George Xylouris of Xylouris White
What inspires me is that we have that sad songs yet smiley people
The smile is like the door to open their souls
And same time, all that ,with the history and the nature, the landscape
All that beauty of the mountains and the differences they have from place to pace in Crete and how I grew up really….with people in the mountains
The mountains in Anogeia area are more round, like hills, and they are like a sculpture, they have a harmony to them, as though made like that on purpose. They are easy to walk
The trees, oaks, the colours, the water, the colours of the plants, the sounds of the sheep and goat bells and the birds, the local intonation and stories the people tell
And if you go to the other side, the White Mountains, It’s difficult land, very wild and rocky
And they have different accent and intonation, different stories to tell you, different songs to sing
All those different sounds and stories I think of on and off and they come and go in my mind and give me the rhythm and the sounds
In the square where I grew up the characters of the people are strong and unique characters
I remember as a kid as I was growing up with the other kids of the square all these old people treated us like equals, and I remember their faces the way they danced, the way they talked to us, the way they walked through the square, and the whole stories of their lives they went through wars, they lost people in the wars, and still there, in their black, they are still smiling and singing with their doors always open, like the whole village was one family, the way they welcome the people who come to visit the village, the weddings, the parties in the square, the ‘parees’ (a small gathering of people singing and playing), all the cafes around the square often had conversations loudly across the square
Even today I go there and the same thing happens to my soul
They have stories to tell you
The spring of my inspiration is that and then later on my traveling, my dad who inspired me a lot, and I travel before Xylouris White a lot with my dad, that always I had the feeling I that I took all that back to the spring, and the spring gave me more in the mixture
Inspiration is a journey of feelings and pictures and sounds