The band started sampling and remixing Greek tunes of the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s, taking samples from old Greek tunes and Balkan music and mixing them with Balkan-flavored live saxophone, clarinet, trumpet and bagpipe solos. It’s done expressively and gets everyone dancing. Now the Pasion Turca artist management company is presenting Imam Baildi to Turkish audiences, and their self-titled 2007 album has just been released by EMI Music Turkey. Younger brother Lysandros tells Today’s Zaman their story.
Imam baildi is a delicious Turkish dish made with eggplant, onion and garlic. What does your band’s name refer to when it comes to music?
It was a kind of joke, but our music has a variety of materials just like imam baildi -- and it’s very delicious. People always enjoy a good meal and good music, and our music is enjoyable, too.
You are all very young musicians; how did you come up with the idea of using old tunes in your music?
Rather than old tunes, new productions inspired by old tunes attract us the most. Just like the way DJ Cam from France uses some samples from old jazz tunes in his new productions, or the way Moby uses old disco and funk tunes, we started our music sampling old tunes and bringing up some new remixes.
What about the musical roots of your family?
There are no other musicians in our family, but our father is a record producer, and he has been running a small record company for a very long time. An uncle we lost was also a producer, so we have always been into music. My father’s record company is not a big one, but is very well known.
In 2007, you released an EP with mash-ups of old tunes with a cappella and hip-hop songs by Jay Z, Beastie Boys, Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre. Do you have any future hip-hop plans?
We never released these records; these were all experimental, but now we are getting into old Greek tunes and Balkan music, but we can think about trying something different, mixing old Greek tunes with different types of music.
Your first video from the new album, “Samba Clarina,” is like a very traditional dance hit, and it feels like a song directly from a wedding celebration either in Turkey or Greece.
[Greek and Turkish] music and our traditions are so similar. We share a lot, both in our music and in our culture. From the single instrument clarinet to the music of rembetiko originally from your territories, we share so many things.
There’s is a sample from famous Turkish musician Selim Sesler in your album. Do you know any other Turkish musicians?
We know Mercan Dede and accordion player Muammer Ketencoğlu very well. The band Laço Tayfa and pop singer-songwriter Sezen Aksu are also well known in Greece.
Imam Baildi was the first Greek band to perform in “Les Transmusicales de Rennes,” one of the most prestigious festivals in Europe. How did the crowds react?
There were four different stages [where performances were taking place] at the same time, and there were almost 2,000 people watching us. The crowd was dancing [to our music] there although they were not used to listening to our tunes. We were actually onstage after midnight, and the crowd still had the energy to dance.
You once shared the same stage with famous Massive Attack in a festival as an opening act. If you had a chance to collaborate live onstage with a headliner, who would you like that to be?
We were the starting act for the Gypsy punk band Gogol Bordello, and it would be great to collaborate with them onstage. The band Ojos de Brujo, which we shared the stage with in Athens, was also awesome. Ojos de Brujo is from Barcelona, and they make a kind of fusion that brings hip-hop elements together with flamenco. And we would also love to collaborate with Moby.
Once you produced fusions with hip-hop, then you came up with fusions with Greek and Balkan tunes. Are you going to experiment more with different fusions?
We are open to new music. We keep experimenting with old Greek tunes, but for the next album we can try something new together with Greek tunes.
Are you planning to perform in Turkey?
Our agency Pasion Turca is planning a promotional tour; we would like to visit Turkey before the summer. We may have a surprise in store for Turkish audiences with a concert.
What is next for Imam Baildi?
We have already started working on a new album. We are also working on some remixes for some popular Greek artists like Giorgos Mazonakis. We will start our concert tour across Europe before the summer.
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