The Agony Front Person – Nikola Kandoussi Interview

After The Agony’s whistlestop tour of the UK, All About The Rock managed to catch up with guitarist and singer Niky for a brief chat.

How would you summarize your band’s sound to someone who is not familiar with your music?

We play loud, hard, and catchy. It’s powerful and full of energy too. Imagine The Warning but faster, or Girlschool with a more modern sound. Again, a bit of Biffy Clyro and/or Foo Fighters thrown in the mix. Lots of good riffs (‘cos I do love Metallica) joined by harmonies and earworm choruses. And I’m not making that up, we’ve seen that in many reviews, including yours! 🙂

You hadn’t toured the UK for a while. How did it go for you?

It was brilliant, I consider the UK my second home and am always happy to be back. We’ve made our UK tours a bit of an August tradition having played here 3 years in a row around the same time. It was truly special this year also because Domi’s little son Mike went with us… that’s why we named the tour ‚Guinness, Baby & Rock ‚n‘ Roll‘ which is exactly what we were doing the whole run – drinking Guinness, taking care (or helping to take care) of the baby, and playing some proper loud rock’n’roll.

What was the worst mishap on the tour (on stage or off?)

I don’t know if you can call it a mishap, but the only real issue we had to sort out literally 24 hours before our flight to England was that a 9-seater van our tour manager Andy had sorted for the tour was suddenly unavailable. So we had to use a van for our mates Syteria which didn’t have enough seats for all of us. Eventually, Petra and I just booked some buses and trains to get where we needed to go and it was great, gave us a breather and the rest of the guys had enough space in the van. Everything worked out for the best.

Who has the most annoying habit?

These days we’re so used to each other and we embrace our individual quirks, so it just doesn’t feel right to call it annoying habits. Like our drummer Kajda – she likes her ciggies, you know… and has a list of phrases she says so often we now call it the Kajda Bingo. But those are not annoying things, we laugh at it all.

Do you have any pre-show rituals? 

These days I really need to spend some time warming up my vocal cords before we go on. Last year I experienced what it was like to lose my voice and it wasn’t pretty one bit so I need to make sure it doesn’t happen again. I usually warm up whilst putting my other face on in front of the mirror and I have some good old disco music on through my little Bluetooth speaker. It’s usually ABBA, Chic, Donna Summer, Sylvester, and stuff like that… really gets me going!

What’s a must-have backstage rider?

It used to be a bottle of Jägermeister and man we used to drink the whole thing, wouldn’t waste it! But just recently I was updating our rider for the summer and I realized I was typing in “baby food – 4pcs, feel free to choose whatever flavor” – I kid you not! We had to have that added as we now have our bassist Domi’s baby boy traveling with us sometimes. Nevertheless, what’s remained on the rider for all these years is, quite unsurprisingly, beer. And water.

What do you miss the most when you’re on tour ?

I think we all miss our pets the most. All of us have dogs and/or cats, and – unlike partners – we can’t take them on tour with us so when we get back home it’s a lot of cuddling.

How do you return to normality after being away from home on tour?

Well, we all work so we have to get back to the ground really quickly, there’s no other way! Our managers and partners help us into the reality fast enough… haha.

When was the last time you were starstruck?

I don’t get starstruck anymore, probably thanks to the fact I met Girlschool, who is a well-known band in their own right, and became friends with them at the age of 15. See, that probably was the last time I was starstruck when I first met my frontwoman hero, Kim McAuliffe. Then I got kind of used to being around well-known musicians, so even meeting KISS didn’t throw me off. I actually pranked Gene Simmons claiming I was his lost daughter (and he was baffled for a second there), and I convinced Paul Stanley to sing a duet with me (which he did and it was beautiful).

Mind you I grew up on KISS, I’d been a total die-hard fan knowing all the deep cuts and every single KISStory trivia. Those guys were the reason I first picked up my guitar. Lots of people get starstruck and unable to utter a word when meeting them, they’re huge celebrities and all that, but I was so at ease, can’t believe it to this day.

You shared a stage with the iconic rockers Scorpions, how did that arrangement come about? 

It was “just” a one-off show in Prague, at the O2 arena – the largest indoor venue in the Czech Republic. Scorpions didn’t have a support band for that particular show, rumour has it Mammooth Van Halen was sick or injured so couldn’t do it, that’s why Scorpions’ management asked the promoter Live Nation to sort out the support for them. And Live Nation contacted the biggest rock radio in the country which held a competition. The next thing that happens is 108 bands enroll, the top 5 emerge with the most SMS votes from the fans and listeners, then out of the top 5, Scorpions and their management choose their band… and it’s us.

