Twinsanity (Greece) Blackout Hip Hop Interview

The fact is that quality hip-hop lives everywhere in the world. All you gotta do is to dig it out. Greece, for example, has a lot to show and to be proud of. For that reason, with a new interview Blackouthiphop presents Twinsanity; a Greek duo of British origins well worth of your time, formed by twin brothers Giannis and Raymond a.k.a. Linkone and Eyekonik, born in 1993. The two MC’s are active from 2014 and since then they have released two studio albums; The Quest in 2016 and Vulture Culture in 2019. Their music is based on heavy social concerns, everyday hardships, dark atmospheres, ominous instrumentals, exceptional flows, catchy hooks and dope cuts, all made on grinding streets of Athens.
I had a pleasure of having a virtual sit-down with the brothers and throwing a few questions at ‘em. This is what they’ve said.

Re:tro flava: First thing’s first, congratulations for signing with Melting Records and for releasing your second studio album Vulture Culture. It’s one hell of a record, a pure pleasure to listen to! It has been three years between the two LP’s so I daresay you took it slow to record is properly. How did it go down? Are you satisfied with the outcome?

Linkone: Thanks a lot bro, really appreciate the love. It was a pleasure to work with Melting Records as they are good friends and we really respect the work they put out as an independent label. The reason we took it slow with our second album is because it was an experiential process. All of the tracks on the album are personal so everything happened very organically. We went through life experiences and whenever we thought we were on the same page and had something substantial to express, a track was written and then recorded. For these reasons the project took some time.

Re:tro flava: Up until now you have worked with Greek-based MC’s like Zoro & Buzz, Naal and MC Yinka. Do you desire to collaborate with MC’s outside your country borders, given the fact that you rap in English? Any particular artists in mind?

Linkone: We always find joy in collaborating with artists/people we respect such as the one’s you mentioned and many more. Last year we had our first international collaboration with Bless from Shahmen. A really unique MC which we highly respect as a lyricist, so yeah man we are always open for collaborations with artists all over the globe. We consider music one of the strongest forms to connect with people from different backgrounds. They are many artists we have in mind which we would love to get to know and collaborate with, not necessarily only hip-hop artists. We are currently discussing a project with Bonsai Three, a dope experimental jazz band from Greece.

Re:tro flava: Collabs with live bands always sound promising, especially when it comes to jazz artists. Looking forward to that!
Vulture Culture also features some fantastic names from the beat-making world, like El Jazzy Chavo and Rateone from Greece for example, but also Guib from the French duo Ours Samplus. Can we expect more of admirable producers on your future projects?

Eyekonik: You can definitely count on that bro. We are constantly on the lookout for producers which we dig their vibe. It is important to us to keep on being diverse with the beats we choose, that’s why you will notice that on both of our albums we have not only worked with one producer, but with a variety of different artists. Repetition generally bores us, so keeping it fresh and interesting is always an artistic aim.

Re:tro flava: After the release of the second album, you had some new singles coming in, like the latest track Fears & Demons. Are you already in preparations for the third LP?

Eyekonik: For the time being we are not focusing on a third album. We both mutually feel like we want to experiment with different projects and discover new paths and influences to motivate us towards new ideas. You are certainly going to see lots of new singles and collaborations on our music platforms, but until we feel the need to express something on a full-length project, we are going to focus on discovery and evolving as artists.

Re:tro flava: I have to say, Fears & Demons got me a whole hell of goosebumps. I was listening to it on repeat like hypnotized and Junk33 did an outstanding job with the beat. Tell me, who’s idea was it to invite Wera on the track to add even more eerie ambience with her mesmerizing cello skills to the instrumental that is as bone-chilling as it is?

Eyekonik: Fears & Demons is also one of our favorite tracks up until now on all levels. It was an absolute honour working on this track with Wera, Junk33 and DJ Micro on the sound engineering and creative edit. We basically met Wera while she was busking in Athens with her cello and we were mind blown by the music. She was basically combing cello, singing and looping in such a unique style which captivated us and everyone else on the street. We had a spontaneous jam with her that day and then discussed creating something together. The exact next day we met at Bashment Records studio and two weeks later the track was ready.

Re:tro flava: The Colombian street artist FLEMA did the artwork for front covers featured on both of your albums, and both covers have people wearing skull masks. Do those have a specific meaning?

Linkone: Working with our Colombian brother was one of our most organic collaborations. Before connecting with FLEMA, we used to follow his work on social media and we were big fans of his artwork, so it was only natural to ask him to create the cover for our first album “The Quest”. The outcome was amazing and on point so from that moment and on we have collaborated with him on most of our major projects and will continue to do so. The skulls have no deeper meaning or symbolism to them, they are just fucking dope.

Re:tro flava: To my extreme liking, I’ve noticed that you were poking in other genres a bit, like with drum’n’bass on the Rising and Kicking song from The Quest album. Apart from jazz that you have mentioned earlier, can we look forward to more similar experimenting in the future? What do you listen to besides hip-hop?

