Performing as as Xylourides, siblings Nikos, Adonis and Apollonia Xylouris are carrying on their family's legendary Cretan folk legacy.
The Xylouris family name is near-synonymous with Cretan folk music. Xylourides centres on Crete-based brothers Nikos and Adonis Xylouris and their Naarm/Melbourne-based sister Apollonia.
The siblings’ grandfather, Antonis, and his older brother, Nikos, both Cretan lyra players, are towering figures of 20th century Cretan folk music. Their father, Cretan laouto player George Xylouris, is one half of Xylouris White. Their mum, Shelagh Hannan, is a musician from Melbourne.
Xylourides at Brunswick Music Festival
- Tuesday 3 March
- Brunswick Ballroom
- Tickets here
Frenzee at The Retreat
- Sunday 1 March
- The Retreat
- Tickets here
Stay up to date with what’s happening in and around Melbourne here.
But over the last decade, Xylourides haven’t just carried on the family legacy, they’ve become respected performers in their own right.
“They’re not just grandsons or sons anymore,” Apollonia says of her brothers, who perform as a duo outside of Australia. “They’ve grown up like that, George’s sons or Adonis’ grandchildren, but now they’ve got their own thing going on and they’re wearing it well and everyone around them is proud. So, they’ve made their own stamp.”
Nikos, the oldest sibling, follows the lead of his grandfather and great-uncle, playing the lyra. Adonis takes after his father on the laouto. Apollonia plays a Persian drum called the tombak. All three sing.
Nikos and Adonis share a house in the mountains of Crete, the largest of the Greek islands. They’ve been making a living off Xylourides for the last decade. The project began when the brothers were completing their compulsory military service.
“They managed to go into the army together and they managed to be in the band of the army,” Apollonia says. “So, they were just playing music quite a lot. Then, during that time, they got a residency in the town that they were serving, and they had permission to do this residency, and that’s how they started to do this really.”
Summer in Crete is peak season for Xylourides, and their shows back home tend to be anything but reserved.
“Summer is all just village parties. It goes off,” says Apollonia. “These gigs are just mental. Three, four thousand people rock up very often. My brothers play for six to eight hours. They would start around 11 pm, if not 11:30, and then finish around – I mean, the earliest would be like 4 am, but then a lot of times it’s 7 or 8 [am]. So these things are like an all-night party.”
“It’s incredible, the stamina in the Cretans,” she adds. “They just keep going and they don’t need any drugs either. They’re just happy having some whiskey and staying up all night singing, dancing – and then a lot of times going to work in the morning.”
The Xylouris siblings don’t lack for stamina, either. For evidence, look no further than their hard rock and punk band Frenzee in which Nikos plays drums, Adonis plays electric guitar, and Apollonia tears audiences to shreds with her roaring lead vocals.
On the surface, the two projects seem diametrically opposed, which makes switching from one to the other a challenge.
“It’s not as simple as you would hope,” Apollonia says. “Especially for the boys, just because they’re the ones that really lead Xylourides, and it’s not just sitting there playing music. It’s a whole responsibility of being that persona.”
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Xylourides’ upcoming performance at Brunswick Ballroom will follow a Frenzee tour promoting the band’s new seven-inch, Hyperactive. It’s not the first time the trio have spliced Xylourides shows with Frenzee shows, an act that Apollonia equates to “swapping between two identities.”
“Performance-wise, Frenzee, we’re running around, everyone’s on their feet, there’s a lot of movement, there’s a lot of noise. It’s rock and roll, punk, all of that atmosphere,” she says. “And in Xylourides, when we play here, it’s way more of a concert atmosphere, which makes everything a bit more intimidating in a way. Like, it’s so quiet. Everyone’s sitting down. Everyone can hear everything you’re doing.”
Xylourides last performed in Australia 12 months ago, headlining the Antipodes Festival on Lonsdale Street. A couple of months prior, they played to a sold-out Brunswick Ballroom, and they’re excited to return to the venue.
“We really, really liked the Brunswick Ballroom show because it brought the Greeks, and the friends we’d made from the Frenzee gigs, and people that were interested in the duality, and family,” Apollonia says. “And the boys had been playing for the Cretan Brotherhood and the Pancretan [Association]. All of them getting together in that one venue was very exciting for us to see.”
Xylourides will perform at Brunswick Ballroom on Tuesday 3 March. Tickets available here.
