Congratulations on Kore – it’s a really enjoyable record. It’s been a long time coming – Melbourne was severely hit by lockdowns during the pandemic. Were you able to keep working
on the album through COVID? ” Thank you so much! It has been a long time coming and we’re glad to finally get Kore out there. Yes, unfortunately, the state of Victoria as a whole had a lot of issues with lockdowns and COVID restrictions. However, pretty much the whole album was done in and between those massive lockdowns. Since writing started as soon as (last album) Essentia was released in 2020, we worked on most of the record during the pandemic. We found that we could do a lot of the pre-production work from home, and it definitely helped to be in constant communication with our producer Lee Bradshaw. We managed to get the recordings done in between lockdowns, and since the pre-production work was all done by then it was a really quick recording process. Then we finished all the videos and photos after the restrictions were lifted. So, we found that time to be very productive, (since we weren’t doing much else)”.

We’ll look more thoroughly at the individual tracks on the album later – but can you give those of our listeners without much grounding in the classics a bit of a background to Kore? “The record is a concept album based on the ancient Homeric Hymn to Demeter (The story of Hades and Persephone). Where Persephone is stolen and taken down to the underworld, where she has to reside for six months a year. The myth entails the concept of the seasons as well as many underlying tones of feminine liberation, power and control. The story goes as follows; Kore, goddess of spring was picking flowers in her garden when Hades saw her. He thought she was the most beautiful goddess he had ever seen, so he stole her and took her to Hades (hell), to be his wife. Kore’s mother Demeter, goddess of the harvest was struck by grief and went on a search to find her, ordering the humans to build a temple in Kore’s honour. Demeter who was so consumed by grief caused the earth to die and become barren and cold. While in Hades, Kore changed her name to Persephone, meaning bringer of destruction. When she tries to leave, Hades tricks her into eating six pomegranate seeds; because she has eaten food in the underworld she cannot leave. She then makes a deal that for each seed she ate, she stays one month in the Underworld, and for the other six months, she can be with her mother. So for the six months, she is with her mother, there are flowers, and spring and sun, and for the six months she is with Hades in the Underworld, the earth is dark and cold and barren”.

It’s a great story, and you’ve certainly brought it to life on the songs! Can you tell us a little about the personnel on this album? “The people who played on the album are all well-established musicians from Australia. On guitars, we had Troy Downward, on bass we had Craig Newman, and on drums Gerry Pantazis. They were all incredible to work with, and their excellent musicianship is something we are grateful to have on this album. As for the orchestral sections, for Pomegranate, we used the Moscow Bow Tie Orchestra, and for the rest of the album we recorded the Budapest Scoring Orchestra, who we also worked with on our previous record, Essentia. Again, they are both really magnificent orchestras that we have been privileged to have the opportunity to work with”.

Do you have any plans to tour behind the record both home and overseas? I feel an open air performance in Greece somewhere would be a fabulous experience for all concerned… “An open-air concert in Greece would be amazing! Definitely, one of our goals is to take this record to Greece live, because of the content, especially because the concept album is about ancient Greek myth and legend, as well as the fact that I am of Greek heritage, with most of my family being from Greece. We can say that Greece is one of the places that we want to get to the most! We have more shows for Australia planned for late 2022 and early 2023 and a possible national tour, (keep your eyes peeled). However, Europe has always been something on the cards, and something in the future that we are trying to work towards with Kore“.

THE ALBUM

Give us a brief insight into each of the tracks on the album – We’ll start with the first ‘proper’ song on the record, Raptum: “This track is from the very beginning of the story. Here Kore (Persephone) is in the garden picking narcissus flowers when the Earth yawns and she is then swallowed, taken by Hades down to the Underworld. This song is trying to encapsulate the feeling of despair and melancholy that Kore (Persephone) would have experienced, this theme of deception runs through the whole album, but this is shown as the first deceiving action in the tale when you see someone who is tricked by a person they trust”.

Mother’s Garden: “Persephone’s mother Demeter, was the goddess of the harvest and would tend to the earth’s garden, hence the song title Mothers Garden. A distraught and heartbroken Demeter wandered the earth looking for her daughter for nine days, holding torches and flames. This song highlights the desolate mournful nature of the mother losing their child. Demeter as the goddess of the harvest ties into climate themes of a dying earth, things like drought, starvation, and the slow neglect of our planet. Most importantly this song is symbolic of a woman’s bodily autonomy being withheld; with many forms of female oppression past and present”.

The Child: “Here Demeter nurses the child Demophoōn on nectar and ambrosia, every night she dips the child in the eternal flame, in order to turn him into an immortal god. This song further highlights the mother’s grief and sorrow, as she tries to fill the void that lies within her with another, (Demophoōn). The song speaks on these themes of sorrow and immense loss, as well as trying to find something to fill that void of loss. Evidently, this cannot be done. The song touches on the idea of slowly slipping away into insanity and loss as one tries to search for meaning, purpose, or a way out of a dark lugubrious state”.

