Nikolas Metaxas "Square One"

No stranger to the Greek crowds, Nikolas Metaxas established his vocal chops on the hit TV-Show, X-Factor impressing millions. Shortly after earning 2nd place on the show, he went on to represent Cyprus as a composer in the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest, with the song "Firefly” (Sony-BMG) topping many iTunes charts across Europe.

"SQUARE ONE” is Nikolas’ debut album released on March 2011 in the US under indie label Face Off Records. The title is derived from the return to "Square One” Nikolas had to face after moving to the USA to pursue his musical career. Having to start from scratch, Nikolas slowly and steadily managed to harvest his songwriting and production talent; the result is this album. His work has been characterized as a blend of John Mayer and Incubus. Solid thought provoking songwriting, combined with Nik’s immense vocal range comes together to produce an album overflowing with emotion and pure sonic brilliance. Credits on the album include Jeff Juliano (Grammy Award Winning mixing engineer for John Mayer, Lifehouse, Dave Matthews Band, Jason Mraz) and Brad Blackwood (Mastering engineer for Maroon 5, Christina Aguilera).

The album consists of ten tracks. Starting off with the pop/rock power ballad titled "Miracle”, and moving through each track you get easily immersed in the emotional state in which Nikolas was when he wrote each song. The bonus track titled "Japan” is a lament to the earthquake and tsunami disaster that hit the region earlier this year.