Interview with Bad Habits: ‘It’s a very energetic song, it makes me want to blast it in my car, the lyrics help with that, they have an urgency’

Athens-based alt rock punk band Bad Habits is gearing up to release their next single ‘Bad Luck’ next month, which is about a rocky relationship.

The band comprises Jo (vocals), Ellie (bass/vocals), Spiros (guitar), Severin (lead guitar) and Apostol (drums). Ellie, Apostol and Spiros have known each other since 2007, meeting initially on social media before going to to work on various musical projects together. ‘Two years ago, Ellie started Bad Habits,’ Spiros said. ‘We wrote some songs but realised that we needed a couple of other people to complete the line-up. I have a habit of bookmarking musicians I’m interested in and I’d bookmarked Jo and Severin, so I reached out to them,’ he said. Their name came about after Spiros was tasked with coming up with one: ‘I was checking through my vinyl track lists for a name and I came across ‘Bad Habit’ and I thought it could be a good reference to us,’ he joked.

‘Bad Luck’ will be released in mid-December and was written by Spiros, who writes most of their songs: ‘It’s about one of my friends and his ex-girlfriend who would get drunk and fight,’ he said. ‘I’d say to him “Well, you know what you signed up for”. It’s straightforward rock ‘n’ roll but it gets very punky in the chorus. It’s only about two minutes long. We don’t want to write longer songs because we don’t think we need to try to fill our songs with more ‘stuff’.’

As ‘Bad Luck’ kicks off: ‘I know I’m bad, bad news, love, the kind you don’t wanna hear, still want to know about. I’m bad, bad luck, babe. You thought you won the jackpot, but the numbers turned around.’

That ethos is very apparent in the three singles they released last month, all of which are around two minutes long or less. ‘Nothing to Lose’, ‘Hell to Pay’ and ‘Under The Sun’ are in your face, riffed up, energetic rock songs. ‘Nothing to Lose’ has an insanely catchy main riff and licks and features Jo and Ellie on main vocals. I tell him that the main riff really got stuck in my head and he grins: ‘It’s a joke in the band that it keeps repeating, it’s a classical rock-metal riff,’ he said. ‘It’s really fun to play. Actually, that riff is all we had at the start, we didn’t have any lyrics or the chorus. We were just playing it over and over. It’s a very energetic song, it makes me want to blast it in my car, the lyrics help with that, they have an urgency. It’s a classic, no-frills, hard rock song.’

‘I had to pressure myself to finish all the tasks, I literally had ‘nothing to lose’

‘Nothing to Lose’ was inspired by his own personal struggles: ‘I remember I was under a lot of pressure at work, in the band and in my everyday life,’ he said. ‘I had to pressure myself to finish all the tasks, I literally had ‘nothing to lose’. The band didn’t really exist properly at the time. I was 32 years old, I’d been in other bands and I figured it was my last chance to make a go of it.’

As the track kicks off: You got nothing to lose but you feel on a noose. See the world in black & white babe. Just like prison tattoos.’

Interestingly, considering what a big song it is, they don’t open with it but use it as the fourth or fifth track in a set, choosing to open with their debut single ‘California’ (2020), which he cites as his favourite song of theirs. ‘It’s the first song I wrote but I haven’t been to the US. I’d written most of the lyrics but we didn’t know what to put in the chorus. We knew the vibe we wanted it to have but didn’t know what would fit. I had a t-shirt with ‘California’ on it and I took the ‘take me back to California’ in the chorus from that. In Greek, we have a mood, something that is both happy and sad at the same time and this song gives me that vibe. It grabs you from the start. (It does.) It’s that combination of the happy melody and sad lyrics. On ‘California’, it wasn’t conscious. When I started to write the lyrics, I was writing about old friends not hanging out anymore, why everything isn’t it like it used to be. I wrote it at the start of the first lockdown last year.’

As the chorus goes: ‘Take me back. We were younger, filled with hunger. Take me back. Days were warmer, nights grew longer. Take me back to California.’

Last week, they performed their first gig in their home town: ‘The crowd was ecstatic,’ Spiros said, looking delighted. ‘People haven’t been able to go to gigs for so long and now everybody is going to every gig they can.’

On other tracks, most notably on ‘Under the Sun’, Apostol’s incredible energy on the drum intro underpins everything that follows, including the dirty, edgy, crunchy riffs, creating a track that feels much longer than its 1.39 mins: ‘Apostol has crazy energy! He’s into hardcore punk,’ Spiros said. ‘We try to keep the songs slower because he always wants to play faster and faster (laughs), we have to slow him down! He wrote this one, that’s why it’s so fast and punk. It’s the perfect mix of rock ‘n’ roll and punk, almost like Motörhead. I think he thought of a fictional story in his mind.‘ Another track, ‘Let It Roll’, is Spiros’ homage to AC/DC: ‘It’s one of my faves, it’s one of the last song we wrote before we got into the studio to record,’ he said. ‘I love AC/DC, I was at home listening to them and thinking, how do they do this? It’s so good, so I pressured myself to write something like them. The beauty of our song is that anyone could write it.’

‘Ellie’s musical tastes have a huge span from classical music to deathcore!’

Bad Habits bring a whole mash-up of influences to the table, with Spiros citing The Stooges, Dead Boys (a punk band from Cleveland) and The Damned as some of his biggest influences. ‘We all listen to different stuff,’ he said. ‘Jo’s into The Distillers (an LA punk rock band). Apostol likes hard core punk, Severin likes Revolver (a London guitar-led band). Ellie’s musical tastes have a huge span from classical music to deathcore! So when I’m looking for inspiration, I know I can ask the rest of the guys.’

He describes Athens’ music scene as being predominately stoner rock and heavy metal, although that is changing as post-punk and electronica gain more traction. ‘If I could see anyone play here today, I’d go and see Planet of Zeus (a local heavy rock band) or The Crushas. They’re blues-infused rock ‘n’ roll with a dark vibe. Their song ‘Alcoholism’ is sooooo good.’ If he could collaborate with anyone, he is quick to say American guitarist Johnny Thunders: ‘His music is so raw, powerful and heartfelt,’ he said. ‘His lyrics are insane, he had a short-lived career (he died in 1991 aged 38 of suspected drug-related causes). He still managed to fit everything in and I am still discovering new favourite songs by him.’

Spiros is clearly someone who works best under pressure and he recounts a funny story where he was really up against the clock: ‘I remember, we went to the studio to record but I didn’t have any lyrics for the song,’ he confessed. ‘When I had to sing, I went to the bathroom and I had to quickly write some lyrics. I didn’t tell Ellie and Severin until months later (laughs). I procrastinate so much but I’ve learned to work under pressure!’

(Photo above from left to right: Spiros, Ellie, Apostol, Jo and Severin.)