Sidesteps
FAULT: What’s the story behind SideSteps?
SideSteps: SideSteps was a forum nickname. It represented my way of approaching women (not straight in their face, but subliminally, dominating their minds). Soon it became a way of life. Imagine a line, where everybody walks on. This is the mass, the flow. My heart tells me now to sidestep the flow and overcome them, following my own way. When I decided to create the project, I didn’t have to look for a name, it was already there waiting. Right now the band is a trio, Mr.SideSteps (me), Justin Gistelink & Gaetan Vandamme. They were my producers in the beginning, we got really well together and decided to give it a try as a band. We have fun together, we made a couple of trips already, the best one’s that in Oslo, for the videoclip of ‘The Heartbreak Song’. They embraced the name and its whole philosophy as well.
FAULT: What’s the creative process when writing new material? Is it a collaborative effort?
SideSteps: It started like this. I had written some songs digitally and when I found the chance, due to my moving from Greece to Belgium, we tried to record them with real instruments and good production, so that all my work could get finally alive. As about the process, a melody comes in mind. Then I write it down, usually digitally in my computer, then enrich it with more electronic instruments and synths, and improvise on it. Whatever I like stays. Bassline is important for me. I treat it like drums, but with melody. In general, usually music comes first, then the lyrics, like Rammstein do. Then some parts change, so that the whole result can be more intriguing, I hate boring things. Anyways, my everything comes from within. This is why it works out, I guess.
FAULT: How do you prepare yourself before a live show?
SideSteps: We’re a strange band. Our first performance was the playback in the videoclip! We haven’t performed live yet. We recorded the album, had some press shots, shot the videoclip and organized the band and afterwards, we’ll start rehearsing. We tried to make the songs playable live and danceable. Don’t know if we made it, we’ll see.
FAULT: Do you have a creative input when it comes to press shots, album artwork and videos?
SideSteps: Our creativity is only used to find the right artists we can trust, collaborate properly with and of course like their work. Then the ball is on their side. We let them work the way they want and express their feelings without distractions. Say, like I would never write a song the way other people would like me to, that way I don’t want to interfere with their job.
FAULT: What is the most challenging aspect of being a musician?
SideSteps: The fact that you can perceive reality in a different way than the others do.This can open doors you could not see before. It gives you a deeper understanding of yourself. How it works for me, first I write a song and then try to understand why I wrote it this way or why I liked it more than the others. Makes me hunt hidden feelings in a subliminal mist. This is why our motto is “Dare To Discover Yourself”.
FAULT: Do your music reflect your personality?
SideSteps: Music IS my personality. Sometimes, when I don’t feel well or cannot fully understand why I did something, I turn to our music and have a listen.It reminds me of who I really am… and put my pieces back together. Cause writing words in a paper stays in centuries, but dressing the lyrics with a nice soundtrack, it stays in eternity.
FAULT: What do you think the future holds the music industry?
SideSteps: Seriously, ‘music industry’, as we know it, is dead. Whoever became a rockstar already, that’s it. Now we’re in an era of rich music diversity and independence. Everyone can grab a mic, record a song and upload it in social media for others to evaluate. And this is the era of FREE. As Chris Anderson, the Editor-in-Chief of ‘Wired’ said in his book ‘FREE’, “the more products are made of ideas, rather than stuff, the faster they can get cheap. This is the root of the abundance that leads to FREE in the digital world”. And artists (and labels as well!) should keep that in mind and face it, why not find methods to take advantage of it, instead of fight it. Artists should turn to other ways of spreading their music, such as taking part in competitions (there are numerous digital contests out there, hungry for new participants). Like we did, and now we’re the winning entry for Belgium in EuroDemo Santander2016 pop/rock competition, representing the country in the official CD release.
FAULT: Are you inspired by music? What are you currently listening to?
SideSteps: Absolutely. Even a bird’s tweet is music. And it’s more magical than what we like to call ‘music’ because it’s natural. This is why we try to discover ourselves first and then turn it into music. To produce a result that’s natural. Listening to: Placebo, Moonspell, She Wants Revenge, The Big Pink, UNKLE. Some songs that stuck in my mind: Seventh Seance – I Could Forget Myself, White Lies – Place To Hide (Un Autre Monde by Mirrors), Junior Boys – Parallel Lines, Future Funk Squad – Kissing Air, I Got You On Tape – Somersault (Money Your Love Remix).
FAULT: What is your work ethic?
SideSteps: Personally, I’m not an easy person to work with. Trust doesn’t come out easily off of me. What we try to do, to have best results, is find people we can really trust, in the first place. Then evaluate their artistic abilities. If they pass these tests, we can start the hard work until we succeed the goal we had in mind, to make things as originally imagined. In my work ethic, sociability comes in one of the first places of the hierarchy. Can’t stand people that keep their feelings for themselves.
FAULT: What does the next year hold for you?
SideSteps: Can’t tell. This is why it’s absolutely amazing. We’ve made some plans, but in the end I think more than that will occur. There’s always a term you cannot rely on. The unexpected. It could bring a disaster (Really? I don’t think so, we’re right on the start, we have nothing to lose. We’re like outsiders) or good news, like to get discovered by a magazine via MySpace (laugh). We hope to get heard more, cause we strongly believe we deserve it and we’ve let passion be our guide. For your info, our first EP will be physically release on December the 9th. Pre-ordering is available.
FAULT: What is your FAULT?
SideSteps: Fault is the leader of my creating process. Without it we would be nothing. Fault is my hidden desire, what attracts me.
You can download the SideSteps’ debut EP for FREE here
http://www.facebook.com/sidesteps