The 3rd Empty City Squares Album, released June 21, 2021, and available on bandcamp and all streaming services.

The Disappearing Architect

1/2 of a "Double A" side single from the upcoming Empty City Squares album "The Disappearing Architect". Featuring the GREAT Marc Shearer (@marcvarious) on lead guitar and good vibes. Released April 21, 2021.

Miss Ambition

1/2 of a "Double A" side single from the upcoming Empty City Squares album, "The Disappearing Architect". Dedicated to a former client, a former president, and the greatest carnival barker of them all...

Hail To The Cheato

1/2 of the new single (along with "the Comedian") from the upcoming Empty City Squares album, "The Disappearing Architect".

Older, and even angrier.

Dedicated to my heroes from Shepherd's Bush - Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend, John Entwistle and Keith Moon.

Released May 27, 2021

John "Yanni" Fotiadis - Write, Arranger, Engineer, Producer, Keys, Acoustic and Electri Guitars, Bass Guitar, Vocals.
Ira Siegel - Lead Guitar and Townshend-esque atmospherics
Frank Vilardi - Drums

Going On Strike (Old Man Blues)

1/2 of a new single from the upcoming Empty City Squares album, "The Disappearing Architect.

Dedicated to all the wise-asses out there, starting with my hero Socrates and ending with my hero, Gilbert Gottfried.

Credits
Released May 27, 2021
John "Yanni" Fotiadis - Writer, Arranger, Performer, Engineer, Producer
Marc Shearer - Sonic Advisor

The Comedian

"Neither Circle Or Square"
Written, arranged, performed, engineered, produced: John "Yanni" Fotiadis
Lead / Backwards Guitar: Marc Shearer (@marcvarious)

Neither Circle Or Square

"Parmenides"
Written, arranged, performed, engineered, produced: John "Yanni" Fotiadis

Lead and Rhythm Guitars:  Ira Siegel 
Drums: Frank Vilardi
backing vocals and the ”ancient temple horn”: Marc Shearer (@marcvarious).

Parmenides

"Letter To A Friend"
Written, arranged, performed, engineered, produced: John "Yanni" Fotiadis
Lead Guitar: Marc Shearer (@marcvarious)

Letter To A Friend

Written, arranged, performed, engineered, produced: John "Yanni" Fotiadis
Lead Guitar: Ira Siegel
Drums: Frank Vilardi

Going On Strike

"Miss Ambition"
Written, arranged, performed, engineered, produced: John "Yanni" Fotiadis
Lead Guitar and “atmospherics”: Marc Shearer (@marcvarious)

"The Comedian"
Written, arranged, performed, engineered, produced: John "Yanni" Fotiadis

"The Tragic, The Comic, The Mostly Ignored"
Written, arranged, performed, engineered, produced: John "Yanni" Fotiadis

The Tragic, The Comic, The Mostly Ignored

"Captain Taso's Belly":
Written, arranged, performed, engineered, produced: John "Yanni" Fotiadis
Tzoura: Mike "Risko" Savvas

Captain Taso's Belly

From The Disappearing Architect, released June 21, 2021

"So Bourgeois"
Written, arranged, performed, recorded, engineered and produced by John "Yanni" Fotiadis
Sonic advice: Marc Shearer (@marcvarious)

So Bourgeois

"Hail To The Cheato"
Written, arranged, performed, engineered and produced by John "Yanni Fotiadis

A tongue-in-cheek piece of music I wrote for Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast (http://www.gilbertpodcast.com/), Listener Mail Segments. This is the closing theme. 

Take a Brazilian Bossanova Clave Beat, mix in some Bachrach, Fifth Dimension, an orange wedge, lyrics featuring Cesar Romero, Herve Villechaize and the Grouch Marx, and stir vigorously! 

Thanks to my pals Gilbert Gottfried and Frank Santopadre for giving this a listen and putting it to good use!

A new Master MIX added uploaded on 12.09.2018

Amazing Colossal Obsessions Listener Mail Closing Theme

Designed to help the boys close out these GGACP One Hit Wonder episodes, this quick ditty is dedicated to Gilbert's unusual mental faculties - especially when it comes to songs he's heard once, 50 years ago. Medical science is looking into this.

NEW MASTER MIX POSTED 12.22.2018

LYRICS (by popular demand):

Verse
He will never remember your name
He can't even remember,
he met you yesterday 

But he can recall 
The Verses, chorus and all 
Of a song he heard once in 1974

When it comes to a song 
everyone else will get wrong 

Chorus
Gilbert Gottfried is the idiot savant- Fried
Who can always identify
Those one hit wonders 

Verse 
Dustin Hoffman may have stolen 
That role in Dick Tracy, 
That was meant for this man who does a 
Real mean, James Mason 

But I would be lying
If I said he was trying 
Cause he's the real "Rain Man"
With that real scary brain, man 

When it comes to a song 
everyone else will get wrong 

Chorus
Gilbert Gottfried is the idiot-savant Fried
Who can always identify
Those one hit wonders 

Chorus to Fade

One Hit Wonders (Idiot Savant-Fried)

A song I finished writing soon after David Bowie passed away. Not necessarily about him, but certainly inspired by him and his music. 

It's a song more about speaking to someone or something you can't see. Is that called "prayer"?...I suspect its more about talking to yourself. 

From the ECS Album "337".

FINALMASTER MIX POSTED 12.29.2018

A Whisper In The Wind

From the ECS album "337". Quite a bit of guitar layering here, a la Johnny Marr. 

A song about a man who knows crime doesn't pay, unless of course he gets away with that one great caper and makes that one great escape. Think Butch and Sundance in the Aegean...

