1000mods: Youth Of Dissent

While it’s something of an understatement to say that things have become a struggle for the music industry over the past few months, it’s hopefully a time to be creative and to push to make better music and come together in a different way as a community. For seasoned rock outfit 1000MODS, this is just the next instalment in a line of hard socio-economic times. We caught up with drummer Labros G. about the nature of writing, the solace in music and the pursuit of more diverse sounds on their new record Youth of Dissent.

In the wake of all that’s going on globally, it’s easy to forget that countries like Greece had some pretty troubling times in the past ten years. However, from that chaotic time there was a silver lining. “The music scene in Greece skyrocketed during the economic crisis of the past decade,” Labros tells us. “The crisis was actually a catalyst for bands, as it made them focus on their music, given the fact that all other options collapsed. It also resulted in other people being inspired by these bands and start new ones in order to express their thoughts and feelings during these hard times. The fans realised that there was a powerful scene happening, and bands of high quality, putting their energy and soul in music were just around the corner. Everyone started looking for local underground gems rather than just waiting for the big summer festivals with all the household names.”

1000MODS have a huge range of genre influences, so it’s hard even after fourteen years of playing together to really box their sound into one genre. In the essence of it, the reason that 1000MODS has succeeded for such a long time isn’t the chase to be one sound, but to create something worthwhile. “Music has always been a mean of direct expression of freedom,” discusses Labrod with an insightful tone. “When we jam, play gigs, compose new music, we always pursue this state of freedom and we hope our fans feel the same when they listen to it. This time we experimented a lot with different sounds, pedals and amps but also with different guitars and tunings, in order to colour our sound in an accurate manner and deliver each and every song the best possible way. Bringing Matt Bayles on board helped us a lot, to broaden our horizons and reach peaks we never thought possible.”

While Youth Of Dissent was recorded long before the current situation got to where it is, it’s themes are probably more appropriate now than they ever could be. “I think the album mostly expresses our thoughts and feelings about the situation around us and the harsh reality of our times,” Labros agrees with the timely coinciding of the album’s release, “Our focus was to try and express ourselves as much as possible and to explore new musical paths, both together as a band and individually.”

As any fans can expect, there’s some big moments and a lot of powerful, uplifting, hard hitting and groove laden songs on Youth Of Dissent. Naturally each song is its own pocket of emotion and has its own identity, but as a collective, it has a meaning for listeners that’s encapsulated in the name itself. “First of all, we hope that everyone will have an enjoyable listen. We put a lot of effort and soul in this one and it will be really rewarding if people embrace it. This album, just like the title says, is for the Youth of Dissent, meaning people who step up, raise their voices and stand up for their beliefs. It’s about the never-ending search for your unique voice and about improving upon yourself day-by-day. Especially in harsh times like these, nothing is more important than not compromising and never giving up. Our time has come for we – all together – are the Youth of Dissent!”

The nature of preforming and producing music, while a personal journey initially, has a long-lasting effect as a team of people, and that’s certainly the case for 1000MODS. “As you grow older, you evolve and change,” Labros agrees astutely. “Of course, the band has moved forward a lot all these years, achieving things beyond our expectations. We travelled the world and shared our music with people, in places we never thought we would ever visit. All these experiences broaden one’s horizons at least! I think that after all these years, our main effort is to evolve more and become better people.”

After their last full-length album Repeated Expose To… back in 2016, the band have bee touring constantly and continued to challenge themselves for their new record. “There is always experimentation and new ways to approach songs and ideas and I think this will never end,” Labros affirms, “There is no “magic recipe” and nor do we get stuck on things that ‘worked’ in the past. Jamming has always been our way for generating new ideas or finalising existing ones. On this album we brought a lot of riffs and songs to the rehearsal space and they were finalised there. I have plenty of different memories from the composition process and a lot of good ones too. There were quite a few times that we got excited with a riff or a song! We spent almost every day of the summer of 2019 in our rehearsal space in Athens, just the four of us, working on our new songs. Great times!”

While reminiscing and thinking over the album-making itself is all well and good, it’s obvious that 1000MODS can’t wait to get back to connecting live. “To be honest, we were really looking forward to these tours and we couldn’t wait to visit some of our favourite cities and venues, playing as many songs from the new album as possible. The big delay and the uncertainty of when we are going to be able to play a live show again makes the urge much bigger.”

Even in these times, when what will happen day to day seems like a turbulent worry, what we have to remember is how to hold ourselves steady in the storm, and what grounds us. “Music has always been a shelter for people in hard times. Not only during wars and pandemics, but also when there was a personal loss, a break-up, or even when someone needed help to get through adolescence,” he tells us perceptively. “Music is ever-present, helping people to relax, or even thinking deep and motivating them to move forward. Music is a universal language and has no boundaries. It’s one of the very few things that bring people from all around the world together as one.”

Youth of Dissent is out now via Ouga Booga And The Mighty Oug Recordings.

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