News + More

Many say that great success and recognition change a person’s character over time. Yiannis Haroulis is certainly one of the exceptions to this “rule”. Many know him through his music and songs, but few have “discovered” him as a personality and an entity. Raised by his family with principles that he continues to honor, he has chosen not to speak much and not to expose himself. He remains shy, down-to-earth and humble, despite the great recognition from the entire spectrum of Greek music and despite the great love he has received from the public for many years – he himself prefers to channel it into his records and songs, thus giving back to the world part of what he gives it. “What is required in my music is tenderness, even though it is something that we generally do not look for, we need this ‘world’ of emotions during this strange and hard time”, declares the popular Laconian artist in the exclusive interview he gave to ANATOLI.

In one of the many few times, he speaks in recent years to the Media, Yannis Haroulis answers how he lived and how the period of quarantine and the pandemic affected him, he refers to the diversity of his new album entitled “Colibri”, to what he prepares and invites us all to the concert he will give on Saturday August 13, in Pachia Ammos, “to sing songs together, to be comforted, to open our souls and to ‘lighten up'”.

The interview follows in detail:

ANATOLI: Yiannis, how was the period of quarantine and the pandemic for you from a musical and human point of view?

Yannis Haroulis (Y.H.): Things in Athens were more strange and more difficult in comparison to Crete. Although I like the quiet and it was the first time I saw this city-beast calm down, there were evenings when the only sound was the creaking of the shutters. In the beginning, I went to enjoy it but then all this put a pressure on all of us, texting code messages to go out etc., it was something that “burdened” me and us. As soon as we got together with the guys to go to the studio and started recording, through the company and the dialogue, somehow our hearts “softened”.

A: In the end, with your own “eye”, do you see that we have changed even a little to the better through this ordeal, or have we become even more introverted?

Y.H.: I think that this will be figured out. For me personally, when ordinary “breaks” and we face something unknown, it’s something scary. On the other hand, when a given is “broken”, it gives me something. On the point we did have everything, good or bad, we suddenly lost pieces of our freedom. Clearly, such a situation on the one hand forces you, plus the fear of the disease itself, but it also makes you think about things you had and makes you sort of “clear out”, because in the everyday rush we often don’t get what things we don’t need, whether for material goods, or thoughts, feelings, weights, or people in our lives. I believe in the quarantine, people “bonded” and people “unbonded”, because it “broke” that fact that I mentioned.

A: Did all that we went through give you more inspiration in music or did it make it difficult for you?

Y.H.: It made it difficult for me, it didn’t inspire me. In the music part when you know that at some point you will perform in a group or a concert, you will study. When we realized that we are not allowed to do that, it’s a whole different world.

A: Thinking of Laconia, Lassithi, Crete, places you so much love, did you draw strength all this time? Was that a “medicine” for you?

Y.H.: Indeed. It clearly was “medicine”. When I come to our places I “ground” myself, I see things more “lightly”. And if I spend a few days to stay, everything is fine! Crete for me is a motherland. Unfortunately, during the quarantine, I didn’t visit much, and due to fear I can say. And along with that fear, we unwittingly carry a guilt within us, not to infect the other one, etc.

A: And we come to today with your new album entitled “Colibri”. Are the album hearings more internal, more “sophisticated”?

Y.H.: If they are “sophisticated” it’s because we worked through it a lot! We spent a lot of hours recording to get it all done and for us to like it, and be happy and proud of what we did.

A: In general, a different sound from your earlier discography?

Y.H.: Each record, each track, will have something different. Because I am “into the business”, I can’t so much conceive the diversity. Both me and the guys, however, during these times were interested in releasing a record with nuggets of interiority that also involving a little tenderness. Although the world is not looking for tenderness. The other one won’t tell you “I’m broken, please come and approach me an inch more tenderly like a person, I need it”, unfortunately we are “courageous”. We hardly seek and give tenderness to one another. We pursued this, we considered that this is a world of emotions that we need in this strange and hard time. When we were cut off from the possibility of physical contact, for example, plus the fear that existed, the world became even more isolated. On those I put and based my thoughts, and said that we need tenderness, apart from feasting and dancing.

A: After the two singles “Melancholia” and “Theatro tou dromou” (2021) and “Colibri”, what new are you preparing?

Y.H.: We will perform some live shows in London from October, in New York in December, while we are also organizing a couple of tours in other places abroad. We will also do some things in the winter, while there are still other songs left to release.

A: How do you interpret the fact that despite the general “turn” of the new generation to other musical hearings, the love for you all these years remains solid?

Y.H.: I don’t get overexposed on TV, for example, where someone sees you and forms an opinion after half an hour and two songs you perform. The people who come and see you at concerts for example, have 2-3 hours to observe you well. And I always try to make the people who come to have a good time, I like that there are emotions in my performances, to dance, to sing, to be moved like people, to become “one”.

A: A “message” from you to the world that is eagerly waiting for Saturday’s concert in Pachia Ammos?

Y.H.: In these times and after the wounds we experienced and went through again, for me it is enough to be able to gather and sing songs together, to be comforted, to open our souls and to “lighten up”.

Interview to Nikos Sgouros