Interviewed by Brian Monteiro
Date: March 25th, 2005

http://www.strikelight.net

First of all, I just want to thank you guys for taking the time to answer some questions.

How was STRIKELIGHT formed and when?
For starters Brian, we would like to thank you for this interview and the good review. STRIKELIGHT were formed in late 1999 by Thodoris Vogiatzis, who was a great fan of 80's metal and wanted to revive that glorious era. He took some of his friends in the neighborhood and started with this vision. His influences were of the N.W.O.B.H.M. movement and from US bands like Warlord, Manilla Road and others.  

Has the band had any major changes in the line up throughout the beginning?
After a lot of line-ups the current one, which is for two and a half years, is George Stavropoulos (vocals), George Hararis (guitars), Nick Papakostas (guitars), Thodoris Vogiatzis (bass) and Bill Xirokostas (drums).

How well has STRIKELIGHT been received by the media in Greece and around the world?
Some acceptations were good some were bad. Many referred to the cover of the CD as "old fashioned,” but we didn't mind that. We like what we do and we wanted to show to other metal heads that 80's metal is not dead. The flame is still burning, especially in Europe, where there is a strong core of metal heads who love 80's metal.  

Have you had any offers to tour with major bands or to play at festivals?
No, I think it's too early to talk about touring with a major band since we are a young band with only this release, but we had two proposals for playing abroad. Nothing's for sure. We'll see.

Being in your early 20’s, what music did you grow up with? I can hear major influences of Iron Maiden, Saxon, and UFO. Is that the case?
Well, we grew up with those bands you mentioned, but our major influences are definitely early Iron Maiden, Tokyo Blade, Virtue, Heavy Load, Angelwitch and many more.  

Do you have any plans to tour in America? If so, are there plans to play the East Coast?
He…he…, that's very difficult, due to lack of money. Our record company, Eat Metal Records did pay for the recording and promoting the CD, but it's not that rich! We would love to tour in the U.S. or anywhere in the world, but that's very difficult at the time being. Who knows what the future will bring?  

Where do you guys think you will be in about 10 years?
We'll be touring with major bands, be famous, chicks will hunt us, you know, stuff like that, he-he!! Seriously, we just want to live our lives decent, love people, get in touch with them and we wish there would be peace around the globe. And of course, play heavy metal and head bang relentlessly!!!

What do you see in future for STRIKELIGHT?
Nobody knows that for sure, but we're hoping to continue playing our favorite music, playing gigs and meet new metal brothers everywhere. One thing's for sure: Heavy Metal will never die whether we split or not!!  

I just want to thank you for making such awesome music in a time where such crap music rules the world. You guys really have some serious guts to come out with kick ass metal. ROCK ON!