The Greek Yanni Special

TRANSLATION

I grew up in Kalamata and I stayed there until I was 16. Afterwards, I came to Athens for the last 2 years, because when I was 14 I broke a national swimming record and I came here (in Athens) to practice at the Olympic Pool. At 18 I left and went to USA.

Music entered my life as soon as I graduated from college. I took my degree in psychology and I was 21 years old. I had grown up enough and I realized that in life we have choices, we can choose what we want to do.  And I decided to start music, I was not ready to graduate and become a psychologist like I thought when I was younger. And I decided to try music for 1-2 years and see how I am doing.

I think we bought a record player much later. A tape recorder did not exist in the house, so whatever music I liked from listening to it on the radio or at the cinema, if I wanted to listen to it again I had to learn how to play it. And that was very good and has helped me a lot, because it shaped my perfect pitch ability. I can listen to every note and automatically know what note it is, and it helped me to write music.

My parents bought me a piano, guitar and an accordion was in the house. I basically took lessons o accordion, the piano I learned it all by myself, I am self-taught. We always played music in the house, my parents were singing at weekends and I listened to music all the time, classical music and many different styles. And I loved music, but we had been told not to use music as a profession but to use it in order to become better human beings and to have it as a companion in our life.

I love music so much, that I knew I would devote my life to her. I chose synthesizers because they give us extraordinary possibilities for different sounds. Basically, as a composer, 50% from what I do is using sound, and the other 50% is composition. It is like having more colors when you are a painter. At the old times, when we wanted to create a new sound we had to create a new instrument, for example the piano, or the guitar. And this takes a lot of years. Now with synthesizers we have the ability to create sounds that do not exist and do this very quickly.

I feel a lot of pleasure with Linda, and I don't feel at all a problem. I think the fact that I am with Linda will attract the people's attention to my music, and if my music is good and the audience likes it, then I have a success. If my music wasn't good then people would say "What happened to this girl, she is in love with someone who writes bad music", and everything would end. So I am not bothered at all about  this, in fact I enjoy it.

When I had first met Linda, I asked her to choose pieces that I had composed for my 5 previous albums and were her favorites, the pieces she liked more. And I told her that I will make a cassette with all these pieces in order. So we sat down and she chose the pieces she wanted and I went to the studio and made a tape. We were using it for ourselves, she wanted to listen to it. And all our friends started to ask for copies. So I started to make copies, but after 20-30 copies I gave up and I said "enough, it is over" and gave the tape to the record company. In fact, when I listened to the tape-and not even I expected that-I found out that the emotion of this tape is completely different from any album I had released.  And I really did not expect this. When I gave the tape to the record company we decided to release it, we believed that the audience would like it very much, and it is now my most successful album.

Because I grew up here in Greece, I have all the Greek elements and that's why my music is melodic, I have this influence from Greek music. I have experience from the environment, with the sea and the clean air...the beauty of Greece has definitely influenced me as a person. And whatever influences me as a person also influences my music.

I never write pieces of music without a reason. I never sit down at the piano to play and if I like something I make a piece. In every piece I write I tell a story, and I need to tell this story. For example  I wrote the piece called Acroyali at 1986. I had returned to Greece after 13 years of absence, and Acroyali is the place where my home is, it is a little village outside Kalamata. At that time I had fallen in love with Greece so much and I was so happy that I was there, and one night I was sitting, the ocean was peaceful, without air, without anything, the moon was out there, it was 11 or 12 o clock at night, and the beginning of this piece describes the tranquility of that night.

In USA, my audience ranges from 12 year olds that come to my concerts to 60 year olds with white hair. With music I talk, but I talk without words, because I decided that by using sound, rhythm and melody you can describe feelings that are very subtle and difficult to describe with words. And I believe that words-except if there is an exceptional poet-are limited. I believe that with music you can communicate with people, and this is what I try to do with my music, with my albums. I describe feelings and I describe what life does to me emotionally, how I feel. I like to live, enjoy and taste life, and when my feelings are in turmoil inside me I have the need to describe them ,and this is what I am trying to do with music.

When I return to USA I will prepare a tour, 20-25 different cities with symphony orchestras. I will begin on February at New York and I will go to the whole USA. By the end of spring I will come to Europe. I haven't made any plans for Greece yet, but I would like very much to perform in Athens with the symphony orchestra.

(Note by Andreas: This wish was fulfilled on 1993 with the three Live At The Acropolis concerts. He did not perform with the Greek Symphony Orchestra for reasons that he explains in his book Yanni in Words)