ARTIST FEATURE: Vasilios Drakopoulos from ‘The Dream: Monash Sessions’

We’re featuring artists from the recent Dave Douglas release, The Dream: Monash Sessions. The recording is music by Dave performed in collaboration with musicians from Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.

Vasilios Drakopoulos is a bassist from Melbourne, Australia with specific interests in bop jazz and world music. Currently studying a double degree in both Science and Music, he is passionate about
both seemingly contrasting disciplines.  He is very interested in pursuing the incorporation of traditional rebetiko Greek music from his heritage with idiosyncratic jazz ideas. His influences range from Jaco Pastorius and Paul Chambers to Ray Brown  and many others. In further years, he hopes to go on to post-graduate research in the field of physiology and consistently leave his mark on the Melbourne jazz music scene.

What instrument do you play and can you describe the room you recorded in?

I play bass and the room was relatively small, but since I only recorded directly into an interface, it didn’t effect the sound.

What was the biggest challenge of remote recording and how did it differ from challenges to in person playing?

The biggest challenge for me was finding the perfect take. I constantly went through many different versions with only very subtle differences and struggled to pick the right one. Compared to playing in person, whatever happens in the moment adds to the performance and is somewhat less structured in that aspect.

How will the musical interactions you’ve had via remote stay in your practice when the lockdown is eased, if at all?

I much rather prefer in person playing and so the only purpose of interacting remotely would be for group listening but even then, I prefer in person.

Where do you see yourself and your music fitting into the community of musicians?

My musical interests relate to world music styles incorporated with a jazz sensibility. I mainly see myself as a performer and composer. I am also interested in avant-garde harmonic elements to music but also minimalist ideas. I hope to create new music that incorporates many of these aspects and to be recognized by other musicians for this.

Where can people learn more about your work?

My only published work has been original compositions for a play that used some music and a video game soundtrack, this is under Vasili online. But in the future, I hope to expand my networks and social media exposure for my other projects that involve an ensemble.

The Dream: Monash Sessions is available exclusively in digital format on Bandcamp here. Join us as a subscriber to stream and download this album, along with our entire catalogue and 30+ hours of exclusive content.