We were lucky to catch up with George Solonos recently and have shared our conversation below.

George, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Do you feel you or your work has ever been misunderstood or mischaracterized? If so, tell us the story and how/why it happened and if there are any interesting learnings or insights you took from the experience?

How does an artist label themselves?

Music for me has been a saviour. The ability to express myself through it has practically saved my life in more ways than one. In return, I have been a servant to music since my adolescent years and through time, my role in it has varied extensively.

I have seen myself undulate from singing and playing the piano to being a rock guitarist in touring bands, to producing and engineering various-genre works for myself and others, to composing music for films, to recording and performing my own music.

In the modern world, the music industry – and in extend, the mainstream audience – tends to treat artists like a labelled product in order to be placed on a particular “shelf” and consumed on demand. It is of course understandable that the western world is driven by capitalistic values, but surely there are some values that should be held sacred.

The true purpose of art is to be a means of expression for the artist and, if honest enough, to extend to the audience.

George, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I come from a music family background, both from my mother’s and father’s side, so I have been into music since I can remember.

My professional career counts a little over 20 years in the industry and I’ve had the pleasure of being affiliated with a plethora of wonderful artists.
Some of the most well-known ones would be Tommy Lee (Motley Crue, Methods of Mayhem), Kerwin Dubois, Scott Humphrey, Quincy Jones, Tim “Ripper” Owens, and Boy George.

I was born on the beautiful Mediterranean island of Cyprus. Though the island has always been kind to me with all its natural beauties and kind-hearted people, there was always an unquenchable thirst for experience and internal growth that led me to reside in places like the UK, Greece and California.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

For the past year and a half I have been working on a very special project that really means a lot to me. A new album that is a hybrid of brand new ideas as well as ones that have been accumulating through the years and desperately yelling to be released.

The challenge with this project has been its need for me to put many hats on. Due to its very personal nature, it required me to be the vocalist, composer, lyricist, producer, guitarist, recording and mixing engineer and project coordinator. Now all of these roles are of course very important as one does not work well without the other, so in order to create something worthwhile it has been crucial for all of them to be as separate and uninfluenced by each other as possible.

Creating “Human” has been quite an inward and outward journey that has changed me and taught me so much.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

I’d say the most influential books I’ve had my hands on are – in chronological order – : Paulo Coelho’s “The Alchemist” and “Warrior of the Light: A Manual”, Eckhart Tolle’s “The Power of Now” and “A New Earth” and Rick Rubin’s “The Creative Act”.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.georgesolonos.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/george_solonos/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/georgesolonosmusic/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SD5IcyVG8w

Image Credits
Petros Nikolaides Orestis Savva Stavros Charalambous