The first contact with Themis Andreadis took place during the hottest week of July, with the thermometer reaching record temperatures for Greece. A question was eating at me, watching the events unfold around me, and I wanted to talk to him: Themis Andreadis, whose songs - full of humor and innuendo - have said a lot in the years that have passed. And they still say, as people know them, remember them and sing them. Today.
The reason for our discussion is a question I have: How does a man who has spoken and sung with such humor see the current situation? Does humor stand? Or does it have limits?
The situations - from when I remember myself until today - are very little different.
What do we mean by this now? Because the years then were difficult in terms of tensions, action-reaction, etc.
I grew up in post-military Greece, in Kallithea of Athens, in a refugee town, with Pontius people and others, who came from outside and had a - I would say - leftist orientation. It's always been that way. Of course, there was a central authority completely opposite, which is why many tensions were created...
… disagreements…
Yes, and many unpleasant events that I would not like to mention. As a child, I remember, the parastatal murdering people, e.g. Grigoris Lambrakis - I was a child then. And in general, the sovereign state, to pursue the opposite point of view. An outlawed KKE, and all that. But, there was always the mood - as far as I'm concerned - to escape from the cruelty of the time, and to always give a satirical tone to my perception of things. I remember listening to songs on the radio - the only medium we had then: "A friend came tonight from the old days"... and I said "... loaded with thousands of proclamations".... I had a clear sense of humor, and I really liked that. This later developed, from the moment I began to sing, leaving the guitar out of my hands, standing on the Stage, when I did not know what to do with my arms and legs, and a strong humorous element began to come out of me - and on the other, a disposition to almost make fun of myself. I've always liked that.
I had a discussion recently about the “discography”…
No longer exists. Digital only. I have a youtube channel. There are 81 different platforms worldwide. I want to spend a lot of time explaining how this plan works and you probably won't understand, because I haven't either. I have 220 songs and a big discography, 27 big records, and the youtube videos are made by me, they are my songs... And I don't get a cent. Behind all the platforms are the companies – the money all goes to the companies. And you will ask me "how do musicians live"? We make records and even if they are successful, a percentage of the live ones. From the time when digital platforms started, with youtube first, companies took care and made these measures.
What do you have to say about the great movement of artists in Hollywood, breaking out with strikes of screenwriters and actors for their rights?
For this to happen in America, in the den of capitalism and worthlessness, means something. Here, in order to exist again, you yourself must protect yourself, or if you want someone else to protect you, you will have to pay him a lot.
Recently speaking with D. Kazantzis, manager of music groups, I heard the following: "you are wrong to say that Greece is a small music market - it is non-existent". And we are like a small village arguing with each other.
It was always like this. For me, it's been a boomerang for companies to go digital. We had good jobs. Until - and even in the 90's - everything was settled. And spiritual creation and good works, all finished. And today we got to talking about trappers, about traps - the most miserable thing in the world... To return to what we were saying, I see things today with humor, or rather comically tragic. Besides, I was also the first teacher of the genre.
I have always had a question: satire has always been a strong genre, both in theater and in music. The Greeks always had a definite tendency towards satire. The last sample was the expression of the mayor who declared that by digging under Plato's Academy he would find his lost State, and this immediately became satire all over the internet. The point is, is satire complacent or does it push for action?
It always has been and always will be. As an audience, for me personally, when I hear someone else satirizing, it will seem strange to you, but it makes me sad. That is - something I remember - Thanasis Vengos when I saw him, I felt a deep sadness. On the other hand, when I do satire... I'll tell you, I grew up in an era where I watched comedians in summer theaters and reviews... When they didn't have a good number, catchy, and they saw that - what did they do? They caught someone from below, mysterious, strange, and spoiled him. That made me angry. They still do this.
Yes, they still do this today.
They do it after Harry Clynn, yes, and some others of lesser scope, I don't want to say. I do not like. I remember when I started, in a company they said about me: "what is it that this young man does that is so successful"? And it was Dionysis Savvopoulos and he said "he is successful, because the one who listens to him thinks that he is making fun of the person next to him". I mean, I was taking myself, smearing him. I was tarnishing my image.
You were messing around.
