KID MOXIE: The Covers Interview

‘The Covers’ is the new long playing collection by KID MOXIE.

The musical vehicle of Greek-born Elena Charbila, although KID MOXIE has been busy these past few years with her 2022 long player ‘Better Than Electric’ and 2023’s collaborative EP ‘Lust’ with German Queen Of Synthwave NINA released on Italians Do It Better, the new collection was precipitated by her soundtrack work on the 2020 film ‘Not To Be Unpleasant, But We Need To Have A Serious Talk’.

While the majority of the material on the soundtrack was instrumental, it included a stark feminine reinterpretation of ALPHAVILLE’s ‘Big In Japan’; the traction gained led to further soundtrack commissions, most notably the drama series ‘Maestro In Blue’, the first Greek television series to be made available on Netflix. This led to a number of cover versions being commissioned in her continental cinematic pop style. Ranging from worldwide pop classics to Greek language evergreens, a number were included in the series and released as single while others remained unused on the hard drive… until now.

Now back in Athens after many years of living in Los Angeles, Elena Charbila spoke to ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK about the stories behind recording the various songs included on ‘The Covers’ album…

Why did you decide to put together a covers compilation?

I feel like there was too many floating around and I think it was motivated by my OCD which wants things in boxes and chapters… covers are a big chapter of my musical life and something that more people got to know me from, as tends to happen with covers in general. So I thought I would put them in one chapter and put them away for a while because I’m ready to say “this was the covers chapter, let’s move on to more original stuff”. But I’m also really proud of this chapter so I wanted to highlight it.

What has been particularly delightful about this compilation is you’ve made a statement of your Greek heritage by including ‘Aniko Se Mena’, ‘Ela Mazi Mou’, ‘Poios To Kserei’, ‘Ti Einai Ayto Pou To Lene Agapi’, ‘Τa Ladadika’ and ‘Panselinos’?

It wasn’t intentional, but I was a little bit sceptical and apprehensive about going there. But it feels in life that going back full circle has a liberating feeling because there’s sometimes to fear about going back to your roots. I was always afraid of leaving America and moving back to Greece, it was almost “a step backwards” but I don’t see it that way anymore.

It’s the same with these covers, I don’t see singing in my native language as a step backwards, I see it as “what a cool bridge”, coming back full circle and singing in a language that was “too close to home” literally… liberating is one way of describing it, but there was a sensation of getting closer to where you may be running from. So you want to differentiate yourself from your heritage, your roots, your home, your parents and then once you’ve done that, it’s almost like the odyssey, you come full circle and can embrace it because I’ve found pieces of myself along the way. So I can embrace where I came from because that was the jolt to take the journey in the first place.

How would something like ‘Ti Einai Ayto Pou To Lene Agapi’ which was in a 1957 Sophia Loren film have been chosen?

Oddly enough, this was a suggestion from the label Universal Greece, they said “you haven’t really done anything Greek, this is an iconic Greek song, the one that has been sung the most because of Sophia Loren, how do you feel about doing this one?”

Usually I refrain from doing stuff that is already close to my vibe, this was already ethereal, emotional, sung by a woman and Greek…. one of the things when I do covers is I don’t want to be compared, so I always try to pick something so different in order to do something different. But it was a revelation to do something that I was a little apprehensive about and scared of. And now it’s one of my favourite covers I’ve ever done at this point 🙂

How did you decide on the eerie synthwave arrangement for ‘Ti Einai Ayto Pou To Lene Agapi’?

It was born into it with me, it’s the ballpark I like, I really like those sonic soundscapes and vibes. Something like this that’s been so traditional and filmic and Greek, how would it live in that soundspace? That was what really excited me.

In a way, your approach to this reminds me of PROPAGANDA doing that cover of ‘Wenn Ich Mir Was Wünschen Dürfte’ this year; I think as much as people can complain about Spotify etc, it has sort of created an international environment now where language is no longer a barrier to appreciating music anymore…

I agree and I actually thought it’s hot for people who don’t understand a language to still like it and get the feeling. For me, it’s never been about lyrics anyway, I write lyrics because I write music, lyrics always came secondary so it doesn’t matter what language they are in. Primarily it is about the melody and the music. I’m not a Bob Dylan fan, but people who love him, love him for what he says mostly, it’s just not my cup of tea and I don’t know if that’s sacrilegious but that’s now I feel because I don’t feel the vibes *laughs*

I know what you mean, I only like Bob Dylan songs when they are covered by other people and to be quite honest, I prefer Leonard Cohen! *laughs*

100%!

