Savalas

A lot of reasons convinced David Poltrock to finally make a record : the urge to create good music, the glamour of Rock & Roll, the girls, the money and most important the desire to make a statement to those who ragged him at school because his mom dressed him in silly shorts. Poltrock, live and studio keyboardist for Belgium-based Hooverphonic, has an interesting curriculum as a session player, producer and arranger for numerous successful Belgian artists such as Monza, Hooverphonic, Janez Detd, Jan Leyers etc. including production credits for Stash's number 1 hit single 'Sadness', and is currently working on an English project with members of Faithless and Groove Armada.. He has a strange addiction for the Eighties and enjoys peeling off the skin of the little parts inside a tangerine. It took him a lot of persuasiveness to get Jan Roelkens - previously an unscrupulous civil servant who'd slowly kill his neighbour's dog with a blunt nail file in order to become rich and famous - to sing on the album. Roelkens eventually fell in love with the lyrics - all sad songs about love and the lack of it - and the Poltrock whisky collection. He enjoys strange marriages and likes to dress up. Enter Diederik Luyckx, dedicated bass player and movie star, shares a common love for a nice Melody and has a nice way of whimsically pivoting his bass lines around Poltrock's chord progressions. Much to the dislike of those who love a bass that goes 'boom - boom - pap - boom - boom - pap' Diederik loves putting stuff up for sale he doesn't even own. The three team up at Poltrock's studio, name themselves after a famous Greek actor, get in a sentimental mood and start working on the raw material that is already at hand. Bit by bit, Savalas' romantic popsongs are taking shape. As a worthy completion to Roelkens' great voice, Savalas tries to avoid the beaten tracks by using atypical sonic textures of a sad brass quartet, a melodic string section, vintage keyboards and weird guitarscapes. Art is not what Savalas is after, neither is the wish for innovation. There's only the desire to create a simple popsong and to somehow move whoever's listening, hopefully convincing them to listen time and again. If only this music can bring about a shiver, a smile, a tear, anger, lust, sadness, happiness...