, sort of the proper original punk English bands. Very, very political.

I’m curious, you said you had a radio show when you were a kid.

I had a radio show probably when I was about fifteen, like sort of pirate radio and then I got a really popular show in Greece, which was twelve to two in the afternoon. I got that because I knew music quite well and put on a good show, I guess. I don’t know (laughs). So I got to interview a lot of people cause every time anybody came to the country to do a show, they would come to the show.

Well, Livan, I thank you for taking the time to talk with me. I know you’re busy.

I’m not busy at all. I’m sitting on a bus in the middle of nowhere smoking cigarettes (laughs)

In next week’s column we are honored to have legendary drummer Kenny Aronoff

 

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