I started playing keyboards when I was 10 years old and only 4 years later (1992) I bought my first guitar which seemed
to excite me much more, as the only thing I was playing in the keyboards till then was the crap they used to teach me in the
conservatory.Of course I was only 14 years old then and I had no musical preferences or anything like this. But this until
the last days of 1994 when I first came in touch with the music of Dream Theater
and other keyboard oriented bands.Soon I noticed some keyboard players like Kevin Moore, Jens Johansson and the mighty Keith
Emerson the sound of whose has influenced drastically my way of approaching the keyboards.The most important thing, though
was that I soon developed good improvising ability which was the only thing
which opened doors in finding more bands to play with as a session member apart from my standard band which has been
up till then SKYWARD later renamed to RETROSPECT.
Being one of the few keyboard players in my country,Greece that are really into metal
sound gave me the comfort to choose between offers that interested me or not. As a result was
the ROCK OF GODS 1996(first ever open air festival in Greece!) where I played for FATAL MORGANA who were the opening act for Slayer,Saxon Blind Guardian and Rage,or the supporting
act of KREATOR (Jan 1998) where I played with techno-thrash progsters ACID DEATH. Then was the live-on-the-air appearance of TIDAL FLOOD(instrumental
prog-psych rock ala Ozric Tentacles) in the Jammin´ live show on Greek ET3 channel
and the recording of the keyboards in power metaller´s CASUS BELLI debut CD that released
from Greek Sound And Vision Records.
In the meanwhile I got a diploma in classic organ (based on suites and fuges by J.S.
Bach as well as modern jazz pieces for pedal double scale organ), theory, classical harmony and history of music, things that
basically helped me more to learn how to study and analyze a musical piece rather than playing fast or improvising.
Right after this, I had to join the army which took me 1.5 year of doing almost nothing
music-wise but the best was yet to come! After finishing my military duty I joined NTX (Nipto
Tas Heiras) a crossover hip-hop nu metal band that already had released a very interesting debut cd which was advertised by
TV and had good airplay. I made some live gigs with these guys that helped me a lot in developing a more steady and mature
playing especially on stage. For a while it seemed like I was losing my heavy metal identity and then, was the call from Efthimis
Karadimas the lead singer of NIGHTFALL who was inviting me to join this famous band and play
live in one of the biggest heavy metal festivals of the world: WACKEN OPEN AIR 2001! As soon
as I got back from Germany, I started working on my first solo work while I was playing with power metallers CASUS BELLI which
also was a great experience because the level of the musicianship of the members was very high and our gigs were apart of
a true metal experience a very good show-off, too. At one of that gigs I was seen by Sakis from Rotting Christ who spoke with
the guys from SEPTIC FLESH and by the end of summer 2001 I joined them and started a series
of very hard working rehersals in order to start touring Greece and Europe
for the promotion of their latest release Sumerian Daemons. Meanwhile, my debut cd Turn Of My Century was released from Finnish prog label LION music and started taking amazing reviews from all the world which, along
with the numerous gigs with Septic Flesh, helped me to grow my reputation within the metal fans. Later, I also did some session
recordings for STARQUEEN (FIN) and Greek epic metallers BATTLEROAR,
I released the forgotten recordings of my power metal project IMAGINERY (initially named MIRAGE
back in 1996) and I also recorded all keyboards for NIGHTFALLs latest release I Am Jesus for Black Lotus Records.
At the time being,and after the split-up of SEPTIC FLESH, Im a standard member of NIGHTFALL,working
on our new cd and DVD as well(I also run a video-clip making company named Progressive Vision Group) , played some guest keyboard
solos on the 2nd cd of MAGIC KINGDOM (soon to be released through LMP)and I got
this great invitation by mr Gus G. for joining FIREWIND on their Japanese and European tour.
My second solo cd Imaginary Force is finished with a release date around April and I also record the 2nd cd of
IMAGINERY play modern power metal with Swedish Bjorn Jansson singing in the vein of J.S Soto and Jorn Lande and
THE BEST IS YET TO COME!!!
