Traditional Greek music doesn’t tend to go hand in hand with progressive rock and metal music, but an all-Greek Australian girl band in Adelaide is fusing them in perfect harmony.
We really are a team and we get along really well and it’s just such a great pleasure sharing the stage with such great people.
Lipsmack is made up of Shivon Karanicolas on bass and backing vocals, Sundy Mantis on guitar and vocals, Anjo Zervas on drums and Angela Mountzouris on keyboard.
They describe their musical tastes as broad.
“We all have our own individual preferences,” Sundy says.
“I listen to more of the grungy ’90s stuff – Nirvana, Pearl Jam, that kind of thing.”
But Shivon, who’s more into prog rock and metal, as well as the traditional Greek music, says their individual styles come together well.
“We all integrate our own personal tastes and apply them to a common goal,” she says.
The band doesn’t have a bouzouki player, and they don’t play in Greek taverns, but Shivon insists the traditional Greek sounds can be heard in their music.
“A lot of progressive bands use a lot of cultural and tribal sounds, so Greek influences are being used in new music to create new sounds,” she says.
“We’re trying to bring back those vintage sounds, and the more we’re progressing, the more we’re able to utilise our influences better.”
Although they are all only 16 or 17 now, the band first formed three years ago, meeting at their parents’ houses for rehearsals.
It was only late last year that they started performing live.
“We just kept thinking, ‘we’re not ready yet,'” Shivon says.
“But then this guy called Frank came along and said we were ready and we should start gigging.”
Frank Vardaro is Lipsmack’s manager, and it was he who got the group their first gig almost a year ago.
Since then, the girls explain, they’ve been playing most weekends. And for the girls, who are all in year 10 or 11 at school, this presents a challenge.
“We have to juggle band practice and school,” Sundy says.
The girls practice around two or three times a week after school, and perform on weekends.
But they make sure they leave enough time to study for tests.
“I know there’s an expectation to fulfil good grades,” Shivon says.
Luckily, several of the girls are studying music at school, and they all hope to go on to play music as a career.
Both Sundy and Shivon say they’ve always wanted to be professional musicians.
“When I was in the womb, my mum played me music,” Shivon says.
Like Kate Bush and Tori Amos, and I love all those women now.”
The girls go to different high schools in Adelaide, and met through mutual friends. The band was first formed online, through chat program MSN.
“In Adelaide, there’s about one degree of separation,” Shivon says.
But it was pure coincidence that they are all Greek Australian.
Shivon explains that when her mum took her to rehearsal, she didn’t realise all the girls were Greek.
“Because everyone calls Sundy, ‘Sundy’ – her real name’s Alexandra – so everyone thought she was Indian,” Shivon says.
Since those initial rehearsals, Lipsmack has hit the ground running.
At the moment, the group is focusing on their upcoming gigs in Adelaide and Melbourne, as well as recording a single, ‘Monster’, for a compilation EP of local bands.
Not to mention end of year exams.
Sundy says her highlight with Lipsmack so far has been the interstate travel, such as when they were selected to fly to Melbourne to perform on the music TV show, Toasted TV, on Channel 10.
But, for Shivon, she’s just enjoying the company.
“My biggest highlight is just the band, just hanging out with the girls,” she says.
“We really are a team and we get along really well and it’s just such a great pleasure sharing the stage with such great people.”
And with such a great fusion of influences and personalities, Lipsmack hope to continue to play together for a long time.
“We thing it’s a definite possibility,” Shivon says.
“We just have to keep working at it and working at it – we’ll probably be working at it forever.”
For more information on upcoming gigs in Adelaide and Melbourne, go to Lipsmack’s myspace page: www.myspace.com/lipsmackbandd/