You duetted on ‘Aniko Se Mena’ with Giorgos Mazonakis, how did this come about because this is unusual in that you are singing this with the original artist?

Yes, there’s two of these on the album, the other is with Haris Alexiou, both of them came as requests. All these Greek artists, I was surprised and grateful that they invited me to touch iconic songs of theirs and I can include them now on my album.

The one with Giorgos Mazonakis was for a Cannes award winning short film ‘On Xerxes Throne’. But he was ready to take a departure and make something really different plus he was also starring in the film, so that’s how it came about. This is another iconic Greek song that everybody in Greece knows, very traditional sounding with Bouzouki and all of that, but because I don’t listen to Greek music, I didn’t even know it which was a surprise to Mazonakis, he was like “C’mon dude, you don’t know my song?”! *laughs*

‘Panselinos’ is a duet with Haris Alexiou who released an album of reworks, the backing sounds a bit like that great late Greek Vangelis?

This song means “Full Moon”; I call Haris Alexiou “the DEPECHE MODE of Greece” because a couple of months after my collaboration with DEPECHE MODE on ‘Wagging Tongue’, people were asking me about her and she has a legacy of decades with a huge audience abroad as well. Sounding like Vangelis was intentional but it’s always unintentional at the same time, him and Angelo Badalamenti are my two favourite composers of all time. So I feel once you love and have delved into somebody’s work so much, it’s inevitable that you are going to bring it with you! So that’s an amazing compliment!

‘Poios To Kserei’ was made famous by Nana Mouskouri who is a worldwide star and my mother played at lot at home, but you’ve given it a very different synthwave treatment?

I did this one because my Mum loves it and what’s more Greek than doing something your Mum chooses! *laughs*

It’s a gorgeous song, this and ‘Ela Mazi Mou’ which means “Come With Me”, they are both my Mum’s choices, I said to her “I making some Greek songs, please tell me some of your favourites”; she wrote down a list, I picked two and I made them for her 🙂

Another song you have given a synthwave treatment to is ‘Τa Ladadika’ which in its Dimitris Mitropanos version has a traditional dramatic delivery complete with Bouzouki?

Talking about legends, people would have killed for Mitropanos who has now passed on, but he is someone who is so heavy in Greek culture and people are very passionate about him. This is a song about prostitutes in a particular area of Northern Greece and it was really interesting for a woman to be talking about that in those lyrics rather than a man as per the original. It’s a gorgeous melody and an iconic track.

Do you think your cover of ALPHAVILLE’s ‘Big In Japan’ presented you to a much wider audience?

YES I DO! *laughs*

How do you look back on the reaction to it?

Again, this was created for a film back in 2019 and that showed me what covers can do… it showed me that there is such a bridge between an indie artist and an audience once you throw in something really recognisable and twist it on its face. So I was thinking “oh cool, maybe I could do a little more of that” and more and more and more. It felt like the beginning and it’s still one of the ones I still listen to, because there is some stuff I listen to from the past, even in ‘The Covers’ where I think “this is good, I see why I wanted to do this” but ‘Big In Japan’, I’m a fan of how that sounds… I’m not saying that about everything but that one is one of my favourites.

Did Marian Gold of ALPHAVILLE ever feedback his opinion?

I did! We have the same publisher Schubert so I heard through them that he heard it and loved it, that was an amazing pat on the back on my first big cover 🙂

Doing the ‘Creep’ cover was a bold step, but while recording it, did you notice how close it really was musically to ‘The Air That I Breathe’ which was written by Albert Hammond and made famous by THE HOLLIES?

No! I never thought about that!

The song was done as a love theme for a Netflix show called ‘Maestro In Blue’, the third and final season has just dropped and three songs from ‘The Covers’ appear. That was actually a request on the strength of ‘Big In Japan’ from the director who loved ‘Creep’, he wanted the something close to that. But when I listen back to both of them, they really don’t sound similar. ‘Big In Japan’ definitely has a darker sparse edge whereas ‘Creep’ is way more ethereal. It also became one of my favourite covers and got a lot of love. And because people heard it, it brought me a lot of other beautiful things and people asked if I would like to work with them, it was very unexpected.