Eyekonik: We always have a great time performing Rising and Kicking at our live shows. D&B is a great way to hype up and get energetic on stage. We are currently working on a couple of new D&B tracks, one of them is going to be a special collaboration with our sister El Stefanato; an upcoming Greek artist in the scene which experiments with hip-hop/trip-hop vibes. We are also blessed to have Junior SP. providing us with great D&B productions. He is basically a scholar of the craft and has been actively engaged with the scene since 1994. We are always constantly listening to different genres of music as it inspires us on all levels, even lyrically. Music creates imagery to your mind so for us it is really vital to our creative process. We also hold strong influences from reggae culture as our first steps in music were busking in Athens for many years on the guitar accompanied by reggae rhythms.

Re:tro flava: When did you two figure out that the hip-hop game is your path to follow? Did you have any projects going on before forming Twinsanity in 2014?

Eyekonik: We have always in one way or another flirted with hip-hop culture. It all started in 2007 when we took our first steps in the graffiti scene. That opened up our eyes to a whole different world and paved the way to the music. Before forming Twinsanity we mostly jammed and did freestyles at school. After that we shaped a reggae/hip-hop band with a friend of ours. The idea of chasing music and putting our heart and soul into it came to us while we were serving our military duties at the age of 19 (we say duties because in Greece joining the army is mandatory). We had plenty of time during that period to focus on what is important to us and what we are truly passionate about in life. After finishing the army, we started busking daily in Athens in means of making money and chasing our dream. This was a truly romantic time for us and all the experiences accumulated on the street basically formed our first album. But we didn’t have a good sense of direction on where exactly we want to go with our music. Busking on the street can be a very chaotic process. We were lucky enough to get discovered by and old school Greek hip-hop artist named Melodos from the Skies Crew which later on introduced us to Bashment studio and at that point we started recording our stuff, linking up with producers and the whole hip-hop scene in Greece. Later on, we joined Bashment Records label and from that point on things started flowing in our career.

Re:tro flava: Since you’ve been through a lot, I bet there is plenty of funny stories to share. Care to share one? What was your favorite gig?

Linkone: The truth is that every single live show is a unique experience for us, from performing on the streets to performing in squats and festivals all over Greece, you get a different vibe every single time. If we had to choose though it would have to be our album presentations because they are more personal to us and we feel that we have a deeper connection due to the amount of love we receive from our fans.
Having to pick a funny tour story is also very hard. What can we say… From being late for a gig in the country and almost [accidentally] diving of a cliff with the van so we can get there in time, from being stopped by the police and getting fined for speeding, from losing our DJ 10 minutes before the start of our show at a major festival… We could go on forever and they are some stories that should never be told.

Re:tro flava: Damn, diving of a cliff? Now that’s messed up.

Linkone: [laughs] That is routine mate.

Re:tro flava: What do you do besides rapping? Do you have interests in other creative fields?

Eyekonik: Besides rapping most of our creative time is spent on painting from graffiti lettering to more abstract approaches, we have our own clothing apparel which goes by the name of Blad Wellington [@ bladwellington] which you can check out on Instagram. It is currently undergoing construction as we are building a new collection.

Re:tro flava: What’s your take on the hip-hop scene in Greece? Can you recommend some quality Greek artists to our readers at Blackouthiphop?

Eyekonik: I think we can safely say that the hip-hop scene in Greece right now is extremely strong and united, from an artist perspective and as a fan, to the point of a social phenomenon, especially the past 2-3 years. We think a good reason behind this is that Greece has been in a deep economical-social crisis for many years now and most of our underground artists are politically-socially inclined and the people can relate to that. But besides this fact we have a lot of talented lyricists. So, let’s highlight a few: Taburo Bota, Taf Lathos, Rammenos Assos, Fer De Lance, Zoro & Buzz, Zografos, Logos Timis, Lex, Novel 729, Sadomas, Agnwstos Xeimwnas, L.O.S, Oxynous, MC Yinka, Stixoima, Afezz, NIO.STE, Muddy Vibez, Razastarr, Psychodrama07, Vhta peis, 12os Pithikos, FFC, TXC, Anser, Thanasimos, No Hard Feelings, Skiaxtro, Bloody Hawk, Eisvoleas, and many, many more.

Re:tro flava: Thank you guys, it was quite a pleasure having such a detailed interview with you. Do you have any last words, shout-outs?

Linkone: Thanks for a really interesting chat, the pleasure is all ours! Big up Blackouthiphop for keeping the culture alive. Shout out to our family Bashment Records, to Junior SP and Innersense Productions. Shout out to Oliver Whitehouse for linking us with Irvin. Peace and love man!

Eyekonik: Shout out to you Irvin for the quality convo, shout out to everybody supporting us and supporting Blackouthiphop’s dope blog. Stay real to yourselves and stay strong in these hard times. One love!

LINKS:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/twinsanitycrew

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/twinsanityofficial/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMGN-LlWC1JT7mWPbv4xP6A?view_as=subscriber

Bandcamp: https://melting-records.bandcamp.com/album/vulture-culture

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2Aa2G02wFlzF8jrEJPRddG