Orpheus Spiliotopoulos

Orpheus Spiliotopoulos (Greek: Ορφέας Σπηλιωτόπουλος) (born July 27, 1980 in Greek island of Rhodes), son of Greek singer Iris Mavraki, is an independent band manager, a music journalist, a radio show host, a club DJ and a lyricist. He is also the former TV host / VJ of MTV Greece's "Headbangers Ball" and a former promoter for major record labels. Orpheus currently resides in Athens, Greece.

Biography

As An MTV VJ

On February 4, 2010, MTV Greece announced that Spiliotopoulos would be co-hosting the Greek version of the legendary MTV show, "Headbangers Ball"^[1]^[2]^[3] along with Vanessa Christodoulou. The TV network's collaboration with both hosts officially ended in September 2011 after a successful run of two seasons on Greek TV.

As A Band Manager

Orpheus Spiliotopoulos' first official signing was Turkish/Greek progressive/power metal band Dreamtone & Iris Mavraki's Neverland in 2006, which he got signed to the German record label AFM Records^[4] and therefore helped release its debut album, "Reversing Time" in February 2008. In the meantime, in November 2007, Spiliotopoulos signed his second metal act, SIC (band)^[5] from the Faroe Islands. Whilst in late 2008 he parted ways with Dreamtone & Iris Mavraki's Neverland, he ventured off in February 2009, on his first major European Tour together with SIC. In August and September of the same year two more bands were added to his management's roster. Greek atmospheric metal act Scar Of The Sun^[6]^[7]^[8] and Greek melodic death metal band Kinetic (band).^[9]^[10] In 2010 Spiliotopoulos parted ways with the latter and signed Greek rockers Maplerun, progsters Persona Non Grata^[11]^[12] and heavy/prog metal act Disharmony.^[13] In early 2011 Spiliotopoulos got Scar of The Sun signed to Italian record label Scarlet Records^[14]^[15] through which the band released its debut album, "A Series of Unfortunate Concurrencies", worldwide in late May 2011. SIC also released its sophomore studio album, "Fighters They Bleed" a month earlier through the Danish label Mighty Music. Spiliotopoulos currently still manages Scar of The Sun, Disharmony and SIC up to this day.

As A Record Label Promoter

In 2005, Nuclear Blast Records hired Spiliotopoulos as the company's promoter in Greece. In the summer of 2007 he split ways with the company and for a short while that year he joined the ranks of AFM Records, again in order to assist the company in Greece. In December 2007, Spiliotopoulos dropped the German label in favor of Warner Music Greece S.A. where he worked for a year in the New Media department but also did promotion on behalf of Nuclear Blast Records and Roadrunner Records, both companies distributed in Greece by Warner Music. In December 2008 and because Spiliotopoulos was moving to the Faroe Islands in order to work closely with his band, SIC, he subsequently left Warner Music. Nowadays he does not work for any record labels.

As A Journalist

Spiliotopoulos' journalistic career started in late 2000 when he was asked to write for the Greek based music webzine Metal Temple. In early 2001 he was promoted to editor of the webzine and during his seven years at the helm, he got to interview numerous famous rock/metal artists, such as Judas Priest,^[16]^[17]^[18]^[19]^[20] Megadeth,^[21] Annihilator (band),^[22] Rammstein,^[23] Helloween^[24]^[25] and Rotting Christ,^[26] among others. In early 2006, Spiliotopoulos started writing for the Greek edition of Rock Hard (magazine) and subsequently, due to too many obligations at the time, left Metal Temple. As a writer for the magazine he has kept on interviewing major recording artists to this day with one of the highlights being his interview with Ronnie James Dio (Dio, Black Sabbath, Heaven & Hell) in June 2007, during Greece's Rockwave Festival.

As A DJ/Radio Show Host

Orpheus Spiliotopoulos has been a radio show host on the Greek radio station Atlantis 105.2 FM since 2006. Together we his colleague from Rock Hard magazine, Frank Samoilis, he's hosted the magazine's two hour radio show every Friday evening at 10 pm (local time). Recently and after 3,5 years of not willing to do so, Spiliotopoulos & Samoilis decided to start bringing special guests on their show.^[27]^[28]^[29] In the past, Spiliotopoulos has also had his own show on the online radio station Hard Rock Radio Live, under the nickname DJ Painkiller, where he'd every so often air interviews^[30] of his with major artists from his career as a journalist and has also featured guest musicians, live, on the show.^[31]

As a club DJ, Spiliotopoulos has played at some of Athens' most known night clubs (as far as metal music goes) like the Texas Club where he was a resident DJ during 2006. In the summer of 2007 he had the opportunity to keep 30,000 people entertained at Rockwave Festival, on July 3, 2007, during intermissions between bands and with Metallica headlining the day.

As A Lyricist

Spiliotopoulos has composed the lyrics for three songs on Dreamtone & Iris Mavraki's Neverland's debut album, "Reversing Time" (2008). These songs are "Shooting Star", "Everlasting Tranquillity" and "Mountain of Judgement". Two of these songs (second and third) were sung by his mother and female singer of the band, Iris Mavraki.