SENSER Live in Athens for the first time in 12 years. Roula Karalamani chats with them and gets you ready for Saturday, March 28, 2026, when they’ll hit the stage at An Club for a big party!
Welcome guys to Afternoiz!
1. After more than three decades as a band, what still drives you to create music with urgency rather than nostalgia?
The world hasn’t slowed down or softened… if anything it’s become more intense and more fractured. We’ve never been a band that looks backwards. Urgency comes from being aware: social pressures, political hypocrisy, personal resilience. If we ever felt we were just replaying a version of ourselves, we’d stop. We’re not a band doing covers of music with a strong message.
The fire is still there because the reasons to speak out are still there. The urgency is in our musical DNA.
2. Your latest album, Sonic Dissidence, is self-funded and released through your own label. How did this independence influence the way you approached the album and the overall recording process?
Independence gave us clarity and fearlessness. No gatekeepers, no compromises, no chasing relevance. We could take time where it mattered and push hard where it needed impact. The recording process was about following our instincts with no need for any approval. Having our own label gives us the opportunity to reclaim the original reason we started: making music because it inspires us and has to be out there.
3. Having emerged from the underground festival scene and rave culture of 1990s London, how do you feel those environments shaped your musical perspective?
Those spaces taught us that music is communal, physical, and political all at once. Free festival / rave culture was bigger than just the sound – it had a freedom, resistance, and openness. That collision of beats, bodies, and ideas shaped how we think about rhythm, energy, and message. We’ve always carried that sense of movement and disruption with us. Those kinds of cultural movements are revolutionary and rare, they’re once-in-a-generation moments and leave a permanent mark.
4. The rap-rock fusion your band pioneered was groundbreaking at the time. How do you view the evolution of this genre today?
The genre has fragmented, and that’s a good thing. It had a toxic period of being ‘frat boy’ rock. You hear that same collision of styles everywhere now, but often without the risk or intent behind it. What mattered was never the label though – it was the attitude and the approach. We’re proud to have come from a place where fusion was original and confrontational, not decorative.
The challenge today is keeping the bite and the creativity fresh and inspiring.
5. The political dimension of your lyrics has been central to your work from the very beginning. Is there a specific contemporary issue you feel drawn to explore in the future?
Control – who holds it, how it’s disguised, and how easily it’s surrendered. Whether that’s through surveillance, misinformation, economic pressure, or manufactured division, the mechanisms have become more subtle and more invasive. That tension between autonomy and manipulation is something we’re deeply drawn to.
6. After such a long time away, how does it feel to be coming back to Athens? What significance does this scene hold for you as a band?
Athens has always felt charged – politically aware, emotionally open, and fiercely alive. There’s a real sense of shared frequency there, and a raw honesty in the scene that mirrors our own ethos. We’re genuinely excited to be coming back!
7. Can you share a moment from your touring experience that you feel changed the way you see life as artists?
We started out in the UK and gradually found ourselves playing shows all over the world. We’ve been lucky to experience gigs where the language barriers disappear the second the beat drops – watching people connect to the energy and the message shows us that music isn’t intellectual first, it’s visceral. That understanding has shaped our approach and reinforced the power of impact and feeling in our music.
8. Your sound has evolved over the years, yet it still retains its core energy and passion. What element or ingredient do you consider to be the true “Senser formula”?
We tend to shy away from formulas, but if there’s a common thread in Senser, it’s tension – between rhythm and chaos, dissonance and uplift, control and release. That edge is where the energy lives for us.
9. When you hit the stage at An Club, what kind of experience should the audience be ready for — new territory or the raw energy of the old favorites?
Both – and no separation between them. The old tracks still hit. The new material carries that same force. Expect sweat, impact, and in a venue like An Club – zero distance between band and crowd!
10. If Senser were starting today, in a completely different music industry landscape, what do you think you would do differently?
We’d probably ignore even more rules. Direct connection matters more than exposure now. The tools have changed, but the basic principles haven’t – say something real, make it loud enough to be felt, and no need to wait for permission.
SENSER
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Preparing for March 28, 2026, when they’ll hit the stage at An Club for a big party! Press here (In greek)
