ILITHIOS - Interview
They say write from what you know. But what happens, when what you know is a year when all normal avenues of musical expression have been
stymied by a Chinese biological weapon (this is what Trump thinks)?
Ilithios doesn't know, and he knows you don't either. But he still made one of the most varied and intelligent albums of the year, "Florist". Rock albums recorded after March tend to
take one of two roads:
1. Bitter nihilistic rage
OR
2. Somnolent slow jams
"Florist" is decidedly in the latter camp, inviting you to dance away the twilight, even if it's in front of the
TikTok screen. It's an album thought out enough to earn the badge of "chamber pop", or make you think of a Bushwick version of Low. But it's full of curveballs, like when you stumble into the
hypnogogic haze of "P.Y.G.", coming off like an even more drugged out version of Tame Impala. "Florist" is decidedly an album of 2020, conveying that uneasy mood we're all-too-familiar
with. If you're a gigging musician, listening to Ilithios can feel like staring at yourself in the mirror. But maybe that's just what we need right now. We spoke briefly to find out more about
the man behind the mystery.
INDICATE: Florist covers a lot of stylistic ground, and maybe the best word to describe it
is "personal". Can you describe what inspired you to make the album?
ILITHIOS: Making the album Florist wasn't something that I had planned. There were ideas for songs, and various demos in pitiful stages, but the long term goal was
to save money and find a studio to record them in someday. When the lockdown started and I didn't have a job anymore, I started experimenting with home recording to make polished demos. The a-ha
moment came when I asked Jeff Berner to mix one of the tracks (Florist) and suddenly it sounded like a real song, so one by one I'd send him songs and pay him with money from unemployment to mix.
I think I originally planned to do 3 songs mixed by Jeff, but then each would sound so much better with his work, so finally we me made a plan to do 11 songs. I've had the comment that the whole
album feels very connected, which is great cause that seems to have happened subconsciously. The only conscious decision I made was that I wanted to write and record songs without the mental
blocks that come up when you create. For example, if the chords are very basic, or if the feel reminds me too much of something else, who cares? If one song is a shimmering pop song, then going
into a heavy dirge, fine, I'll make that left turn and see if the listener is hanging on. I've always appreciated when albums take on different emotions cause then it makes it feel like an
entity, as opposed to just a collection of work. If the album Florist was a person, they'd probably be manic depressive.
INDICATE: You gained notoriety early in the summer for your unhinged livestreams, which
feature bizarre special effects, and of course awkward dance moves. Which came first, the Ilithios persona, or the music?
ILITHIOS: Ilithios isn't quite a persona I created or anything. When performing I definitely feel as though I let my guard way down and just react to whatever the
music is telling me to do.
INDICATE: So what's next for Ilithios? How are ya bringing the music to the fans?
ILITHIOS: What I'd like to do next is perform live! But that does not look like its happening anytime soon so I've been planning my next livestream that I'm going to
coordinate with other artists so that it's more of a variety show, rather than just another stream from my house. The technology has caught up a bit now so you can see livestreams with full bands
sounding impeccable. Econolodge has really nailed it with Bandnada and OWL as well with their streams, so if I do something, I want it to be engaging in a different way. I will have
something for that before the end of the year.
Check out "Florist" by Ilithios and don't forget to SUPPORT MUSICIANS!