I was messing around. I really liked that, and I still do that today. For example, today my latest songs that are released these days are a social and political satire - not partisan - and it's something I haven't done before. Then I had lighter songs, although I had songs "dictatorships are not raised by the people", "I'm going to the jungle with Tarzan", "good lady-Maria, what do you say about all this, they took our money" things like that. Now I feel this need, that is, I have made with an excellent friend of mine, Aggelos Chekeris, the theme of Qatar and Kaili, and we have made it so sweet and sensitive, that in the end I am making fun of myself in the first degree...
Like let's say "the gentleman with the money and the penthouse, confuses my name and calls me Re"...
Yes, did you see how it is? The bottom line is that I'm making fun of myself, that's my success. And I'm not ashamed to do it.
A parenthesis here now, let's say about the artists of America or England, that they mostly really wrinkle. They are not afraid to step out of their ego to show you the part. Here in Greece there is usually a catch.
Yes. I had no standards then, because in my time there was no information to know what was happening on the other side of the world. When I was young, I listened to the Beatles, I didn't have much other relationships. I remember when I started to move forward with the subject, some girlfriends, friends, said to me "you have an actor's perception of things, you are like a mime - you should go to the Marcel Marceau school" and I connected it. But then, unfortunately, success came and held me back. I wanted to do a lot. For example, when I was with Markopoulos, in `72-`73, for two years, he came very often to the booth where I was singing with Nikos Xylouris, and Karolos Koon listened to me with his best man, Giorgos Lazani. He would come and sit in a gallery and listen to us, and then he would send Lasani and say to me: (mimics) "My son, Karolos, wants you to go to the School. He likes you very much." I go and tell Markopoulos and he says "don't go. Because he'll put you in a mold, and you're free to do whatever you want."
They both had their fair share, right?
From my 55-year-plus course in Greek singing, what characterizes me personally is this: successes and models of singers exist. Dallara? Then so many Dollars came out. That is, in the same style. Kazantzidis? Then 100 Kazantzides came out. Bithikotsis? Parius? But Andreadis only one, because I was a class by myself as they say. "Don't bind what you are," Markopoulos told me, "don't limit it, set it free."
After 50 years and before Markopoulos left, we spoke on the phone, because I "saw" that it was bad and said let's call him. He greeted me with great joy, I told him "My John, I'm Themis"... "My Themis, I'm very glad to hear you. You were my most talented child"!.. "Come on John", I say to him, "what happened to you"? - I'm excited to say it... "Thirty tried to copy you, no one succeeded"!.. I say to him "Hey John, you didn't tell me this for fifty years, now you're telling me"? It was starting to feel like it was coming to an end and he wanted to say it... Great school.
I had a lot of luck in my life in my coincidence, opening the way to the tower of music, I met two important people: Notis Mavroudis, my guitar teacher, and Yiannis Markopoulos. What else can you say? And so I was given the opportunity to pave the way for a new kind of song. Big case. I'm very happy about that. I didn't give in to the whims of others, I kept this vision that I had.
Were there any musical suggestions you could go sideways with? That is, to "give in to the appetites" of other proposals?
Yes, while I was in companies they made proposals to me, but I there... And when I decided to stop satirical songs and turn to more artistic ones, I still never changed. I did not betray myself. And most importantly, I did not betray those who supported me. Going away for a very long time from musical things, and doing nothing, disappearing into complete silence within myself, I did it for one reason only: I also told the man who makes my bibliography when he asked me "why did you stop music »? And I told him "to protect those who supported me".
What do you mean by that?
Don't let them see me fall. Since `82 when I decided to do other things, because I was very tired of the perception of companies to sell, as much as possible, and use me as a lighter and throw me away at the end, I fought back. I said "I'm stopping the satirical song because the thing has gotten away from me, and I can't do it like that." For ten years I fought it very hard…
… very difficult decision…
... and of course I also had a family and children, and I had a big financial problem. And at some point, one of the conductors I used to work with comes and says to me "Themi, so-and-so singer wants you to go and sing somewhere in Iera Odos". I say to him "what business do I have"? He tells me "you will sing for half an hour and leave".
As part of a night program.
