Behind The Scenes: The Magic Bus - Γιαρέμ Γιαρέμ (Official Video)

‘The Magic Bus’ started its journey as a Greek rock scene’s cover band. A few years later with an original album already released and a new EP on the way, the song covers still play a big part in the band’s repertoire for a variety of reasons.

An interesting aspect, that as a band we’re proud of, is that we never hesitate to experiment with songs that differentiate from the rock genre and include them in our set, carefully altering and distilling them through our own musical prism.

In this context, we decided to record and release a four-song EP, with each track originating or referring to a different music genre which was connected as a puzzle under a rock perspective. Therefore, in the ‘Άγνωστα Νερά’ (Agnosta Nera / Uncharted Territory) EP, you’ll find two original songs and two intriguing covers, with ‘Γιαρέμ Γιαρέμ’ being the first to be introduced as a video clip.

All those songs were recorded and produced at Locomotive Sound studio (Lamia, Greece) with Ektoras Sohos being the producer.

‘Γιαρέμ Γιαρέμ’ (Yarem Yarem or Giarem Giarem) is a well-known Greek song from 1975, with a unique rhythm pattern, a beautiful melody that will stay on your mind long after it’s finished and wonderful lyrics. It was composed by George Chatzinasios on the late Nick Gatsos’ poetry, both of whom are considered some of the most prominent and respected Greek artists, with a reputation that exceeds our country. You can imagine our excitement and joy when the copyright management company informed us that we had been given the green light to cover this particular song!

It is a popular belief that ‘Yarem Yarem’ as a word is most likely a corruption of a Turkish word meaning 'beloved'. Another opinion states that the poet used it for its mellisonant sound rather than its meaning, while in a recent interview, Mr. Chatzinasios had another insight on the word: He suggested that there’s a chance the poet himself may have not quite understood the meaning of the word, being instead a coiner’s outcome, since N. Gatsos as a poet was also a wordsmith. Intriguing...

As for the poem’s meaning, it is part of the poetry’s charm to be open to many interpretations! In the band’s mind, it is an ode to the fragile but beautiful essence of love through time and hardship.

When the time came to make decisions about the video clip, we already knew that we wanted to somehow match the vintage aesthetic of the original song, as well as look unstilted and a bit raw. The choice, then, was kind of obvious: we decided to make a simple “the band plays live” video clip and, of course, the black and white color palette was in order. The video shooting was held in ‘Art & Culture Hall’ in Livadia city (Greece), which has a theatrical style stage and it was perfect for our set up.

The band’s singer, Valantis Dafkos, directed and coordinated the shots that took a few hours and was an absolute blast since we just had to be ourselves and play just like any other live occasion! Our dear friends and fellow travelers with ‘The Magic Bus’ Thanos Kostakopoulos (videographer, photographer) and Dimitris Trokas (sound & lightning technician) were up for the task (as always!) and did a great job (once again!), giving life to our thoughts.

An interesting fact about filmmaking is that we used a mobile phone camera, rather than a typical one, something we’d like to believe added up to the unguided video’s tone.

However, as much “underground” style as we wanted to maintain, this video clip would have never been even close to what we finally presented without the help of our good friend and collaborator Angelos Michailidis (AM Productions) who undertook the project’s montage, edit and production.

So, this is it! The ‘Behind the Scenes’ for our ‘Γιαρέμ Γιαρέμ’ song and video clip tour is at an end and we hope you enjoyed both the ride and the video! Come say ‘hi’ at our social pages and don’t forget to like, share, subscribe, and… support your local scene! Cheers!

Enjoy the video clip of "Yarem Yarem" here: