Greek musician Billy Pod taps into rich melting pot of London jazz scene
Economists agree opening and closing stores may be painful but necessary for the market
The title of his first solo album, “Drums to Heal Society,” can be seen as a prophecy or a message of hope, given the events that shook the world after it came out in 2019. For Vassilis Podaras – aka Billy Pod – it was a harbinger for the next step in his career.
The Greek musician and composer moved to London, started getting his name out in the city’s massive jazz scene and met new people he wanted to work with – until it all came to a grinding halt with the advent of the pandemic.
“I had been thinking about leaving for London for five or six years, to chase new opportunities, to meet people and get some fresh inspiration for my work,” Podaras tells Kathimerini from his house near the River Thames.
“The album did pretty well and I was starting to book some live gigs, so I made the leap. I hadn’t accounted for the pandemic, of course, but there is still a lot to gain, even as we live in anticipation of ‘reopening,’” adds the Greek drummer, who is also teaching music at the University of the Ionian, online, from the British capital.
Accustomed to playing between 150 and 200 live concerts a year, the forced sabbatical from the stage is definitely annoying, but it also has an upside for the musician.
“Live shows have basically stopped here since last March, with the exception of a brief reopening at the start of autumn. Personally, I have played only one show, and that was a festival in Greece in July. At some point, however, and seeing that the pandemic is not going anywhere anytime soon, I decided that I needed to make a bigger adjustment, so I’m doing a lot of studying and writing a lot of music, while I’m also planning a live show with the band I play with here. The preparation is not very easy because many musicians have left the city because they can’t afford the outrageous rent here, but we’re making do,” he says.
The concert is scheduled to be streamed live on Sunday, February 21, from London’s Premises Studios, renowned
for having hosted names such as Amy Winehouse, Nick Cave and the Arctic Monkeys, among many others.
I ask him whether the isolation from the stage has made him feel a tad “rusty.”
“Sure, studying is great, it gives you confidence, but there’s nothing like a live performance. This is especially so with jazz because the only way to get better is to play and to play with other musicians, to form a bond. If I had to break it down into percentages, I would say that it’s 70% about playing and instincts and 30% about studying,” says Podaras.
What is it about London that has made its jazz scene so attractive in the past few years as to draw “musical migrants” like him?
“London is already a cultural melting pot and the jazz scene here has very deep roots and incredible variety. There’s an entire branch of musicians that play jazz in its more conventional form and do it very, very well. Then there are the modern trends that started in Black neighborhoods in South London and are a mix with funk, neosoul and hip-hop, music that is much more prominent today. I try to get as much as I can out of all this. I have my own direction, but I am open to new stimuli, ideas and interactions with new sounds,” he explains.
The so-called “accordion lockdown” may be testing the patience and stamina of entrepreneurs, who are forced to revise their plans and operations every now and then, but at least it secures some turnover, so it is better than a complete monthslong lockdown, say economists who have observed its international application in the last few months.
It has been noted that the demand suppressed during the shutdown period then re-emerges substantially, covering a significant share of the losses incurred by the market. Economists note that this was proven in practice over the Christmas season, when the reopening of stores in most European markets allowed for the containment of the economic contraction.
“Everyone would prefer to exhaust the possibility of opening so they can make the most of the accumulated demand,” says National Bank of Greece chief economist
Nikos Magginas, referring also to Portugal’s example. The race to find the golden ratio between opening and closing has come down to targeted openings, and must continue.
He adds that there is also a fiscal race under way, but estimates that the Greek state will be able to stand another year like 2020: It will be acceptable for the deficit to come to 6% of gross domestic product, against 8.5-9% in 2020, as other countries face the same problem too. “The good news is that there is a section of the cyclical recovery that will emerge in the next year, provided the production structure has not been lost,” argues Eurobank chief economist Tasos Anastasatos. Another source of concern, he says, is the increasing tax obligations and nonperforming loans and their impact on banks.
His Alpha Bank peer, Panayotis Kapopoulos is also in favor of the accordion lockdown, as opposed to a full shutdown, stressing the significance of saving some turnover, which he describes as “a liquidity jab.”
Ilias Lekkos, Piraeus Bank’s chief economist, notes the difficulties in assessing the alternatives, but adds that a total lockdown to bring contagion down to zero would be hard to achieve as it would mean closing the borders.