Join Us on Eurovision: Exclusive Interview with Ilias Kozas: "Don’t think about the past, don’t think about the future

Ilias Kozas in Germany (Cologne,Luxor - 30.05.2014)

The band Koza Mostra feat. Agathonas Iakovidis represented Greece at the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 in Malmö with their song 'Alcohol Is Free'. The song did it very well in the Grand Final and reached 5th place at the end with 152 points.

Watch their Eurovision 2013 performance of 'Alcohol Is Free':

We had the chance to talk to Ilias Kozas (band singer and guitar player) on 30th of May in Cologne before their first German concert. Read our interview below to find out what he had to say...

Hello Ilias, WELCOME to Cologne!

Have you ever been before in Germany?

Ilias Kozas: Yes, my Mum grew up in Germany. Her sister also lives here in Munich. My mum grew up in Neuss, close too Düsseldorf. So ‘ich spreche auch ein bisschen deutsch..’ (he was joking) :) I was many times here in Germany since I was a little child. I’ve been in Düsseldorf, Cologne, Munich, Dortmund.. I’ve been in a lot of places here in Germany..

Which city you like most?

Ilias Kozas:Well.. I think every city has it’s own kindness. It’s beautiful for other reasons than the other. I like Berlin because of the nightlife and I like Munich because it is really beautiful. Each city for different reasons.

Greece were represented this year from Freaky Fortune feat. RiskyKidd and the song 'Rise Up' at the Eurovision Song Contest in Copenhagen. What do you think about their entry?

Ilias Kozas: I think it was a very nice song. But the truth is that it hasn’t something from Greek on it. It could be more a song which was prepared to be from England or from another country, but not from Greece. I liked the song and I like this kind of music. I’m not sure about the place in the Eurovision final, I think they deserved better. Unfortunately I haven’t seen their performance on the final, because we were on a show that evening. But I saw the performance on the next day and the audience was very cool with the song and they had a great time with the Greek entry from Freaky Fortune & RiskyKidd. so I don’t know what went wrong. It’s Eurovision :)

Koza Mostra represented Greece last year in Malmö at the Eurovision Song Contest with Agathonas Iakovidis and the song ‘Alcohol Is Free’. Your song was very popular and it reached 6th place in the Eurovision final. Was it a good end result for you or have you expected more?

Ilias Kozas: The truth is that from the beginning of our trip we told to everyone that we don’t care about the position. We only wanted to participate, to have fun and to send a message that we are here. The lyrics of ‘Alcohol Is Free’ was talking about the situation in that we live in Greece and in other countries too. The most important thing for us was to send a message. Even though I was – you can call me stupid – expecting something better. But even we would have been on 20th position – we wouldn’t care about it. We had a great time in Malmö and we did our best. We kept only our good moments from this trip.

What kind of memories do you have if you are looking back in time one year?

Ilias Kozas: We had a lot of funny moments. One of the funniest moments was at the last rehearsal which we did also with the intro which people are see in the moment we were entering the stage. We found some helmets, some yellow helmet from the workers there and we used it for the intro. It was very funny, all the people were looking at us and asking ‘Are you going to perform like this?!’ and we said ‘No no no, this is a joke, forget about it..’ :-) We really had a great time there.

Who had the idea that you could represent your country in Eurovision and can you tell me something about the collaboration with Agathonas Iakovidis?

Ilias Kozas: Our record label had the idea that we could participate for the Greek national selection. I was not really positive at the beginning. In Greece it’s more like artist that participate they have a label up and they are pop artists. This is really stupid, but it affected us a lot to think negative. But we had the song ‘Alcohol Is Free’ which was part of our album and Agathonas had already sung this song. A better idea came up after the first thoughts that it would be really nice to participate with that song. The song was something unique, something special. You could not name it ‘pop’ song. That was much better. Than we decided to take part.

Last year after Eurovision you won the ‘ESC Radio Award 2013’ as ‘Best Group 2013’. How important was that victory for you?

Ilias Kozas
(ESC Radio Award - Best Group 2013)

Ilias Kozas: It was really important for us because we were the underdogs in the contest. I think it’s not really often that you see bands there which are really different to the others are participating to win such an award. The award is placed in my studio on my piano :-)

You released your first album ‘Keep Up The Rhythm’ last year in March. Some weeks ago I saw a teaser of a new song called ‘Giorti’. Can you tell me something about that?

Ilias Kozas: ‘Giorti’ means ‘Celebration’. We are preparing the final version of the song and I think we will also have a video clip at the end of June. We are releasing a new song and we hope that at the end of this year – if we are optimistic – we have a new album. Well, if not at the end of 2014, than some month later in 2015, I hope. We are really trying to be more hours in the studio to preparing the new stuff. We will see..

Tonight it’s your first concert in Germany. Are you excited?

Ilias Kozas: Yes, of course :-) we are excited about any concerts in foreign countries. It is something really new. It doesn’t matter how much you perform in foreign countries because everyone is unique.

Are you planning to play more concerts in Germany?

Ilias Kozas: Yes we are planning to make more concerts in Germany. From September on probably. We have a very heavy schedule this summer. We are going to Italy, Switzerland and other countries. So I hope we have from September on much more appereances here in Germany.

Will you perform 'Giorti' tonigh? There are any other new songs which you are planning to perform tonight?

Ilias Kozas: No, it is too early. Well, we could play ‘Giorti’, but the people will not be familiar with the song. It’s better to upload it first on the internet and than to perform it live in front of the audience.

Can you tell me something about the story from the new song?

Ilias Kozas: Well the song is about mistakes which are done. It tell to the listeners to forget about the mistakes and try to have much more time for a good time – what ever shit is happen around you. You have to think positive. Don’t think about the past, don’t think about the future. Present is much more important.

Can you tell me something about the new album?

Ilias Kozas: The album is in progress. It will be for sure have some lyrics in English and some lyrics in Greek. We will have much more party songs and maybe it will be much more rock, it will be not exactly the ska sound. It will be different to the first album. It will be much more heavy and much more party – you will find out... :-)

You haven't seen Koza Mostra performing live? Watch this video from Cologne: