Interviews About Albums: The Magic Bus - Το Κάστρο (2021)

1. What can you say about this new CD?

Our debut album, titled “Το Κάστρο”, consists of 11 songs filled with rock essence, intriguing lyrics and interesting compositions! It was recorded and produced at Locomotive Sound studio in Lamia (Greece) by the producer Ektoras Sohos. The beautiful artwork was made by Dinos Adamopoulos, while both the band’s logo and the album’s layout were made by Sotiris Kotsonis. An interesting fact is that the album was actually composed during the quarantine while we were scattered in 3 different cities! Hopefully, we won’t have to do something like this again, haha!

2. What is the meaning of the CD name?

“Το Κάστρο” is the Greek word for “The Castle”. It may bring to mind knights and battles, but in our album, it actually represents the childhood years! 3. Which one is the composer of the CD? Ermis Soultanopoulos (guitars & backing vocals) is the album’s composer. There might have been suggestions and refinements by the rest of the group’s members, but he was the one “in charge” of the music!

4. If you have to pick one song, which one would you pick?

Well, that one is one of the “impossible” questions now, isn’t it? Haha! Each and every song in the album is something special to us, so we couldn’t possibly pick one… but if I (Valantis) am going to make an exception, it would be about the title song, “Το Κάστρο” which also was our first track to make a video clip about! While the music stayed pretty much as it emerged from Ermis’ head, because it was great as it was and we didn’t want to change a thing, lyrically, well, it took a while! I always wanted to write about the transition to manhood, so I made a scenario where a man’s all childhood memories are in the form of a treehouse (The Castle) which decays season by season up until his kid takes his place and it is brought back to life! That was really emotional, considering I had my own sons and myself in mind while writing it…

5. Is there a special message on this CD? If there is what it is?

Although there is no concept behind it, there are many time references in it and how it affects our lives, emotions, thoughts, and feelings. Other than that, depending on the theme, may it be a social phenomenon, a comic or a literature interpretation, etc, we wanted the lyrics to be interesting and well-written, to become a motive that makes the listener look further into them, understand them and maybe even learn something new along the way if he or she chooses to unravel the references!

6. Are there some lyrics that you´d love to share?

Το Πλοίο των Τρελών (The Ship of Fools) starts somewhat like this: “The ship unties the ropes, ready to leave the cordages, come join us with the crew, so the journey may begin” and it’s an open invitation to you all to make a personal journey through our music!

7. Which inspirations haven been important for this album?

Like musically or friends, family, someone you'd love to thank specially? As four different personalities you can understand that we have a lot of different influences and inspirations in general, haha. Musicaly, regarding our band’s style specifically, there are many influences and inspirations coming from our country’s rock scene of the ‘80s and ‘90s, while lyrically… there’s a huge palette to choose from!

8. Something to add?

We’d like to thank you for having us on your site! Until we meet each other on some live show, you’re welcome to find us on our Facebook page, YouTube channel, Bandcamp, Soundcloud and almost every other music platform! Come say hi!!!