Metal Vocals - Guitar & Bass

Q: Tell us about a project you worked on you are especially proud of and why. What was your role?

A: The Leftover Bullets albums. Τhree records out, written and recorded largely in my own studio. I sang, played, co-wrote and handled a lot of the engineering. I'm proud of them because nothing was outsourced and nothing was faked: real amps, real performances, and songs that still hold up live in front of a crowd, which is the only test that actually matters.

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: New Leftover Bullets material, plus remote vocal and guitar sessions for a few bands. I'm also taking on more topline writing work, which has quietly become my favourite kind of job.

Q: Is there anyone on SoundBetter you know and would recommend to your clients?

A: I'm still building my network here, so I'd rather stay quiet than recommend someone I haven't actually worked with. Ask me again in a few months.

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: Both, and I don't think it's a real argument. Analog for the source, real amps, real cabs, real mics, because that's where character comes from. Digital for everything after, because recall, editing and collaborating across continents would be miserable otherwise.

Q: What's your 'promise' to your clients?

A: You'll get professionally recorded, edited and delivered tracks on time, with options rather than one take to take or leave. And if what I send isn't what you wanted, I'll keep working on it until it is.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: The moment a demo turns into a song. Someone sends me an instrumental that's been sitting on their drive for a year, I put a melody on it, and suddenly they can hear what it was always meant to be. That never gets old.

Q: What questions do customers most commonly ask you? What's your answer?

A: Can you make it sound like "reference track". I can get you in the neighbourhood, but I'll also tell you honestly if that reference doesn't suit your song, because copying a tone rarely fixes an arrangement. Should this be clean or harsh? Μy answer is usually "let me send you both," since it costs me one extra pass and it settles the argument in ten seconds.

Q: What's the biggest misconception about what you do?

A: That a remote session player is a downgrade from having someone in the room. In practice you get more takes, more options, and someone who isn't watching the clock. The other one is that harsh vocals are just shouting. They're not done wrong you lose your voice in two songs.

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: What's the reference? What key and tempo? Do you want the part played exactly as written or do you want my interpretation? Do you need a mixed vocal or dry stems for your engineer? And what's the deadline, real deadline, not the polite one.

Q: What advice do you have for a customer looking to hire a provider like you?

A: Send a reference track. One song that sounds like what's in your head tells me more than three paragraphs of description. And be honest about the budget and the deadline up front. I'd rather scope the job properly than take it and disappoint you.

Q: If you were on a desert island and could take just 5 pieces of gear, what would they be?

A: A solar panel first, because the rest of the list is useless without it. Then an acoustic guitar, an SM57, a laptop with an interface, and a box of spare strings. Small setup, but I've made songs with less.

Q: What was your career path? How long have you been doing this?

A: About 30 years on stage in total. I started on guitar, played in several bands, and for the last 10 years I've been fronting Leftover Bullets, a hard rock band from Thessaloniki with three albums out and English lyrics. Along the way I built Red House Studio and worked as a sound engineer, which is why I can hand over stems that don't need cleaning up.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: Vintage-leaning, 80s and 90s rock DNA, played with modern tightness. Big vocals, no over-processing, nothing that sounds like it was assembled from a sample pack.

Q: Which artist would you like to work with and why?

A: Kai Hansen. He's been writing melodies that stick for four decades, from the early Helloween records through Gamma Ray, and he does it without ever sounding calculated the choruses just land. What I'd really want is to sit in a room and watch how he builds a vocal line against a riff, because that's the exact thing I spend most of my time on. He also plays and sings and produces, which is the kind of all-round musician I've always aimed to be. And honestly, trading rhythm guitar parts with him for an afternoon would be enough.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Fix the performance, not the plugin chain. Most "thin" guitar tones are a picking-attack problem and most vocals that won't sit in the mix were sung in the wrong key for that singer. Try one more take before you reach for another EQ.

Q: What type of music do you usually work on?

A: Rock and metal, mostly. Hard rock, thrash, stoner, melodic death, power metal. Anything with guitars and a chorus is home turf.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: Vocal topline writing. Give me an instrumental and I'll come back with a melody and lyric that actually sit on the track instead of floating above it. Second to that, vocal range: I cover clean melodic singing and harsh/brutal styles in the same session, which saves clients from hiring two people.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: Arrangement instinct. I've been on stage for about 30 years, so I hear pretty quickly where a song drags, where the chorus isn't lifting, and where an extra harmony or a doubled line would change everything. I don't just play the part I was sent. I tell you if I think there's a better one, and then I record both so you can choose.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: I ask what the song needs before I touch an instrument. Then I listen to the rough a few times, note the sections, and if it's vocals I sketch two or three melodic ideas before committing. I track, comp and clean up myself, so what you get is tuned where it needs to be, breaths handled, noise gone. First pass usually goes out within a few days, then one or two revision rounds until it's right.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: I run Red House Studio in Thessaloniki, built up over years, mainly around real amps and real cabinets. Heads from Diezel, ENGL, Peavey 6505+, Marshall, Orange, Ampeg, Laney, Blackstar, Fender, Hughes & Kettner and a Roland Jazz Chorus, into Marshall, Diezel, ENGL and Orange cabs. Mics include Neumann TLM and KM184s, Sennheiser MD421, sE 4400a, Oktava MK-219, Shure SM57 and SM58, AKG D112 and ribbons. That means when you order guitars from me you get an actual miked cab, not a plugin pretending to be one — and if you prefer a DI to reamp yourself, you get that too.

Q: What other musicians or music production professionals inspire you?

A: James Hetfield for rhythm guitar that is basically a percussion instrument. Kai Hansen and Gamma Ray for the melodic side and for never being embarrassed about a big chorus. In Flames for the way harsh and clean vocals can live in the same song without either sounding like a gimmick. On the production side, Andy Sneap and Colin Richardson.

Q: Describe the most common type of work you do for your clients.

A: Most of what I do is remote session work: lead and backing vocals, rhythm and lead guitars, and bass. A producer or a band sends me a rough mix and a tempo map, and I send back tracked, edited, comped stems ready to drop into their session. A lot of clients also come to me with an instrumental and no vocal melody yet, so I write the topline as well.