Persephone: “This song is not about an explicit part of the story, it is about what is not said when Kore, now known as Persephone, is in Hades. Kore at this time changed her name to Persephone, Kore translating to daughter and Persephone translating to the bringer of destruction. Here she has now claimed her own identity, tying into the theme of a woman reclaiming her own body or reclaiming her own rights. This song does speak of the torment and pain that Persephone endured through her time in Hades and how she slowly slips into a state of madness, every day trying to find her way home to her mother, trying to find an escape from being trapped in darkness; however, it has a triumphant undertone in realising that she has finally been able to somewhat reclaim what is hers, her body and identity, something that all people in our time can feel and relate to”.

A Divine Revelation: “In this section of the story, Demeter has revealed her true form, of a divine Goddess to the people. Tying into the theme of female strength, this song highlights the life-giving female spirit, symbolic of perpetual life. Challenging social structures of the past and present, such as the patriarchy that surrounds society in an attempt to open peoples’ minds to the divine feminine, a glorious force that is able to create life. The song dismisses all of the claims made against women over the years and takes a look at a new society, one of a matriarchy that is fueled by the strength that comes from suffering, and reclamation of their own bodies and identities as women. This song in its entirety is an ode to profound, divine feminine spirits”.

Tower: “Demeter orders the people to build a tower/a temple in her and her daughter’s name. The song questions the ideology, of beliefs and humanity’s ‘need’ to follow a greater power. The temples are the same, but the Gods and icons have changed over hundreds of years. It uses philosophical standards, and questions the reality of these higher powers, challenging our belief systems, and asking why we worship mortal things as well as divine entities. It begs the question ‘who are we, without something to follow?’; Highlighting how humanity’s motivation to create icons has never changed. Leading to societal hierarchies and structures, such as the common capitalist structure. Parts of the song are from the perspective of the working class, being represented by those who built the temple. The world in which we live is built upon this class and these people are now being somewhat exploited and neglected. Again, leading back into the power struggle and dynamic that comes with leaders and followers. We wanted this song to bring this idea to light and rethink the story from a different, understated perspective”.

Blasphēmia: “The deception of Hades towards Persephone, when he tricks her into eating the pomegranate seeds, which ultimately traps her in the underworld. This song asks the philosophical question of, what our reality is. How do we as a human race know we are not being deceived and that half the lie is sight, the other half is our own, personal, driving, belief. The deception by Hades can tie into the deception of man, how we don’t know if we are being deceived or how, but that we may be. It is an attempt to question our own beliefs and what we know is true, to try and see things from a new perspective. Tying into the underlying theme of the deceiver and the deceived that resides in the Tale of Persephone“.

Pomegranate: “Pomegranate overlaps with the previous track on the album Blasphēmea, where Persephone eats the six pomegranate seeds, each representing a single month; this, in turn, forces her to reside in Hades for six months of the year and go back to her mother for the other six. When she is in Hades the overworld is cold and dark due to her mother grieving, when she is with her mother the flowers bloom and the earth is warm and bright. This song talks about the intense false hope that people experience, a hallucination that some may never reach. It is about reaping what you sow and that all actions have consequences – bad karmic energy will follow you. This is Persephone’s way out and she falls into temptation and now, has to suffer the consequences, similar to the story of Adam and Eve, with a similar message with Eve falling into temptation, indulging in the apple, and eventually suffering the consequences of her temptation”.

The Afterlife: “This is the final part of the story where Persephone is brought home to Demeter and the earth is restored. When Persephone is with her mother the earth is bright and warm, when she resides down in Hades the earth is dark and cold. Hence the seasons, allude to the cyclical nature of birth, life, death, and restoration. Time is not linear, and the earth keeps turning and moving without stopping and the seasons keep changing in a clockwork-like pattern. Highlighting the ever-changing world we live in, and how it will keep rolling on without stopping no matter how hard we try to stop it”.

How important do you think it is in the increasingly globalised world to forge a link with ancient cultures? “I believe it is very important to keep that bond between the ancient world and the modern world strong. I’ve always been intrigued by ancient cultures ever since I was young, with Worlds and cultures such as ancient Egypt, old Norse cultures, as well as ancient Hellenic cultures. If we look back into these worlds and into the lessons and teachings which come from ancient civilizations, then we can progress and grow as a society. There is a lot to be learned from old beliefs and simple fables of mythology and legend. I have also thought that these cultures are very beautiful all with different customs and belief systems that are all similar, yet so different. If we look at Norse mythology and Greek mythology, the belief of multiple Gods, and that fate is predefined, as well as the strong connection that people have to the earth and the universe is all the same, and this is something I wanted to capture in this album. Ancient worlds were connected to the earth in its simplest form, and this is something that in modern society we sometimes miss, that belief and the universal connection are so important, and it is a beautiful thing to keep in touch with that; this is what the ancient worlds teach us, and why we should keep that bond strong”.

Anything else you’d like to tell the readers of Sentinel Daily about the album? “We want to say thank you to all of the amazing people that have worked with us on this album, and we cannot wait to share our new fusion with the ancient Greek culture and this beautiful story with everybody. Our new album Kore is being released on October the 14th, 2022, and you can pre-order it through our label Rockshots Records, and through all of our socials at Victoria K! We can’t wait to bring you to the story of Persephone!”