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Talented Yannis Panagis is fostering hopes of breaking into the music industry by writing and performing his own songs before uploading them to video-sharing platform YouTube.
The 16-year-old British School of Bahrain student has been playing instruments and singing since he was six, but recently decided to take his hobby a step further by filming his songs in the kingdom and displaying them to the world.
Yannis, who hails from Switzerland, said: “I’ve been writing my own music since I received my first guitar and went to a studio five years ago to record one of the first proper songs I ever wrote, called Look Beyond. My voice hadn’t broke at that time so you wouldn’t recognise my voice at all, but it was an important first step. I still have the CDs somewhere!
“My two main musical influences are Ed Sheeran and James Blunt. I’ve always loved to listen to Blunt from a very young age, as the emotion in his voice and performances just blow me away and it really inspires me to try the same with my songs. Sheeran is one of my all-time favourite artists and I’ve supported him from the very beginning, the way he writes and sings his music is just magical.”
Yannis, who has lived in Manama with his Swiss mother Doris and Greek father Panos for four years, practices every day and balances his musical pursuits with schoolwork. He has not received lessons for many years and learns new skills through experimentation and the influence of his heroes.
Speaking about how his passion for music was ignited, Yannis explained: “When I was six, just before Christmas I told my parents that I wanted to learn how to play the guitar and they agreed only if I was able to play three Christmas songs on the recorder by Christmas Day.
“I was never very fond of the recorder, but from the moment I first heard a guitar I fell in love with the instrument and so I practiced every day until Christmas. When we unwrapped our presents there was my very first guitar under the tree. It was this little acoustic; it’s much too small for me now but I still keep it for sentimental value, and I’ve played guitar ever since.
“My main instrument has always been the guitar, although I used to play the bass and the trombone in the school orchestra. Quite recently I started teaching myself some piano too.”
His practicing place of preference is in the ballroom of the Diplomat Radisson Blu Residence and Spa, where his father is the general manager, due to the great acoustics and having no reservations about ramping the volume up!
Hoping to get his name recognised worldwide, Yannis has taken to YouTube to promote his songs. His channel contains a number of his recordings and performances filmed in Bahrain by his brother Alex, 13, such as The Fault In Our Stars and Taking Back Sunday. He has just released his latest song, Angels, fresh from performing it at the Shubert Theatre in America in front of 600 music-lovers.
Discussing the recording process, he explained: “To be completely honest, there’s no real way to have a rigid process for song writing, it just comes to you in stages. Every song is different, sometimes the words come first and sometimes the melody comes first. What I usually do is record voice notes or videos with my phone of every single idea for a melody or a lyric I have. There are literally hundreds!”
As for future plans in the music scene, Yannis says: “If I ever get the opportunity to push my music further than just a hobby, I would take it straight away. I love writing songs and performing in front of crowds more than anything, but it’s difficult to stand out from the crowd so I’ll continue to take my studies seriously, with the hope that someday something might happen. I will continue making songs and uploading them in the meantime!”
* Yannis’ YouTube channel, including new song Angels, can be found at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChuLRPxgOtC-idWGYN7-vvw
