Grendel Babies

Grendel Babies

"The band that was missing from the Cyprus music scene"


Grendel Babies formed as an eccentric violin-piano duo in 2008 on U.S. soil.  After a five year hiatus, the band released their debut album in Cyprus in 2017. Grendel Babies project began as a vaudevillian live act tackling literary, historical, and mythical themes with extraordinary costumes, dramatic monologues, and songs ranging from the modern-day plight of an Ancient Greek Penelope to the re-telling of a French medieval werewolf tale. The Grendel Babies ensemble eventually expanded orchestrally to include drums, cello, tzouras, and accordion with musicians from two countries. 

Their debut album “Oh My” features ten tracks composed by Grendel Babies frontwoman Marilena Zackheos. Mixing elements from jazz, baroque, folk, rock, incorporating tsifteteli, waltz, and swing rhythms, as well as changing time signatures, their songs embrace diversity. Their songs draw from fairy tales, day-to-day (dis)contents, and randomly discovered notes from wronged exes (among other curios). Expect to hear somber odes like “Enchantress” with lyrics from Sappho about the goddess Aphrodite, dark comical ballads about failed loves like “Birth of the Beheader” and “Eating,” loony swing tunes such as “Ophelia”, as well as manic anthems like “Hiroshima Maidens”, a five-and-a-half-minute history of plastic surgery and of the role that war has played in its development. 

 Cyprus-based Grendel Babies members:
•    Marilena Zackheos on keys and vocals
•    Ioulios Georgakopoulos on drums and percussion
•    Alexia Yiangou on cello
•    Mike Zachariades on bass 
•    Charitini Kyriakou on tzouras
•    Andreas Papapetrou on accordion
•    Julia Petrou Michaelides on vocals 
•    Eleni Skarpari on vocals 

Grendel Babies are a smooth blend of music and theater, literature and history, drama and comedy. Check out “Oh My” as well as their live performances for a unique experience! 

Websites: 
1.    Reverbnation – https://www.reverbnation.com/grendelbabies
2.    Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/GrendelBabies/
3.    CD Baby - https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/grendelbabies

Grendel Babies