Because the show and song were popular, whether it’s liked or not, I was craving some hate mail! I was like “Where is my hate mail you guys?”; I felt people were going to think I was disrespecting it! It’s like with ‘Ti Einai Ayto Pou To Lene Agapi’, when it was released a couple of week ago, I was waiting for the hate mail, it didn’t come… but then about a week ago, somebody posted a horrific comment on Instagram about it saying that he’s been puking since he heard it and it’s a horrible thing and vile and I should die and how dare I, so I pinned it as a top comment, I was like “yeah, here we go!”… so ‘Creep’ didn’t get enough hate like I thought it was going to! *laughs*

What inspired you to put together a ‘Twin Peaks’ meets darkwave version of ‘Can’t Help Falling In Love’?

Again, this was a request from the director for ‘Maestro In Blue’ for a very very important love scene, a full circle end of episode scene. As with ‘Creep’, I’m anticipating reaction, let’s see how that does… *laughs*

‘Waiting For Tonight’ saw you do a delicious rework of the song with NINA, are there any plans to work together again?

Not in the immediate future, I think we’re both focussed on our own individual stuff but I am so proud of what we did together and the ‘Lust’ EP is one of my favourites, also getting to work with Italians Do It Better was something we had both been wanting to do for a long time. This song is like the womb it came out of so this EP was like the best home it could have had, all the visuals and everything about my collab with NINA was a beautiful chapter.

’Wild Is The Wind’ has been interpreted by many different artists, who did your favourite version and why did you do it? What did you feel you could bring it?

This was going to be in ‘Maestro In Blue’ and that was the only reason I touched it, I was never going to go there. I love it but I never felt the need… to be honest, that was one of the scariest things to tackle because I thought “this is going to swallow me alive”, that was way scarier than ‘Creep’ which is way more well known.

So I did it, it didn’t end up making the show because of rights, logistics and all that! But if I was going to pick between Nina Simone and David Bowie, Bowie’s is definitely the one I’ve listened to the most and resonated with, it has more of an explosion of emotion instrumentally which I really a big fan of. But neither Nina Simone’s or Bowie’s was an influence on this and I’m glad because I try to stay away from trying to imitate or take suggestions from an original or a well-known version because that is a recipe for not-a-good cover…

Were there any reasons that you decided to leave off some of your other covers like AC/DC ‘Thunderstruck’, BEE GEES ‘Holiday’ or Julee Cruise ‘Mysteries Of Love’?

You know what Chi! I forgot about ‘Thunderstruck’! That’s an honest answer! *laughs*

Also, ‘Thunderstruck’ was quite recently released and on the ‘Better Than Electric’ album but as far as ‘Mysteries Of Love’ goes, I don’t see it as a cover because that was a rework with Angelo Badalamenti, so it was never living in me as a cover, we just did a new version of it. But you know what, you’re making me think, I don’t know if I made the right choice to leave them out, especially as ‘Mysteries Of Love’ was one the most beautiful experiences in my musical life ever.

Are there any songs you would still like to cover or any fantasy duets you would like to do?

With covers, I feel so inundated right now, I feel it’s been a lot and I’m sure come back to it, I’m sure I will but not right now.

Fantasy duets? If we’re going dream big, then Kate Bush would be the first person who comes to mind, that would be iconic, yeah!

What are you up to next?

I’m composing music for an animation show, so that’s going to be the case for a while as it’s multiple seasons. I’ve started on an album of original songs that may include a few I did for a Fox TV series. It will be an EP perhaps, I don’t know how many songs are going to end up coming out. That’s what I’ve been up to.

I’m going to be on two episodes of ‘The Voice of Greece’ as a guest judge and performer. The Teams are now fixed, Giorgos Mazonakis is one of the judges and has invited me as his guest to sing with him on one number while I’ll also be performing alone.

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‘The Covers’ is released by Minos EMI and available online now via Apple and Spotify

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Text and Interview by Chi Ming Lai
23 December 2024