Interview with Echidna guitarist Nikos Parastatidis

Echidna is an extreme metal band from Greece that creates a modern mix of thrash, death and progressive metal. They take their name from Greek mythology where Echidna was a ferocious half woman, half snake that brought fear and trepidation to all she came in contact with. She has also been called the “Mother of All Monsters” because apparently many of the gods in Greek mythology were nurtured by her. I think the name fits the band quite well because at the end of the day these guys dish out an unbelievably ferocious assault. I recently was able to chat with guitarist Nikos Parastatidis about the band and their new disc, Manifests of Human Existence. Here’s how the conversation went.

Your album Manifests Of Human Existence has been out for a little while now. When you listen back to it now are you still satisfied with it, or are there things you wish you had done differently?
Nikos: Producing an entire album is a long and complicated process. You keep in mind how you imagine the result to be, but no matter how hard you try, some details always turn out to be different. Sure there are things we would like to have done differently but, in general, we’re satisfied with the result because it gives the listener the overall feeling we initially intended for.

Have you begun writing for a new release yet?
Nikos: Yes, songwriting is under way and the material is slowly starting to form into songs. It’s going to be some time, though, before we’re going to be able to enter a recording studio.

What is the writing process like? Do you all write together?
Nikos: Usually, when one of us comes up with an idea – that being a riff, a rhythmic pattern, a melody etc. – he writes it down and sends it to the rest. The rest look into it and try to build it up with more ideas. So, some basic work is done at home by developing “skeletons” of songs. This skeleton comes to life when we go into the studio rehearsing and enriching it as a composition.

When you write do you ever think about the live performance?
Nikos: As already mentioned, the compositions take flesh and blood inside the studio, which means that they are finalized by repeated performances. So, normally, this results in them being already suitable for live shows. That goes for almost all of our compositions except maybe the first and third part of “Tractatus Cerebri” which were written mostly as studio pieces, not live performance pieces.

Where do you draw your inspiration from?
Nikos: We draw our inspiration from the world around us. What we see, what we hear, what we feel in our everyday lives gives ample food for thought and thus ample material for songwriting. From an either social, political or personal perspective, life provides with all the feedback one needs to express one’s sentiments and worries through music.

Many of your songs are so hard and intense that I am sure they translate well into a live setting taking on a whole new life in front of a live audience. How does it make you feel when the emotion and power that you envisioned in the recording studio, comes to life while playing in front of a crowd?
Nikos: Recording songs in a studio is a fun and creative process. You put your imagination to work, you achieve your most accurate performances and you slowly build up something that you actually own and feel like you own it. It is a thrilling experience. However, there’s nothing more emotionally intense than discharging all of your energy on a live show. Not only you get the thrill of performing something you created, but you also get the thrill of performing it in its rawest form, the way it sounded when you first rehearsed it. This is exciting and fulfilling in its own special way.

Check out the song: “Political Sickness in D# Hijaz Kar”

Who are your biggest influences on your playing?
Nikos: Well, there are definitely a lot of bands and artists that have influenced us as a group, because they changed our individual ways of thinking music. Our biggest influences would be bands like Death, Cynic, Atheist and Slayer. But we have also come to love groups such as Meshuggah and Textures.

What has been the most memorable moment of your career so far?
Nikos: We have had plenty of great experiences all the way from Echidna’s birth to the present. If we had to pick one, it would most probably be the live show supporting Cynic in Athens on July 2007. It is a special day, the day when you get to perform live next to one of the bands you have been admiring for years. The people were warm, the spirits were high and it was an amazing night.

What kind of touring plans do you have for 2012?
Nikos: To be honest we don’t have touring plans for 2012. Not yet at least. However, we are playing a live show at Kingston Rock City in Limassol, Cyprus, shortly before we welcome the year 2012, on the 26th of December that is.

What’s next for Echidna?
Nikos: Well, our primary goal is to continue working on our second album, not meaning that we will be completely absent from the live scene. Other than that we will just see what life brings.

Check out the song: “In Fathomless Depths”