‘I’m a musician at heart’
Festival season is upon us and many in Cyprus will be gearing up to head to one of the events that dominate our summer evenings. Yet as I talk to the man behind one of Cyprus’ most established cultural events, I’m reminded that the island’s music scene wasn’t always as populated or vibrant. Here is a man whose life has revolved around paving the way for Cyprus’ upcoming and alternative musicians to be put on the local and world music stage.
Upon his return from Berkley in America, Andreas Trachonitis was determined to establish a playground for what he loved doing most: music. “Back in the 2000s, there was a handful of us that were kick-starting things, festivals were pretty much on the traditional side, there wasn’t much else going on but there were many (young) people returning to the island who had been doing things outside of Cyprus,” he says talking about founding the Fengaros Festival, which is about to be staged for the 12th time.
There’s no explaining how the Fengaros festival was established without looking into Andreas’ trajectory and his sheer dedication to making things move. In 2008, Andreas’ experience throughout his studies and working in the States initially led him to found his recording studio, today known as Studio eleven63.
“As a 26-year-old, I was very eager to do things the right away. I opened the studio which was a big investment that I’m still paying off,” he says. Initially set in the Famagusta Gate area of Nicosia, Andreas lived and worked from his studio. As with many things in life, the more thought and energy you put into something, the more the potential of something bearing fruit. Admittedly not using his own family’s contacts and support as a matter of pride, eventually the studio started ticking over.
Andreas is a perfectionist, a man of family values and a true Cypriot at heart that adores his country and, more importantly, its culture and artists. “I like being here, I like the family values. But at the same time, I feel there’s many ways to do other things that are also alternative, or, let’s say progressive.”
Little did Andreas know that establishing a studio was only the beginning. Soon after the studio was in full swing, Andreas and Lefteris Moumtzis established Louvana Records, not the only indie record label on this island but certainly one that strives to bring local talents to the foreground and maintains a standard that is perhaps distinguished by its long-term plan and all the initiatives the pair have set their minds to to embrace or unite all aspects of the local music stage.
“We started releasing our own music, because how else would we put it out there? When you make music, either you release it as an artist, as a self-release or you get together and see what you can do, that’s how we decided to create the record label.” Yet again, Andreas’ dedication to the field put him in a position to start from scratch and discover how to make the label work. “It took us many years to realise how it exactly works and establish who we could get into the record label, how we set our standards, whether there were any standards, how we set the line of what music we like; did we want to be making commercial music or something in the middle?
“We weren’t the first label (in Cyprus), but we were the first that had a plan, and because we didn’t have inhibitions, we didn’t feel any danger in what we were doing, we kept on materialising these ideas and kept at it, sometimes losing lots of money.”
With the studio and record label down pat other horizons opened. “We were releasing music but the next question was how do we promote it? That was another decision,” says Andreas, and one that finally led to the beloved festival.
This was perhaps a key moment that enabled him to find a way to delve into Cypriot culture and bring alternative music to the foreground, breaking barriers between the commercial world and musicians who were struggling to make it. “We started doing gigs and going to venues that were not actually music venues, for example, we found places like Antonakis Bar, a cult Cypriot venue, where I played drums for weddings when I was growing up, this cult Cypriot thing was in my blood, I always loved it,” says Andreas. He has a point. Most of Louvana’s events enticed me to discover new places as I indulged in discovering new local music. Antonakis Bar is one of them, the Lefkosia Loop Festival at Famagusta Gate another, Kato Drys village where Fengaros takes place and other smaller alternative café bars such as Prozak in old Nicosia. “It feels like years later, people are combining music and grassroots places,” somewhat forcing people to delve into the local culture. “This is also something we discuss about Fengaros Festival, it’s always on the borderline of a cultural and commercial event.”
This interplay is also a part of Fengaros: inviting popular artists and putting them together with local acts to feed off each other. For Andreas, the festival was imperative to develop an audience for the label, to introduce local acts to a public which was perhaps not in a position to be exposed to progressive and new genres of live music. But through doing so, he taps into local realms and venues that breath a Cypriotness into his brand which is unique and definitely reflective of his character. “We bring artists from all over Europe while focusing on the Cypriot scene. When we bring an artist that has two million followers on Spotify, we treat this act in the same way as a local act that has just started out. Obviously, I’m not talking about monetary reward at this point, the upcoming act won’t get paid the same, but upcoming acts will be paid a fair amount of money, and most importantly, they will get exactly the same treatment, we don’t differentiate between artists.”
Andreas describes himself as a producer, a person who records music, does voiceovers, writes music, but also climbs scaffolding to put banners up when needed. “But I’m a musician at heart,” he says and that’s the core of everything he does. From treating musicians as well as possible, to establishing Fengaros Reacts, an online festival that took place when Covid prohibited musicians from working. “At the time, everybody was doing online concerts, we wanted to do it (for Cypriots), we found people, we sourced money and support packages from people that were still working because the banker, the accountant, a lot of people were still working, everyone except musicians and artists,” explains Andreas. Nowadays Fengaros Reacts continues as an online showcase of Cypriot artists with some 36 concerts available online. “We’re developing it and we want artists to see that this is a local showcase that promotes music.”
Not content to stop there, he is now keen on education. “The educational gap is about guiding people on how to set up a band, how to promote their band, think about how to record their music, collaborate with other artists, how to collaborate with other acts like dance, theatre and so on. The Music Village is all about creating a safe space to create in, a place where musicians can come to speak with other people, collaborate with other people and learn; A place where they can also fail, and leave their insecurities at the entrance of the village.”
A similar stance was taken when he established his most recent venture, Fengaros High, the island’s leading platform for young musicians which provides artists up to 19-years-old with the opportunity to present their art and integrate them into the local music scene while being guided by professionals. “Youth that was born in or around 2006 spent their teenage years sitting in front of a computer; I’m not saying that we’re responsible for these things, but I wanted to think about something to address this.”
Forward thinking, he never stops. Having tapped into European projects to support his cause, Andreas, with the support of his colleagues and artists themselves, looks at the local music scene as one that has progressed. “In discography, I see Cypriot musicians and bands release music almost every month, I see self releases with people doing it in their own studios, with their own funding and other studios, collaborations and I see it happening. I know we’ve somehow paved the way,” says Andreas, “but we want more, we want the competition. We want to enrol in progress.”
And after everything else, Andreas is a family man. Some of his proudest moments, at 11pm when everything is set for the Fengaros festival to begin in the morning, sitting at the control space where engineers make the magic happen at the helm of Fengaros’ main music stage, kicking back with a beer in his hand with his daughters surrounding him. “Sometimes, I sit back and think maybe we would stop, but it’s like an addiction and we can’t stop… We want to create a Cypriot export of music and we will do. We want to do a proper festival in Athens, and we will do.”
Fengaros Festival
Annual music festival. August 1-3. Kato Drys, Larnaca district. www.fengaros.com