Fever Kids Interview

Words by Art Jefferson
Photography by Afroditi Festa and Eftychia Vlachou

The Parthenon, goddesses, Olympians, Plato, and lengthy engravings in the pages of history are immediate thoughts when discussing the city of Athens, Greece. However, if you scroll past the usual topics of talk pieces regarding Athens, and focus your attention on the creative happenings of the city, what you will discover are artists and musicians redefining a new meaning of Greek identity and modern cool. Fever Kids, the group consisting of singer, musician and songwriter Stella Chronopoulou aka Σtella and Alex, the guitarist for Keep Shelly in Athens, are fostering a wave of polished pop that is undeniably riveting.

Formed in 2011, the duo recorded sophisticated synthpop tracks like “Fantomas” and “Overrated”, which demonstrated their high level of class in the sound. After unveiling their songs “Happy End” and “Play Hard”, it didn’t take long for the Greek label Inner Ear to sign the two, releasing their record “Holding Grass”, a suave fitting of pop, electro and disco.

Although continually working on music with their respect individual projects, Fever Kids as a group are sure to make a splash in 2014.

Art Jefferson – How did the Fever Kids project come about?

Σtella – We knew each other from another music project (Expert Medicine) and got together at some point to jam without a specific goal in mind. After a while we got hooked and really started to like the outcome so we kept going.

Art Jefferson – Alex, you have been working with the Keep Shelly in Athens project, did you feel that the Fever Kids collaboration would present the opportunity to venture into more of a pop direction musically?

Alex – It’s been just a year since I’ve joined Keep Shelly In Athens as their live guitarist, but I’ve been a Fever Kid for over two years now. I enjoy different things – music wise – from each project.

Art Jefferson – Your single “Holding Grass” is out now. There are elements of dreampop, electro, and also bits of disco in there. Overall there is a seduction in the music. How would you describe the sound of Fever Kids?

Σtella – We want to make music that feels true, is simple in its way, and easy to connect with. Hopefully those are good enough reasons for it to feel seductive too!

Art Jefferson – Talk about the story behind the song “Peter, Debbie, Mary”. Are the characters in the track inspired from real situations?

Σtella – All the people in the song exist. Some of them are mentioned by their real names, others not. Their stories inspired me to write about them.

Art Jefferson – Over the past few years, the country of Greece has experienced a lot of ups and downs due to the financial crisis. They say that the best creativity is generated during rough periods. How has the past situation of Greece affected you creatively? Or has it?

Σtella – We both lost or left our jobs because of the crisis. Happily for us, we had some money set aside and some time in our hands to be able to do what we always wanted in life – make music.

Art Jefferson – How does the creative process between you two? Do you construct the music first and then write based off of the sound, or do you generally write the lyrics first and produce the music around the content of the song?

Σtella – Usually we come up with a base line (that often changes along the way, always for the better) and that gives a reason to write about something. After finding a melody and some lyrics to help the flow, we continue working on the music and arrangement of the song together.

Art Jefferson – Athens in itself is visually one of the most inspiring places on earth. In your opinion, what are the most inspiring things about living in Athens as an artist and musician?

Σtella – Athens is our home. It’s where we both grew up, so we think it’s the best and the worst place on earth. If you ever came to live here, that’s something you’d realize yourself after a while – how friendly and not so friendly it can be, how easy going and not so easy, how loving and not so loving, and so on. It’s a city of big contrasts, and maybe that’s where the charm lies.