FINALMASTER MIX UPLOADED 12.29.2018

Nothing Got In The Way

The 14th and final track of the "337" project. A rough mix like all the rest. 

My influences are quite transparent in this one - A Neil Young tempo, Prog Rock mellotrons and some Townshend-esque suspended chords. Hey, we do what we can to stay sane and deal with life's daily doses of chaos and uncertainty. 

Here's an anthem dedicated to that weatherman - and self-indulgent lead guitarist ;) - in all of us.

And so back to the beginning we go, tweaking and mixing....and polishing this thing up. Stay Tuned.

MASTER MIX POSTED 12.29.2018

Talk About The Weather

A tribute to the greatest tenor of our generation, Gilbert Gottfried!

(Posted a slightly tweaked mix on 12.23.2018 - rolled off the gain on the vocals a touch on the second verse).

GILBERT SINGS!!!

A little piece of music to introduce "The Producer of The Month" segment n the Mini Episode sof Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast.

Producer Of The Month Theme

Here's the instrumental version of "The Producer Of The Month" Theme for the segment f the same name On Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast.

Producer Of The Month Theme (Instrumental)

By popular demand, the "psychedelic"' listener mail theme, that never made the grade.

Psychedelic Listener Mail

A promo for Neighborhood Weekly Radio. Find them here: https://neighborhoodweeklyradio.com/

Empty City Squares Promo - Neighborhood Weekly Radio

The opening theme for Mark Harvie's "Morning After Mix" show on Neighborhood Weekly Radio. Find it here: https://neighborhoodweeklyradio.com/shows/morning-after-mix-with-mark/

"Morning After Mix" Theme on Neighborhood Weekly Radio

A friend of mine died from Coronavirus last week. I am still in shock. This song came out over the last few days. 

For years I’ve felt the world is spinning off its axis. Driven by our greed and hunger for more. We’re messing with the natural ordering of things and I really believe when you do that enough, things like this horrific virus happen.  

Let's use this moment to contemplate our future before we bio-engineer ourselves into extinction. Download this track.

Hubris And Nemesis

I’ve often dived into the past when I’ve wanted to look forward, and found much solace in the study of classical antiquity. I recently began an immersion in philosophy which brought me to Parmenides the pre-sophist philosopher. His views on what is being, what is real, and what is perceived to be real, profoundly struck me with a message that is as timeless as the very ontology it professes.

Written by John Fotiadis who provides vocals, guitars, bass, and keys on the track, “Parmenides” also features the ethereal and ambient guitar arrangements and lead guitars by famed session player and “One Man Wrecking Crew” Ira Siegel (he’s played with everyone folks), drums by the great session player Frank Vilardi (They Might Be Giants, Suzanne Vega), as well as backing vocals and the ”ancient temple horn” by the eminent and ever creative Marc Shearer (https://soundcloud.com/marcvarious, Octopus, Adem).

This track is available for download at Big Stir Records and at: https://emptycitysquares.bandcamp.com/track/parmenides

"Parmenides" will be available on the as of yet unnamed Empty City Squares album due for release at the end of 2020.

“History Rhymes” (a phrase borrowed from Mark Twain) is a Beatle-esque jab at our divisive political and media cultures in general, but at the would be journalists in particular who’ve abandoned the premise of objectivity, and no longer bother to veil their political bias (right or left). Worse off, they fabricate news where none exists, and gleefully slander and defame, without regard to the damage or the consequences it creates if it means advancing one’s journalistic career, political narrative, or ratings. 

Where can we get objective news these days? Or the “Truth” for that matter? Does any objectivity remain in the media, or is everything thrown at us opinion masquerading as factual information? 

Written by John Fotiadis who provides vocals, guitars, bass, keys and drums on the track, “History Rhymes” also features searing guitar arrangements and lead guitars by famed session player and “One Man Wrecking Crew” Ira Siegel (he’s played with everyone folks), as well as backing vocals by the eminent Marc Shearer (https://soundcloud.com/marcvarious, Octopus, Adem).

"History Rhymes" will be available on the as of yet unnamed Empty City Squares album due for release at the end of 2020. For an in depth explanation of this song, please visit: https://emptycitysquares.bandcamp.com/track/history-rhymes

History Rhymes

An innocent little interview intended to promote the new Empty City Squares Singles, "Parmenides" and "History Rhymes" quickly devolves into juvenile comedy in all it's 5th grade glory. Don Corleone, Telly Savalas, and the present occupant of the White House all make an appearance!

John "Yanni" Fotiadis Interview On NWR - 07 03 2020

"Disappearing" Architect / Artist / Musician / Composer / Gadfly of Athens

Email: emptycitysquares@gmail.com

John (AKA "Yanni" to his friends), is an Architect by day and a Renaissance man the rest of the time. When not designing buildings, or drawing and painting, as a multi-instrumentalist and songwriter over the last 15+ years, John has written, recorded and performed music for Indie Films, Theatrical productions, TV, and Podcasts (most notably Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast).

Yanni loves old Rock and Roll, Blues, Psychedelia, Art Rock, Prog Rock, Power Pop and a lot of music from the UK. 

Empty City Squares is his sometimes real / sometimes virtual band. The band's second album, "337" was released January 2019. 

You can purchase "Empty City Squares" (2011) and "337" (2019) at www.emptycitysquares.bandcamp.com .Also AVAILABLE AT CDBABY!

"The Disappearing Architect" is in the works and slated for a spring 2021 release! Please stay tuned for updates and thank you for your continued interest and support!

Learn more about Yanni at www.fotiadis.net

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