Thanasis Vassilas was born in Thessaloniki on 2 August 1973 and grew up in Ioannina. At the age of 8 he started classical guitar lessons with Elena Papandreou and Vangelis Bountounounis and 1 year later he started playing bouzouki. He has collaborated as a soloist and as a composer with many Greek singers and composers such as Mary Linda, Glykeria, Dimitra Galani, Giannis Parios, Giorgos Dalaras, Dimitris Basis, Fotini Darra, Kostas Makedonas, Christos Leontis, Giannis Spanos, Dimitris Papadimitriou etc. In 2000 he created the bouzouki quartet "Rast" with 3 other bouzouki virtuosos. For the last 7 years he has been a permanent collaborator and leader of the "Mikis Theodorakis" Folk Orchestra.