Makis Gioulis was born in Athens, Greece in 1971. From 1986 to 1992, while still in high school, he attended the acclaimed "Classical Percussion" Program at the National Conservatory of Athens where he excelled in tympani and classical snare drum.

Makis has been playing and touring professionally since 1990. He has worked and recorded with some of the most notable artists of the Greek music scene: Socrates, Antonis Tourkogiorgis, Yiannis Spathas, The Idols, Demis Roussos, Vasilis Papakonstantinou, Kostas Tournas, Eleni Vitali, Mario Frangoulis, are just some of the artists Makis has worked with throughout the years.

Makis' most significant collaboration that propelled his career and placed him amongst the top Greek drummers happened in 2002 when he joined internationally acclaimed Greek progressive rock super group “Socrates Drank the Conium,” also known as “Socrates.”

With seven albums to their credit, "Socrates" achieved international acclaim with their 1974 release, “Phos” (Polydor) produced by Vangelis. In 1980 “Socrates” signed with Virgin Records and released “Plaza”, which was released worldwide. Today, “Socrates,” with an almost complete but unreleased new record, is on hiatus due to serious health reasons of frontman Antonis Tourkogiorgis.

These days Makis is in and out of the studio working on sessions on a variety of different projects (Akis Tourkogiorgis, Giannis Kokkakis) while concurrently playing live for local shows and touring with acts such as Greek pop idols Michalis Hatzigiannis and Christos Dantis.

Also, since March of 2010, Makis is part of a new band led by one of Greece's premiere session guitarists, Akis Tourkogiorgis, “The Blue Airways.” The classic/hard rock outfit, who are currently playing local Athens clubs, have just completed their debut CD “Three Days of 1969,” released June 19, 2012 (Gavrielides Publishing).

Collaborations:

Socrates Drank The Conium (live)

Antonis Tourkogiorgis (studio/live)

Akis Tourkogiorgis & The Blue Airways (live/studio)

Giannis Spathas and Vasilis Lekkas (studio)

Michalis Hatzigiannis (live)

Vasilis Papakonstantinou (live)

Stamatis Mesimeris (studio)

Demis Roussos (live)

The Idols (live)

Kostas Tournas (live)

Kostas Bigalis (studio)

Eleni Vitali (live)

Mario Frangoulis (live)

Mariza Koh (live)

Giannis Kokkakis - Tolis Kokkinos (studio)

Akis Diximos (live)

Andriana Babali (live)

Stelios Rokkos (studio)

Christos Kiriazis (studio)

Dimitris Poulikakos (live)

Lakis Papadopoulos (live)

Lia Vissi (live)

Christos Dantis (live)

. . . and many more.

Makis Gioulis is a Sonor, Paiste, Vic Firth Artist.