Still sounds crazy to me but that’s what happened and when our night finally came, we smashed it out of the park in front of 18 000 people. Scorpions actually liked us too or so they said when we met them backstage. Klaus Meine had just celebrated his birthday, such a lovely lad but so tiny he could only see up to my cleavage.

I met Klaus many moons ago and couldn’t believe how tiny he was. I still can’t make up my as to who was taller, RJD or Klaus (laughs)

The current album, The Rising is a belter of a record. Instant Reality is a firm favorite especially the subject matter of social media. It’s a nightmare to navigate and to stay positive when there’s so much negativity on it. Especially Facebook. Facebook is like a fridge, you know there is nothing new inside but you check it out every ten minutes!

When it came to recording the album, did you all get together or how was it put together (Digital or analog. If digital, what software did you use)

We generally still prefer the tracking way of recording, that’s what we feel most comfortable with. I think we’re definitely good enough musicians to be able to get together in a room and record live, but this is what we’re used to and it works for us.

We record digitally, I think our producer Martin uses Cubase. I like to cut my demos in Logic Pro though.

Was it easy to write this album?

Very easy this time around. I remember feeling extremely inspired, motivated, and full of emotions, and, as a result, the songs just kept flowing. Once I wrote She Said and You, I just couldn’t stop. And House of Mirrors was the last one, I came up with that one literally a few weeks before the recording which is quite funny since it ended up being a perfect opener… and openers are usually written first to establish the mood and vibe of the album. Well, as usual, I did things the other way around.

What comes first, melody or lyrics?

It depends, on whatever strikes me first! Sometimes I come up with a lyric and then just build the riff or melody around it, other times it’s the music I write lyrics into. I’ve also written quite a few songs starting with a drum groove, next came the riff, and off I went. There’s no single pattern really, whatever works for me on a given day.

When it comes to both music and songwriting – is it usually a joint process or is there someone who takes the reins?

Our modus operandi for years now has been me coming up with a demo: a frame of a song, or a full song even. I always send it over to the girls and see what they think. If they like the idea, we try it at a rehearsal and see if it works for us. If it does, the girls take it home and adjust their parts to fit their style and preferences, bringing in their own ideas. Whatever it is though, we’re here to serve the song, play for the song, that’s always been our mantra.

A few songs also started with a random riff or a melody that popped out at a rehearsal or a soundcheck so indeed it’s the rest of the band also contributing, there’s no ban on other band members coming up with something. The reason it’s usually been mostly me is because I love songwriting so much. Writing a song and playing live are two things I couldn’t exist without.

Who are you currently listening to?

My usual eclectic mix. I was going through a serious ABBA phase last month, now it’s a lot of 80’s hair metal (Mötley Crüe, Ratt, Def Leppard), probably because that era had a lot of bangers, lots of TUNES with heavy guitars and big choruses, that’s what I love. At the same time I love to have Metallica, Biffy Clyro, Royal Republic and Foo Fighters thrown into the mix, of course my usual 70’s disco and then The Cult, Killing Joke, Roxette, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, INXS and a bit of Siouxsie… oh man I could go on forever.

If you weren’t in a band, what do you think you’d be doing instead?

I’d probably be a radio person or, and that’s more likely, a stand-up comedian. Ever since I was little, I always loved to be on the stage, show off, and make people laugh. Once they were laughing or started applauding, I was the happiest 5-year-old ever. And that’s pretty much what I’ve been doing to this day, either I make people laugh with the stage banter or when I mess up something on the guitar! Whatever it takes really.

If there was to be a movie made of The Agony, Who would you want to play you & why?

You’ve just had me googling actresses for about an hour but I give up, I’m afraid we’d have to just play ourselves as no one else comes close and no one looks as “special” as we do.

If we were in a zombie apocalypse, as a band, do you think you’d make it out alive. Who would survive, who would be first to go – what would be your survival plan!

We’d make it out alive, I’m quite sure of that. If we still had our guitars, we’d play Wonderwall over and over until the zombies would go “Sod it, we can’t take this anymore”. Or even without the guitars, let’s not forget we’re Czech: we’d probably just drink the zombies under the table and walk.

A true apocalypse for us would be not being able to gig anymore and running out of Pilsner Urquell, it’s then when we really couldn’t be bothered about what happens next.

What’s next for The Agony? Are you currently writing new material?

Slowly but surely, yes. We’ve had a busy summer and not much time for writing but we’ll get back to it. We might have something new out in 2025, a single maybe… not sure about the new album as yet, we’re still very much promoting and touring Rising and it’s going to be hard to top that one, we’re very proud of that album.

 

I think I can share we’ll continue conquering the UK by appearing at one of the scene’s biggest and best festivals in the fall of 2025 

That’s brilliant news, can’t wait to see which one. Niky, it’s been a joy to sit and talk with you, thank you for taking the time and l look forward to what’s coming in 2025 for you and the band.

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