The Social End Products Interview with Sta Stea!

Tired of sampling your rock and roll only from the American school of musical psychedelia? Well, threat no more as we take a journey into the mind of Athens-based  quintet, The Social End Products. Drawing from the golden era of European psychedelia, the group captures all the pop rock spook-psych charm of the generation, but modernises it into a fresh, Greek package. - Interview conducted by Daniel Sharman.

Dan: Hi Sta, would you like to introduce yourself?

Sta: I'm the drummer and lead vocalist of the band. I also write the lyrics and some of the music.

Dan: Who else is in the band, and where is the band situated?

Sta: Manos plays guitar and performs vocals, Sara performs guitar/organ/vocals, Themos performs bass/vocals, and Myrto plays flute.

Dan: The band name 'Social End Products' is a very poignant name, where does it originate from?

Sta: We took our name from the title of the song of the same name by New Zealand's THE BLUESTARS. It represents us!

Dan: You guys have a sound reminiscent of the old, European psych groups of the sixties. What are some of your influences?

Sta: I would say we are more influenced from the American bands of the 60s and even more from the South American ones like Aguaturbia, Laghonia, etc. and also very much from sixties Greek bands like Peloma Bokiou, Nostradamos, etc. I feel those influences are more obvious to our new recordings.

Dan: On the band's facebook page, many interesting pieces of vintage gear can be seen. What guitars where you using on your latest sonic outing, Nutre Tu Cabeza?

Sta: Yes we love vintage instruments and when we find something interesting (and cheap) we buy it! Unfortunately, when we were recording our LP didn't have all that so we used a Fender Jaguar and a Fender Jazzmaster. But, on our new recordings we used our EKO guitar collection! 12-string Cobra, Auriga and Melody.

Dan: And how about amps, and effects?

Sta: We have a Fender Twin Reverb and an EKO Herald IV. We use a lot of effects, but think the most interesting is our sixties EKO Multitone.

From left to right: (top) Twin Reverb, EKO Cobra,
Fender Jaguar. (bottom) EKO Auriga. 

Dan: What about any other instruments, such as keyboards, drums, ect.?

Sta: We also use a 70s EKO Tiger Junior Organ.

Dan: Where did you record the latest album?

Sta: We do all our recording's at FEEDBACK SOUND STUDIO in Athens. It is the best for a vintage sound and our producer Harris Zourelidis is a true master of sound!!!

Dan: What have you learnt from Nutre Tu Cabeza's completion?

Sta: It's been very nice in the studio and tripping in the world of sound. Especially when you want to reproduce a sound of the past, you get to have a journey through time.

Dan: What's next for the Social end products?

Sta: We are recording new songs now. Two of them 'FEELS MUCH BETTER ON THE OTHER SIDE' and 'UTOPIA' will be on a 7". That will be out next month on Garden Of Dreams Records, the coolest label in Greece right now. The rest will be in a full LP, which is coming some time in spring. We also have some gigs this month with TOMORROWS TULIPS in Athens and with ALLAH-LAS in Thessaloniki.

Dan: Lastly, are there any shout-outs you would like to make?

Sta: We would like to thank everyone supporting us worldwide. 

Do You Even Psychedelic? would like to thank the band for taking the time to complete this interview.

Find the band's latest LP, and their past 7", here.

You can hear the single from the band's upcoming 7", Utopia, here.

Make sure to keep up to date with their Facebook page here.