"The more famous you are, the more you suffer": Interview with Rotting Christ’s Sakis Tolis

In 2014, the Greeks Rotting Christ became one of the few metal and rock acts that agreed to perform in Ukraine, despite the war conflict in the country. On April 14, 2018, we met with the band’s leader, vocalist, and guitarist Sakis Tolis, asking him about that Ukrainian shows, attitude towards biased articles about black metallers, arrest in Georgia, cover of Demis Roussos’ band song and much more.

Topics raised during the interview:

– Did Rotting Christ have any doubts about performing in Ukraine in 2014, while about 30 metal and rock bands decided to cancel their shows?
– Impressions about first visit and first show in Belarus
– Arrest in Georgia
– Shows cancellation due to censorship or forced name changes happened – how often has it happened before and nowadays?
– Is it possible nowadays to go on such 'Fuck Christ Tour' in Europe or America as it happened in 1993?
– What Sakis thinks about biased articles in metal media due to which musicians can be easily taken off from tours, concerts venues or even from the bands
– How Sakis takes the news that Rotting Christ’s label Season of Mist no longer works with Inquisition
– How exactly Sakis makes his "researching of cultures all around" while working on an album
– Why Sakis decided to make covers of Nikos Xilouris and Aphrodite's Child (the band of Demis Roussos and Vangelis) songs for "Rituals" album
– Any updates on Rotting Christ’s new album?
– Collecting ideas for an album during the tour
– A possibility of using Ukrainian culture features in new ROTTING CHRIST’s songs
– How Rotting Christ cope with an intense tour rhythm with concerts for 20 and more days
– Where Sakis has been working for 20 years before the band started providing him
– Do streaming services and major labels kill the music industry?
– Sakis’ basic approaches of production and mixing
– Why Sakis has stopped mixing and mastering other bands albums

Interviewed by Anastezia.
Filmed and edited by Dmythro.

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