Jussi: Greetings. Wanted to say before we dig into this interview here the groups latest CD is a powerhouse with such an eclectic zest. How did KINETIC pull this off?
Savvas Bentinis: Hello and thank you for this chance on presentation! I am Savvas Betinis, bass/vocals in KINETIC. This CD is our 1st full-length effort and we gave our best on any point of it. As personalities we are into the scene since 1989, with other acts of course. KINETIC is a dream that came true by four persons who want to have a 2nd and better chance of making something good. Till now things are going really good and I wish this course not to be changed in the future.

Jussi: Heard that there was a bad timing for a European tour that was to happen for the band? Why the fallout?
Savvas: We had a chance of making a 15-days tour in some European countries with a known Black Metal band… better, our label told us that it could be arranged for late March. At first thought we smiled happy! It isn’t a small thing for a new band like us to have such a chance having just our debut full-length out by a small independent label!!! This suggestion was from our label in early February and the tour was started in late March. Finally things worked too badly with our self-occupations. No one from us could take the necessary days off that period to follow this tour… So, we didn’t do it. We felt very disappointed at the moment, we could arrange all if we had some more time beside this 1 ½ month… anyway. We love KINETIC but unfortunately we have to have our own self-occupations to survive. At least we made to make a tour in Greece visiting enough Greek cities during the winter of 2005 and the hope of having one new chance for a European tour is in our minds.

Jussi: Being a band based out of Greece do you find it difficult to have a supporting scene that not only supports KINETIC but others in the metal music area in general?
Savvas: No and this was really exciting for us! We have played with Death Metal bands, with Power Metal bands, with Heavy/Epic ones… In Greece we had the biggest surprise that we got supported from Power/Epic scene more than Death/Black one! This gave us the thought “well, we have support from all genres means everyone love us!” Believe me, gaining fans from other music genres is more difficult and most important that just having your “own” audience in your back and the support that Power/Epic genre gave us is something that we won’t forget ever!

Jussi: From digging up some reviewing info on the bands latest The Chains That Bind Us there are pretty astounding write ups about this CD. Do you think the sound approach sets KINETIC apart from other more traditional styles of metal?
Savvas: Ehhh… Well, I believe this is a question that has to be answered by the people who have our CD in their house! I dare say that we really “died” these 7 months that the recordings lasted, Stavros, our guitarist, who was on sound-engineer’s chair was many times with his hands over his head shouting “Fuck, I could do that better!”, all of us spent so many hours on everything…Fortunately we have our own recording studio or else if we had to pay for all these hours on CD’s recordings we rather would sold all our equipment for get the necessary money for its paying. With few words we tried our 100%. I think some people have a really good opinion for the result as some other have a rather bad one! But on the other hand you can be taught even by a bad review!!!

Jussi: KINETIC’s musical influences draw some pretty talented creations style wise with each individual member, what I noticed that there are Swedish/American elements mixed in combination of Thrash, Progressive and Death Metal does this in anyway push the limits on how the band evolves musically?
Savvas: Yes, you are correct. Our personal influences come from all these genres. I came from Death Metal, having my previous band, Acid Death for 12 years, one of the few Progressive Death Metal bands Greece had, Manolis Mammas and Stavros Bonikos, our guitarists came from Power Metal, having another band called Brain Fade for enough years too and Costas Alexakis, our drummer, had a Heavy Metal band called Wisdom. We just bring all these influences in KINETIC and in our early days there were many friends that had the bad words in their mouth like “Hey, what the hell do you wanna do???” I think this is our secret; we made to mix all these sometimes-different influences in a good level. And I won’t ever say that this was a kind of “problem” for KINETIC.

Jussi: Since being a new band to the metal scene do you find it hard to establish a name for yourselves considering how varied KINETIC’s sound is?
Savvas: Mmmm… Believe me it was a real nightmare! Well, the first thought was Zero, having in mind that four persons begin something new from “0” point. Nothing special and on the other hand there were sometimes that someone was smiling when Zero was heard… So… new search. The one was already on a band’s head, the other was big and difficult, the third was just a meaningless word, “This? Oh no… too evil. That? Mmm… we play White Pop Metal don’t we?” Things turned over in a rehearsal when Costas had the idea of KINETIC… The philosophy behind it was something that we really liked…”something unfolds, something that is unstagnant”. Having a good look in Internet we saw that there wasn’t any band in Metal genre that holds it. So we kept it. In fact there is another one with the same name but in a totally different music genre…

Jussi: There is mentioning that with The Chains That Bind Us, is an album with deep musical substance and lyrical depth can you explain as to why this is being that there are readers that would like to know more into this?
Savvas: The CD title is a small description on what we say in our lyrics. Generally our lyrics have to do with human emotions, touching them with a horrible or even hate feeling. All these emotions can be described as “Chains” that either “bring together” or just “tie” the humans. I think it is clear by seeing the CD cover, with all these chains into the fire and a small light over them…

Jussi: If there was one song on this CD that would describe the band, what song would that be and why?
Savvas: That’s a difficult question…since I really love all the songs in the CD… Let’s say Never Ending Winter just because it includes all our influences in a really good level something that is clearer here than any other song.

Jussi: Seeing that the band is on a small label, the group does not mind doing their own promotional footwork via seeking self-publicity for the group (I’d figure this would be a challenge for most bands out there)?
Savvas: Being in a small label means that there are many things that the band has to do by itself. We always had the spirit that the “self-promotion” is an activity that we won’t lose it even if we will have the chance to be in a big label. Of course some things have to be in a different way, some contacts have to be done be the label…but we love KINETIC and we want to do the best for this “baby”.

Jussi: Was there anything that band wanted to change with this release in any regards to the overall recording or production?
Savvas: No, I don’t thing so. In fact, a musician wants to change things on a recording all the time having the though “This would be better if snare’s sound was more rough” or “If guitars were more like … the CD would be a real killer” and all these things, but finally the result remains almost the same. Most important for us is that we made a clear and strong production having the songs we could fix with the better way we knew.

Jussi: Any additional news about the band that we need to be aware of?
Savvas: Recently we made a second video-clip for Heed These Words song that is available for free downloading at this addres. This season we are preparing the songs for our next one. There is a lot of work to be done but we have the temper to make a really killer album.

Jussi: Where do you see the group in the next year? Plans on an EU tour?
Savvas: Mmmm…I really don’t know! Most important is to have a completed new song-set in a small time-space. We’d love to arrange a tour even without a 2nd full-length… Things are not easy because KINETIC is a very small name for all the people and there are many who just wait our next movements to trust us…

Jussi: What can you say is the best quality or character this band has that makes them like none other?
Savvas: The friendship between us. This was KINETIC ‘s base and will remain till the end.

Jussi: Thank you for allowing this interview with KINETIC. Keep us posted at Nocturnal Hall about the bands happenings in the future.