Ross Murray – Drummer, Recording Engineer, Producer
Ross Murray has recorded and toured with Bo Diddley, Madagascar Slim, Great Big C, Etta James, and the East Village Opera Company.
“Greek Rebetika music is going viral,” Murray says. “People in Greece are crazy for this music. We’re exploring every variation possible – Greek reggae, Greek country ‘n’ western, Greek folk and blues, Greek rock and Greek heavy metal.”
That makes Ouzo Power an experimental band – a description that Murray agrees with.
“We’re all strong musicians and we take the music seriously but at the same time we have fun with it. George knows the songs in their traditional forms but (as backup musicians) we’ve been travelling all over the place and picked up other influences.
“So we’re always trying different things. When you hear Rebetika you know it’s old Greek dudes drinking their heads off – but we change it up a bit, take away some of the heavier elements and give it different shades – more like Calypso.
“To take a sad, heavy, hard-drinking Greek blues song with bawdy lyrics and turn it into fast rock or reggae, that’s fun. We’re not trying to be witty. We play with the style. We push the envelope.”