Interview with Kyriakos \u201cCharlie\u201d Tsiolis
\nBy Allyson Kingsley, Music Journalist
\nBoston Rock Radio<\/p>\n
Chicago based Progressive Thrash Metal Band AFTERMATH are back with new material and have released the official lyric video for “Smash Reset Control,” off of their upcoming LP, There is Something Wrong.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n BRR: Hi guys, this is Allyson, Music Journalist for Boston Rock Radio. First I would like to start with introductions of the band members and what instrument you play.<\/p>\n KT: Allyson, thanks for the interview.<\/p>\n Kyriakos \u201cCharlie\u201d Tsiolis \u2013 vocals BRR: What is the history of Aftermath<\/span>\u00a0and who are your influences?<\/span><\/p>\n KT: Where do I begin? It was a cold rainy Halloween night in 1985 in Ray\u2019s basement where Aftermath was formed. \u00a0We all went to high school together. Ray was a few years younger than us, but I had jammed with him and some other guys for fun. \u00a0When we decided to get together that night we wanted to become the fastest band in the world. \u00a0We all need goals right? \u00a0Steve was actually a guitar teacher; I was his most impatient student. \u00a0We found Adam (no last name needed) and brought him in to play bass. \u00a0We all had different influences at that time, but Ray and I were the true metal heads. \u00a0Steve was influenced by rock bands more than metal at that time. \u00a0Adam was a punk rocker \u2013 skinhead and suspenders \u2013 he had the whole look. \u00a0We brought those influences into our early songwriting and became known as a crossover thrash band, we were one of the first to play that style of music. \u00a0By 1987, we had recorded a demo tape called Killing the Future and it went on to become really loved in the thrash metal underground. \u00a0Metal Forces magazine (the bible at that time) loved that demo so much that Bernard Doe, the Editor picked two songs from it to be included on the Compilation record called Scream Your Brains Out. \u00a0They picked only 5 bands from the entire planet, so that was a huge honor. \u00a0We were offered record deals from a lot of indie metal labels at that time and we rejected all of them. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n We fired Adam and added John Lovette on bass even though he wasn\u2019t a bass player. He pretended to be to join the band. Eventually, he came clean and he became our second guitar player and we started our search for a bass player again. \u00a0We wanted to slow things down despite the band\u2019s fans love of our speed, \u00a0So we wrote a second demo that was slow, complex, progressive and technical. \u00a0Words that Echo Fear was released as a demo in 1988 and got us more label offers. \u00a0We pissed off some of our old-school fans, but got a ton of new fans that loved the technical\/progress thrash we were playing. \u00a0We were at the forefront of that genre just like we were with crossover. \u00a0We finally signed a deal with Big Chief Records, a label that had major label distribution. \u00a0We went in to the studio to record our debut record Eyes of Tomorrow. \u00a0The label was owned by a rich kid whose dad was funding his dream. Well the father decided to cut the cord during the recording of our record. We were left with a studio bill that took four years to pay off. \u00a0The studio refused to release the masters until the entire bill was paid. \u00a0This really screwed us. \u00a0Instead of releasing the record in 1990, we didn\u2019t release it until 1994. \u00a0Metal was dead in 1994. \u00a0Making things worse, we released it on our own imprint Zoid Recordings with distribution by a company called Feedback. \u00a0Feedback filed for bankruptcy during the release. \u00a0I can\u2019t make this stuff up. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In 1996, we are working on new material, when I got a call from Peter Paterno the huge entertainment attorney that at one time was the boss at Hollywood Records. He called and wanted to license our trademark for a new small R&B label his client was forming, he said on the call. \u00a0I have a good bullshit meter, that story smelled. \u00a0My brother was a law student and our manager. \u00a0We knew who Paterno was, he represented Metallica and Guns n Roses – he had no small clients. \u00a0We eventually find out that his \u201csmall\u201d client was Dr. Dre and the label was Aftermath Entertainment, Dre\u2019s new label after he left Death Row. \u00a0We ended up suing them for trademark infringement. \u00a0Despite our federal trademark, we were not successful in getting an injunction. So why bother getting a trademark if isn\u2019t going to protect you right? \u00a0We couldn\u2019t afford a full blown trial either. So we could coexist said the judge. \u00a0We ended up getting a deal on Interscope as Aftermath. We started writing some material that didn\u2019t sound like Aftermath and we decided to change our name to Mother God Moviestar. We released our self-titled record in 1998. \u00a0We toured and called it a day. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Through the years labels from China, Greece, Italy and the USA have reissued our debut Eyes of Tomorrow and our Killing the Future demo. \u00a0Those reissues kept the band name alive while we were gone. In 2012, we released a box-set called 25 Years of Chaos on Area Death, a Chinese label. In 2015, we were invited to play Headbanger\u2019s Open Air in Hamburg, Germany. My brother convinced me to book the gig and then try and get the guys to do it. \u00a0We did and they surprised me and said they were in. \u00a0We asked Adam to come back to form the original line up. \u00a0He looked exactly the same. