Tonight he will play with his band in front of thousands of Greek fans. He is Greek, even though he knows a few Greek words. Nevertheless, he is proud to be Greek.
His name is Gregory - Zigo - Mavridorakis. His band is Dub Incorporation and tonight they are going to rock in Athens!
MG: So, the Greek name of Zigo is Gregory? Am I right?
Dub: My real name is Gregory Mavridorakis.
MG: And you come from Crete?
Dub: My grandfather is from Crete.
MG: And what is your relationship with Crete? Do you have any relatives there? Any house?
Dub: For the first time I have met my relatives in Crete last year during a tour. I rent a car and I knew only the name of the village of my grandfather, so I‘ve been there and I‘ve been in a bar and I told to a woman my name, and she told me “Hey we have the same name”. And I said that’s because I come from your village and finally, I met my relatives there, during a tour. It was really cool for me!
MG: It is near Hania or Herakleio?
Dub: It’s a village called Hordaki, near Hania.
MG: It’s very beautiful in Crete.
Dub: It’s something I have never expected, to go to touring in Greece and since 4 years ago, I go there every year. It was more than a pleasure for me, it’s something like going back to the roots.
MG: Dub Inc are together since 1997. Why did you release your first album 6 years later, in 2003?
Dub: Well, it was the first real album that we released in 2003. But before that in 2001 and in 1999 also, we released two EPs and five songs.
MG: In your albums, you mix African, Asian and (latin) American music. You have been many times in Greece and you have a lot of fans here. Have you thought of using Greek music in your songs?
Dub: Maybe we will find some touch in one song. In my opinion, Greek music is very similar in some way to Arabic music. There are some colours very similar. When we compose a song, in our way, this song is not only because of our Arabic thing but also of Greek. My fancy for Arabic music comes from my fancy for Greek music. That’s why for me it has always been very important, this music. So I think in the next album, if we have some songs like this, it will come from Arabic culture but also because of our travelling in Greece. Maybe we will make some fusion of this. Generally, we come in Greece, we listen more to reggae because people that we meet there love reggae music and it is great music.
MG: Are you preparing any new material? Songs or albums?
Dub: Well we are not preparing something right now, because we are on tour. And we tour since October 2010. But we start to think about creating new songs in the next months. Because we are going to tour until December. And after holidays we will try to compose songs. We did so many travelling, so many trips around the world and we have been creating. It is amazing, very nice for us in our job that we are always creating, never bored… We always want to write some new songs.
MG: Do you distinguish any of your albums? Which was the one that - let's say - marked you as a band?
Dub: I think the last album for me was a step in our career. But there are some songs like “Rudeboy”. For me this song give us publicity, to be known everywhere. But we have some other songs like, “My Freestyle”. I love every song and if somebody tells me “Play me that song”, I’m happy to play that.
MG: Many years ago, I have been in one of your concerts here in Athens, in Cosmos Festival, in Theatre Braxon, I think it was three years ago. I saw that you know how to make people dance. Do you believe one of the first things that reggae bands should have is their capability of doing great shows?
Dub: I think it’s not about reggae, it’s more about who we are. We speak a lot about social things, politics things. I think it’s because we are very sensitive of all these subjects. We care about people, we want to relieve all the stress, the bad things . We need to get rid of stress. For us dancing and being active on stage and see people dancing and screaming, is very important. It’s not mainly about reggae, it’s about people. I think that bringing people all together, is something important.
MG: I think that during this period of economic crisis, it’s important for people to smile.
Dub: It’s just our conception of our music. We also love music, I like to go to a concert and sit on a chair, but for us, you can’t sit on a chair. If we see people sitting on a chair, we say to them “come and dance with us”.
MG: Yes, I have seen that to your concert. I think that regarding the economic crisis, Greece is very famous in all these months. How do French people deal with economic crisis? Are there any big changes in your life in these two years?
Dub: Well, I think it started with Greece that people had to live with crisis. Because, Greece was the first really hard example of the crisis and now I think that everybody understands that what happened in Greece also happens everywhere in Europe. It’s just a question of time. So, I think everybody is scared of what will happen. What I saw in Asia, France, was more like, “Greece is in a very bad situation, we have to end that”. It’s like we can see now the limit of capitalism and everything is breaking down. It’s just like we wait for what will happen and we don’t really know what will happen, because I think economy is not controlled anymore…
MG: Let’s get back to music. Nowadays, many bands prefer to release a lot of singles in digital format. Maybe, we return to the 60s mood of vinyl and many singles that bands released. Do you believe that we music will change and we prefer more singles than albums?
Dub: We release some singles, just for download but we are also from the generation who create albums. We are trying to adapt right now, to this new way of business for music. It’s just not really easy for us, because when we started music it was not like this, and we have to adapt ourselves to this new thing. Maybe in three or four years we will be releasing only singles…
MG: And what do you listen to right now. Can you give us 5 albums you like to listen to these days?
Dub: One of the last albums I really enjoyed is from Damian Marley and the American rap singer Nas (Distant Relatives – 2010), which is for me an example of perfect music, perfect mix between different music, perfect lyrics. For me it’s one of the main albums.
MG: So let’s finish this interview with a classic question, for the fans of Dub Inc. What to expect in your shows in Greece?
Dub: We are going to give the best of our forces, we are going to sing lots of the new album songs and also we are going to try to give the best of our music to people.
MG: Thank you very much for your time! See you in Athens.
