What is your name and role within AND.ID?
My name is Andreas Dimitriadis and AND.ID is the name I use on my music productions.
How did you get into music?
I must have been around 6 years old when my father used to take me to concerts with him. In our living room there was his music corner with a cassette and cd player and a record player on top. Every Saturday morning he would go to the record store to bring new records. The store was around the corner from our house and sometimes I used to go there with him and slowly developed my own taste. Early Michael Jackson records and Sound FX from outer space CDs was on my buying lists .
When I was at high school we used to exchange tapes with my friends and I got introduced to what we now call electronic music.
How did you start?
I have started to put tracks together at the late 90’s with just a computer with the Cubasis software installed. I was recording everything on cassettes and cds and giving them to my friends. My first official release came out in 2003 on the first ever digital label called Thinner that used to distribute the music online for free. That was a revolutionary concept at that time as all of the record labels would press only vinyl. Since then I have been releasing music in all physical and digital formats with several singles, remixes and albums for various labels such as Ware, Mobilee records, 2020 vision, Bedrock and Culprit LA among others.
Where are you based?
I am from a city called Thessaloniki in Greece and I am currently living in Berlin.
Please give an example of your music writing process?
My working routines changing at times. When I am working on an album or on a specific music piece I first create a concept and try to imagine a place or a theme that I want to describe with my music. Then starting from an empty canvas, I am collecting sounds and composing them in the best possible way I can so I create the theme I have in mind. When I am playing live, I am trying different ideas on the fly and record everything on my recorder and I am back in my studio environment I analyse and recompose the moments I have capture during the show and arrange them into tracks.
Photo Credit: Ioanna Chatziandreou.
What are you working on right now?
I have just finished an new single and a couple of remixes due to release later this year. I am now working on a record for a side project I am doing with a friend of mine called “Anthropous Anonymous”.
What is your gear setup?
I have a Roland Juno 106, a Nord Lead A1, couple of drum machines, some guitar pedals and outboard effects from Moog and Boss and different percussion instruments which I collect from my travels. I use my computer and Ableton live as my main recording device and sequencer.
What do you like to do outside of music and does it affect your music?
I like to cook. I find it very relaxing and at the same time inspirational.
How would you describe your music genre?
People might identify me for my dance music output, like house and techno music? I am not limiting myself in the studio , the reason I am working on different projects like “Anthropous Anonymous” I have mentioned above or my electronic jazz band project at the same time is because I like to play and experiment with different sounds and styles.
Do you know any music theory?
Yes I do, I have studied at a music school for a couple of years and learned how to play the keyboards and the trumpet and I hope that at some point will continue my studies and upgrade my level on both theory and instruments.
What are your plans for the future?
Stay healthy and produce more music.
What are you listening to at the moment?
Lonnie Liston Smith & the cosmic experience – Journey into space
Who are your top 5 influences and icons?
I admire and respect older and younger artists for their work and I am influenced from many things that it might be a super weird record that will catch my attention or a jazz album that I will find and get to listen to it. If I have to name some of the artists I admire a lot, one of them must be the greek Vangelis with a lifetime work which includes the “Aphrodite’s Child” psychedelic rock band, the legendary “Blade Runner” soundtrack and other great albums. From a different era I love the work of Miles Davis with one of my favourites studio albums ever recorded called “ In a Silent Way” among many many others . I am inspired a lot from Jeff Mills for his futuristic musical approach and work ethos over the years. New York’s legendary artist Joaquin Joe Claussell is also one of my main influences and the list goes on.
Photo Credit: Ioanna Chatziandreou.
When are you playing next?
I am going to play a couple of gigs in Greece and then to Zurich.
https://www.facebook.com/And.idOfficial/
https://www.instagram.com/and.id/
https://www.discogs.com/artist/128161-AndId
https://soundcloud.com/anthropous-anonymous
