Live music and touring are on lockdown right now and fans as well as artists are going through withdrawals. We wanted to come up with something fun to help bridge that distance between fans and artists right now. What we came up with is something called The Lockdown Lowdown and it’s a Q&A session with fun questions for artists to answer. They’re not your typical interview questions, so it gives you a peek inside of the artists themselves. We’re big music nerds here at I’m Music Magazine and we love learning things like this about the artists that we love. We’re pretty sure that you’ll get a kick out of these, so we hope you’ll take the time to read them. In this installment , we spoke with Kyriakos “Charlie” Tsiolis of Aftermath!
How have you been doing during the pandemic and how are you spending your time?
Kyriakos “Charlie” Tsiolis of Aftermath: Actually nothing changed for me personally during the “pandemic”. I have a job outside the band and we have been deemed “essential” a.k.a “we don’t give a shit about you guys”. So I have worked through this nonsense. As a band, we haven’t been impacted from a touring standpoint or releasing music. We released a cover of “Give Peace a Chance” right when this “crisis” started. When we recorded the track it was a response to the potential war we were about to get into with Iran. It was also a response to our last album called There is Something Wrong. It is a concept album whose message is all about the fucked up world we live in and how those in control want to divide us and therefore control us. “Give Peace a Chance” was a positive message to the negative view on the album. When we released the video and single the war we were facing in Iran was gone, but the message for peace in a time of uncertainty was just as important. Now the looting and protests and rioting (because it’s all three) are here and the call for peace among the masses is really important.
Have you been working on new music?
We have been writing new material during this time. We just finished mixing one of the tracks. It’s called “No Time to Waste.” We look to be releasing that song sometime this summer.
Name five albums that changed your life.
KISS – Rock N Roll Over
Van Halen – Women and Children First
Van Halen – Fair Warning
Pink Floyd- The Wall
Slayer – Reign in Blood
Who are five artists that influenced you as a musician?
I have been asked this a lot over the years. I don’t have any real influences; I have musicians I respect. When I first got into music I wanted to play guitar. Ace was my favorite KISS member. Eddie Van Halen is my favorite musician. But, I don’t play guitar so I really can’t claim anyone as an influence.
My favorite musician is Eddie Van Halen.
What are your five favorite live albums
Not a real fan of live albums.
Life on the road; what are five of your craziest/funniest/scariest tour stories?
We were driving from Chicago to Minneapolis in the middle of winter years ago. It was like a caravan. The weather was horrible – cold, snow and ice. We literally couldn’t drive more than 5 miles an hour for most of the trip without jackknifing. We had never been so scared and close to death. We finally get there and it was freezing. The coldest day I have ever experienced and I’m from Chicago. We almost died to play to like 20 people. That obviously sticks out.
We were playing this small club in a college town. The venue was next to a sports bar. They didn’t seem to like long hair metal dudes. Steve the guitarist was making out with this girl and these stupid jocks start yelling check out those two girls. It pissed me off so I go off on them. Me and my brother actually walk into their bar and it breaks out into a bar brawl like you see in the movies. It was the two of us against 10 of these big no-neck idiots. Our cousin who was with us eventually comes in and breaks it up. He sticks around after we leave and tells these dudes: are you guys crazy those two are insane they live in Chicago and may come back and kill you. They have no fear (and we really didn’t). They end up buying him shots and thanking him. We had a lot of those types of stories.
We were playing a show in Lapeer Michigan as Mother God Moviestar (that’s a whole different story) opening for Coal Chamber. During the show I was talking to the crowd and was telling them something about the pit and fuck the coasts. Coal Chamber thought I was saying fuck Coal Chamber. The pit got so violent that some of their guitars were smashed as well. Our booking agent dropped us after that show. The response and crowd was amazing that night.
Our very first show was in 1986. We had no idea how it would go. My younger brother was right up front. The music starts and the crowd went crazy. Next thing I see is my brother on the stage trying to find his glasses. Now that was funny.
We were playing a show early in our career. We were really a crossover thrash band back then. Smoking was allowed at venues. Some dude in the front row was trying to light a cigarette and our bass player stops playing, digs through his pocket to find a lighter, then reaches over and lights the dude’s cigarette. I have never seen that before.
What are your five favorite movies?
Warriors and Saturday Night Fever are my favorite. The rest don’t stand out as much.
What’s the best and worst advice you ever heard?
Best advice was “hold off on taking a piss while drinking because once you turn on the faucet you can’t turn it off.” Worst advice ever: I was in a band called Stripping the Pistol. We decided to showcase for 6 major labels without ever playing live or having a permanent drummer or bass player. It didn’t go well. Should have listened to our manager.
What’s the strangest thing you ever autographed?
Yes, I have actually signed a girl’s chest. I guess that would be it.
If music was over today and you had to go into professional wrestling, what would your wrestling name be?
Not really sure how to answer this one since I’m not really into it. But, I would go Zoidy. That is the name of our band mascot.
