George Fotiadis aka BASEMENT FREAKS is one of the hottest artists in today’s Nu-Funk/Funky-Breaks music scene. He’s a self-taught multi-instrumentalist (he plays guitar, bass & drums) from Thessaloniki/Greece being involved with electronic music production since early 2000. He’s been in city’s local scene since early 90’s as songwriter and guitarist in some indie rock bands till he decided to form the project Basement Freaks back in 2005.
One of the crucial points in his career was the release of his debut CD album “URBAN JUNGLE”, released by the Greek label MUSIC KITCHEN RECORDS back in Summer of 2006 the album got very positive feedback from some of the hottest names in international electronic scene like STEREO MC’S and KRAAK AND SMAAK. Almost immediately he has done remixes for various artists like CHRIS JOSS (from ESL camp!), REPHRASE, SMOOVE & TYRRELL gained strong support by almost everybody and positioned himself in the global underground Funky Breakbeat music scene.
He’s first 12” EP released back in October 2007 for the USA label SOUTH CITY RECORDINGS. In the end of the same year Basement Freaks meets QUASAMODO and they collaborate on the track “Move Sucka” which was released on GOODGROOVE RECORDS, UK, being one of the bestseller breakbeat vinyls on JUNO and FATCITY online record stores.
He was also collaborated with NewYorker sax player MICHAEL WEISBERGER (from MILO Z’s funk band), with the famous Nigerian Afro-Rap singer ADE BANTU, and also with some of the best Greek musicians.
Late 2007 Basement Freaks joined forces with Quasamodo in order to form an Cinematic, Nu-Jazz, Balkan-Beats music project called SMOKEY BANDITS. They have worked together in Athens, collaborated with 17 musicians and they have came out with a ready-to-be-released full album. The Bandits have also done a remix for CHRIS JOSS on ESL RECORDS and currently are looking for the label which is going to release their album.
In the meantime Basement Freaks career expanded rapidly while he has done killer releases (digital and vinyl) for labels like GOODGROOVE, WACK,BREAKBEAT PARADISE, MANMADE, SUNSETSOUL, ANILIGITAL MUSIC, ESL, V.I.M. BREAKS, JALAPENO and more. He gained strong support and positive feedback from established producers/djs of the international electronic scene like A.Skillz, Flow Dynamics, All Good Funk Alliance, Smoove, Fort Knox Five, Valique, almost all his releases and remixes climbed very high in the charts of the most important record stores like JUNO, BEATPORT, FAT CITY, DJDOWNLOAD etc, and he gained strong airplay in many radios like BBC6 RADIO (Craig Charles Funk and Soul Show), RADIO FUNK TRUST, NUBREAKS, PLAY FM, REPUBLIC FM, and more.
Since March of 2008 Basement Freaks is a member of “Bureau 45” booking agency. He has played in many clubs, venues and big festivals throughout Europe living the experience of playing for different audiences. In his portfolio there are appearances in Budapest, Cologne, Dortmund, Munster, Belgrade, Vienna, Gratz, Novi Sad, Antwerp, Moers, Nicosia, Limasol, Zagreb and almost all cities throughout Greece!
From November of 2008 he moved from Thessaloniki to Cologne in order to expand its career in a better way. He co-operated and worked on radio jingles for radio station “Funkhaus Europa” (of the WDR stable!), he toured
throughout Germany and he has released many more tunes and remixes. 2009 finds him “on fire” with more successful releases, more dj gigs, side-projects works and new tracks on the pipeline!