Yes. I tell him "I don't want to go". "Come on," he says, "how much do you want?" I say, I will tell him a large amount, it was for two months, I tell him "five million". "Okay," he says, "you'll get them." And they even gave me a check - it would be a lot of money, but anyway - and they tell me "come one day before we open, do a rehearsal and that's it". The day comes to go to rehearsal and I see a dog house, with sheet metal, what can I tell you? Have you seen "This Night Lasts"? Something like that. I have left the house and I say to Anna, "give me the check to take her with me." I get there and my soul seizes me. It's a guy from outside, he sees me and says: "Ah, Mr. Andreadis, we've been waiting for you for a rehearsal." I go in, one thing stinks... it also had ballet - something thick, nothing to do with ballerinas, with torn tights... I go, find the businessman, I tell him "take your check, I can't do this". He threatened me, shouted, I left. I return home, open the door, look at Anna and tell her "Anna, I'm stopping singing, for good." That was in `92 until 2012, some 20 years.
A difficult decision and I don't just mean financially. It is difficult to suppress inside yourself what wants to be expressed.
Especially when you're on the front line. My friend Phoivos Delivorias wrote yesterday, that we sang together in a video, flattering words about me, and something about all that – and he mentioned this fact too. Not the whole thing, but the gist – about how I got away for 20 years. And where I thought the world would have forgotten me, I'm coming back - and I experienced a lot of difficulties in the decade from 2011 until today, until a year ago... I came face to face with death three times, and then with a heavy depression, and I managed and got up and everything is fine. People love me, and I love them. People respect me, and I respect them.
Jung says that if you don't get too low, you don't get too high.
I've done this all my life. Before I reached the bottom I would give one and jump up. We are not talking about psychology here either. Three times I met with death.
That meeting point will have some treasures.
It can.
I don't know any artist who "speaks" to the world, whose songs the world knows, who has not gone through this stage.
So. I grew up with my grandchildren, 6 generations of young people, who today are 50 and 55 and still remember the joy I gave them.
And finally what is the answer to the question: is satire complacent, or does it push the audience into action? For example, we laughed at the mayor's silly mistake about Plato's State. We also laughed at the satire that followed, but we did not react, to say "in such a city you are not for this position".
It depends. I'll tell you something. The main reason I stopped from the satirical song in `82, which was hugely successful, was because the company comes and says to me (then it was the time when Harry Clynn had a big hit, damn it), "Hey Themi, do something hit Harry Clynn." And I told him the following, "what I say, and what I will always say, causes a smile - not an exhilarating laugh." My smile leaves you with the feeling that you have to do something, and if you want to micro-shape consciousnesses. I still have people who tell me, many, that they fell in love with things, institutions, family, people, politics, through my songs. I always left hints, under the skin truths through the humorous songs. These crass jokes of Harry Clynn and the present, even worse than him, work as a reliever.
Does satire have levels?
No, on the contrary, it has no levels. It's true. And what is the truth? "this, we have to do something about it." No "ha-ha-ha" and then "all good".
I really like the answer, it perfectly answers the question I had for so long. Why - for example, Aristophanes would say "so-and-so politician did this", and you laugh. And then you go home. Normally, that's when the satire comes into play.
Yes. This "English" humor that kills you with cotton wool suits me personally.
There is a community of indigenous people of Peru, the Qero, who have been there since 5000 BC, and who today are the only ones who do not speak Spanish like all of South America, but their own language, wear their own clothes, have their own customs. Are we the Greeks in the world like them?
Except that these Greeks that we are now, today, in 2023... I smile when I think of them... are a sad, sad percentage, they don't exceed 2%. And 90% of that 2% are artists.
This is very bitter.
True though.
When I was young and watched films with Dino Iliopoulos, I remember saying "it's a shame that he is lost in Greece, while in America he would have had a great career". We have great artists, but always this feeling, that in Greece you "get lost".
Unfortunately, I also asked myself this question. I used to say, for example, if I was in America and I sang a song, one, out of my hundreds of hits, one, "Lula, Lula, where are you Lula," even my great-grandchildren would eat it. And here, I have come to the point of having a big financial problem. But when the Greeks go abroad, they get lost, do you know why? The sun, the air, are what make them what they are. When they get out of the sun, the air, they disappear. Cases only like Nana Mouschouris, Tzimis Makoulis, like that... Which have nothing to do with each other - they are mechanical constructions, self-regulating, that fit other standards.