Dub: Thank you very much. Efharisto poli!
Zigo's Interview @ Mix Grill
His name is Gregory - Zigo - Mavridorakis. His band is Dub Incorporation and tonight they are going to rock in Athens!
MG: So, the Greek name of Zigo is Gregory? Am I right?
Dub: My real name is Gregory Mavridorakis.
MG: And you come from Crete?
Dub: My grandfather is from Crete.
MG: And what is your relationship with Crete? Do you have any relatives there? Any house?
Dub: For the first time I have met my relatives in Crete last year during a tour. I rent a car and I knew only the name of the village of my grandfather, so I‘ve been there and I‘ve been in a bar and I told to a woman my name, and she told me “Hey we have the same name”. And I said that’s because I come from your village and finally, I met my relatives there, during a tour. It was really cool for me!
MG: It is near Hania or Herakleio?
Dub: It’s a village called Hordaki, near Hania.
MG: It’s very beautiful in Crete.Dub: It’s something I have never expected, to go to touring in Greece and since 4 years ago, I go there every year. It was more than a pleasure for me, it’s something like going back to the roots.
MG: Dub Inc are together since 1997. Why did you release your first album 6 years later, in 2003?
Dub: Well, it was the first real album that we released in 2003. But before that in 2001 and in 1999 also, we released two EPs and five songs.
MG: In your albums, you mix African, Asian and (latin) American music. You have been many times in Greece and you have a lot of fans here. Have you thought of using Greek music in your songs?
Dub: Maybe we will find some touch in one song. In my opinion, Greek music is very similar in some way to Arabic music. There are some colours very similar. When we compose a song, in our way, this song is not only because of our Arabic thing but also of Greek. My fancy for Arabic music comes from my fancy for Greek music. That’s why for me it has always been very important, this music. So I think in the next album, if we have some songs like this, it will come from Arabic culture but also because of our travelling in Greece. Maybe we will make some fusion of this. Generally, we come in Greece, we listen more to reggae because people that we meet there love reggae music and it is great music.
MG: Are you preparing any new material? Songs or albums?
Dub: Well we are not preparing something right now, because we are on tour. And we tour since October 2010. But we start to think about creating new songs in the next months. Because we are going to tour until December. And after holidays we will try to compose songs. We did so many travelling, so many trips around the world and we have been creating. It is amazing, very nice for us in our job that we are always creating, never bored… We always want to write some new songs.
MG: Do you distinguish any of your albums? Which was the one that - let's say - marked you as a band?Dub: I think the last album for me was a step in our career. But there are some songs like “Rudeboy”. For me this song give us publicity, to be known everywhere. But we have some other songs like, “My Freestyle”. I love every song and if somebody tells me “Play me that song”, I’m happy to play that.
MG: Many years ago, I have been in one of your concerts here in Athens, in Cosmos Festival, in Theatre Braxon, I think it was three years ago. I saw that you know how to make people dance. Do you believe one of the first things that reggae bands should have is their capability of doing great shows?
Dub: I think it’s not about reggae, it’s more about who we are. We speak a lot about social things, politics things. I think it’s because we are very sensitive of all these subjects. We care about people, we want to relieve all the stress, the bad things . We need to get rid of stress. For us dancing and being active on stage and see people dancing and screaming, is very important. It’s not mainly about reggae, it’s about people. I think that bringing people all together, is something important.
MG: I think that during this period of economic crisis, it’s important for people to smile.
Dub: It’s just our conception of our music. We also love music, I like to go to a concert and sit on a chair, but for us, you can’t sit on a chair. If we see people sitting on a chair, we say to them “come and dance with us”.
MG: Yes, I have seen that to your concert. I think that regarding the economic crisis, Greece is very famous in all these months. How do French people deal with economic crisis? Are there any big changes in your life in these two years?
Dub: Well, I think it started with Greece that people had to live with crisis. Because, Greece was the first really hard example of the crisis and now I think that everybody understands that what happened in Greece also happens everywhere in Europe. It’s just a question of time. So, I think everybody is scared of what will happen. What I saw in Asia, France, was more like, “Greece is in a very bad situation, we have to end that”. It’s like we can see now the limit of capitalism and everything is breaking down. It’s just like we wait for what will happen and we don’t really know what will happen, because I think economy is not controlled anymore…
MG: Let’s get back to music. Nowadays, many bands prefer to release a lot of singles in digital format. Maybe, we return to the 60s mood of vinyl and many singles that bands released. Do you believe that we music will change and we prefer more singles than albums? Dub: We release some singles, just for download but we are also from the generation who create albums. We are trying to adapt right now, to this new way of business for music. It’s just not really easy for us, because when we started music it was not like this, and we have to adapt ourselves to this new thing. Maybe in three or four years we will be releasing only singles…
MG: And what do you listen to right now. Can you give us 5 albums you like to listen to these days?
Dub: One of the last albums I really enjoyed is from Damian Marley and the American rap singer Nas (Distant Relatives – 2010), which is for me an example of perfect music, perfect mix between different music, perfect lyrics. For me it’s one of the main albums.
MG: So let’s finish this interview with a classic question, for the fans of Dub Inc. What to expect in your shows in Greece?
Dub: We are going to give the best of our forces, we are going to sing lots of the new album songs and also we are going to try to give the best of our music to people.
MG: Thank you very much for your time! See you in Athens.
Dub: Thank you very much. Efharisto poli!
Zigo's Interview @ Mix Grill