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It didn\u2019t workout. We found another bass player (the real life Spinal Tap). While rehearsing for the gig we decided to write a new track for the fest. \u00a0We were so blown away by it and we decided to write an entire record of new material. \u00a0And here we are today about to release that album.<\/span><\/p>\n BRR: How would you describe your music and what do you wish to accomplish with your music.<\/span><\/p>\n KT: The new record is a mixture of our early days and later period. \u00a0We mixed crossover thrash and progressive thrash to create something original. \u00a0It will be interesting to hear the response from the two different camps. \u00a0We just want as many people to hear it as possible.<\/span><\/p>\n BRR: Your video for \u201cSmash Reset Control\u201d reminds me a bit of the anarchist atmosphere of old school punk. In the video I noticed it was mostly done in red and I wondered why. Also it covered scene clips from a lot of sociopolitical imagery, not only from the US but also worldwide. Can you get into more detail?<\/span><\/p>\n KT: \u201cSmash Reset Control\u201d could have easily been on our Killing the Future demo and that\u2019s why we released it in advance of the record. \u00a0We wanted to go back to the beginning and bring that attitude and energy back on this record. \u00a0Specifically, on this track I felt we needed to have that punk\/hardcore vibe. \u00a0Listen to the lyrics it definitely needed to be a crossover track. \u00a0The video is edited by Josh Vargas. \u00a0Lyric videos can go one of two ways, you can either just have one image and the lyrics or you can try to make it visually more stimulating. \u00a0We decided to go with the latter. The red is used to make the entire video come across as a theme. \u00a0If it changed colors on different frames, we felt it wouldn\u2019t look cohesive. \u00a0It would be just a bunch of images and video clips. We used red because it\u2019s trying to show how urgent the message is. The lyrics and video and the concept on the entire record are about how screwed up things are and to get people to look behind the puppets in office – look to those with the real power. It is code red and I think the color in the video helps get that point across.<\/span><\/p>\n BRR: Can you give us a synopsis or a description of your forthcoming album There is Something Wrong<\/span>?<\/span><\/p>\n KT: As I started to say the record is an 11 song concept album. \u00a0Its point or message is to examine everything you know. \u00a0Everything you have been taught \u2013 question it. \u00a0Things aren\u2019t as they seem. \u00a0I have spent years reading and researching the topics I wrote about on the record. \u00a0You are brought up to believe the government, programmed to trust what you are taught in school without any real critical thought. It all started for me years ago when I questioned things as a kid. When I got older I continued to wonder why this is or that are this way and not that way. What really seemed strange to me was why has there never been a period of peace on earth? There has never been a period without war. Let that sink in. We kill each other – why do we do it was what got me into looking into all of it. \u00a0The record is meant to educate people to think outside the system\u2019s teachings. Stop wasting your time arguing about Trump and start waking up to the fact he is the latest actor playing president. \u00a0The real power isn\u2019t elected; they select the actor to play out their agenda. Politicians are selected not elected. The record talks about all of it from the FED to the Vatican to the CIA, FBI and IRS (THE ALPHABET SOUP) and their mission to control the masses. \u00a0It is simple: Know Your Enemy is an overriding theme. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n BRR: Finally, I am always curious to know about the metal scene in other areas of the US. How would you describe the Chicago metal scene? What would you change about it?<\/span><\/p>\n KT: Chicago is an amazing city for music. \u00a0The metal scene when we came out was very diverse, no band sounded like any other band. \u00a0There have always been metal clubs or places to play in Chicago and that\u2019s still true. \u00a0I haven\u2019t been following the younger metal bands as much as I would like to, but there are a ton of them. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n BRR: Boston Rock Radio thanks you for your time.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Interview with Kyriakos \u201cCharlie\u201d Tsiolis By Allyson Kingsley, Music Journalist Boston Rock Radio Chicago based Progressive Thrash Metal Band AFTERMATH are back with new material and have released the official lyric video for “Smash Reset Control,” off of their upcoming LP, There is Something Wrong.\u00a0 BRR: Hi guys, this is Allyson, Music Journalist for Boston […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-93","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aftermathchicago.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aftermathchicago.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aftermathchicago.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aftermathchicago.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aftermathchicago.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/aftermathchicago.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aftermathchicago.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aftermathchicago.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aftermathchicago.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nStave Sacco \u2013 Guitar
\nRay Schmidt \u2013 Drums
\nGeorge Lagis – Bass<\/p>\n