Does it also play a role that we are very good at creating fine intellectual and artistic works, but lack action?
You know why; Why in Greece - we were discussing this with my son who is a painter, and one of the greatest of his generation, and he is also facing problems of survival - what is happening? We Greeks see it completely personally, we do not operate collectively. Because everyone wants the whole pie for themselves. All the times I worked together I was one of the most cooperative, but I was forced to be a lone wolf. From a partner I treated very well - when the time came, the first stab was from him. It's a pie, and they want it all theirs. It's in the Greeks' DNA, collective things don't work. If by hope a coordinator is found to coordinate them, more than once they will not have another success. They dissolve. And this is also done on a global scale, but there are economic interests and measures. Most bands in music, the big ones, break up, get lost.
At the Film School, I remember they told us the other thing, that a student's film does not usually emerge as a masterpiece, to "break the festival", because when someone makes a film, they put everything into it, for fear of not making it again, of not being given it again the opportunity to do another. So it says everything, they match they don't match. So much insecurity...
Exactly. Every time I do something I say "it will be the last time". Now I'm 73 and it's difficult... I'm worried that I won't have time to do what I want - I'm talking about new productions, I want to have time to do them, but I don't know if I'll live tomorrow. No one knows, but I also had these "meetings"...
Giorgos Oikonomidis with his live talents, what did he have to do with today's reality; I know the answer, but I'd really like to hear it.
Giorgos Oikonomidis was a controversial person, regarding his occupation within the dictatorship. I met him when my sister took me, because I was dizzying them at home. He took me to his talents, a show that was very original. Then the pianist was Mimis Plessas, as a partner of the show. The dominant element was the personality of Economides, who spoke very well, was intelligent, wrote beautiful texts, sang beautifully, was an artist of high value. But he also had what I told you before, which the comedians who spoiled people also had. His show was called "Happy Talents" and 80% of the numbers of the time went there. He would find someone there, pick them up and go “ha-ha-ha”… funny stuff. My sister is taking me. He sees me with the guitar and says "come here" - French politeness. "What's your name"; – so and so. I say, I am the student of Noti Mavroudis - then I saw Mimi Plessas who stopped short. He says "what are you going to tell us"? – I say, I'll tell you a song of mine. And I started playing, and that's when they realized something was up. They also put "echo" on me, which softened the voice and the sound, that is, it opened you up. And I say the song and there is chaos. And I got my first confirmation. This show was live on Sunday and on Monday Notis Mavroudis came and told me "Nikos Kazis heard you", an actor of the time, "and wants you to sing in his booth". The boat was called "Tavania" and it was in Plaka, it was September-October, there. I take the bus the other day myself and go. And he says to me "I like you very much, I want you to come and sing here with me, in the booth. I will give you 150 drachmas." "On the day"? I asked him. And he tells me "In the month"! I went and sang, aged 16, with them: Yiannis Spanos had just arrived from Paris. George Marinos was 11 years older than me, 27 years old, a student at the time, and he was their brand, he sang. Despina Glezou, later a rocker, we started together. And Sofia Spyratou, later a choreographer, who was singing at the time. It lasted 3 months, 4 – and the junta of `67 happened and closed everything. That was how I continued after Economides, the way opened and I started singing.
Today when there are reality;
I'm not talking about it. These are miserable. Because they give false hopes to children and nothing happens and they are destroyed both mentally and physically. I don't pay any attention, I don't even see them. I only watch two shows that luckily the state channel has: the show of Portokaloglou, which I was also invited with an honorary invitation for me, and he did an excellent job (I used to say before he came out, that the best music show that had come out was in the decade `85-`90 the "Zito to Hellinikon Tragoudi" by Savvopoulos - but this one is better) - and another show with more youthful humor but good, intelligent, Numera tou Delivorias.
You have performed in USA and Australia.
I went to America 3-4 times in the 80s, to New York twice, once to Boston and once to Chicago. With Zambeta, Poly Panou, then alone. In Australia after that it was a completely different world, a different mentality.
What is your message about Homogenia?
Keep your spirits up. Greece needs you. Don't let insatiable capitalism eat you.
