Konstantinos "The Sentinel" Vogiatzis: Back in Greece! What is the relationship between TANKARD and Greece?
Andreas "Gerre" Geremia: It´s a relationship between woman and man! (laughs)

Konstantinos: And, who is the man and who is the woman?
Gerre: Look, when we came for first time in Greece, playing together with EXODUS and THE HAUNTED. It was fucking amazing for us because we never expected so many thrashers to still be here. We played two amazing shows in Athens and Saloniki with this hot package; EXODUS and THE HAUNTED. It was two of our best shows we ever had, concerning the reactions of the audience. So, we had the same crowd in Turkey where they are as crazy as here!Ý

Konstantinos: What was the reason that the live of last spring was postponed for today (17/10/2004)?
Gerre: It was planed that we play here in May but two weeks before the show, our Greek promoter told us that at the day we should have played there was a big football match, a final cup game, something like that between Olympiakos and I don´t know.

Konstantinos: Panathinaikos
Gerre: Yes! And he told us that everyone would go to the football game instead of coming to the show and so he decided to cancel it and to do it later. This is the only reason. We were ready to come.

Konstantinos: As I noticed in your site you haven´t planned a tour but you´re just giving some shows.Ý
Gerre: It´s not only some shows, it´s a lot of shows! Everybody in the band has a regular job, so we don´t have the time to tour for three months or something like that in Europe. We try to play as much shows as we can at the weekends, two or three shows, driving by our own. We haven´t played so many shows as we played this year in our whole carrier! If you look at "The Meaning Of Life" tour we had played thirty or thirty-five shows in a big European tour. Now we have forty shows in a year! We are always on the road, but it´s ok for us! We have to spend our holidays for going to the studio and for shows. We flew on Thursday to come to Greece so we had to take Friday and Monday for holiday.

Konstantinos: Let´s go now to the "Beast Of Bourbon" album. What was the reaction of the press and of the fans for the album?
Gerre: The fans found it very good. I think is a step forward comparing with the "B-Day" album, but it was not as big step as that from "Kings Of Beer" and "B-Day". With "B-Day" we had first position on some magazines, a third position on Rock Hard Magazine because the step was bigger. After such a long time we had a fresh album. But I think the "Beast Of Bourbon" album is more aggressive but somehow also more melodic, in some parts of it, like "Die With A Beer In Your Hand" and stuff like that. So I think this could be the direction that we will have. I don´t know. We have not a single song ready yet for the new album! Maybe it will be a mixture of techno and jazz, I don´t know.

Konstantinos: What means the title "Beast Of Bourbon"?
Gerre: The title is a word game. You know the phrase "Beast Of Burden"? Our base player Frank had the idea to change the word "burden" with "bourbon" and so we had a new album title! I am still satisfied from the release and from the cover. Of course, the vocals could be a little louder.

Konstantinos: Tell me a few words for your collaboration with the famous Kruger.
Gerre: He has already made a lot of TANKARD covers at the end of the ë80s and beginning of the ë90s. We haven´t lost contact thus we asked him if he want to do another cover for the twenty year anniversary of TANKARD and so he made the cover for "Beast Of Bourbon". But I guess the next album´s cover will be totally different and I will paint it by my own!

Konstantinos: Why did you make a cover of "We Coming Back"?
Gerre: As you already know, I am a big football supporter and my favourite team is Eintracht Frankfurt which plays in the second division. Together with some good friends we organize bus trips to the "away" games and we keep singing this song in the bus, in its original version. The idea was mine to make a metal version on the album and I had to convince the others guys. I really got on their nerves until they said ok because they don´t care so much about football. But I think it is very good cover! And the original is alsoº amazing!

Konstantinos: Tell me a few words about the lyrics of "Die With A Beer In Your Hand" song.
Gerre: First of all, our manager had the idea for this song title and I though that this was bullshit. But then, when I had to write the lyrics I used that idea. It´s very ironic about all the metal stuff with swords, die by the sword blah blah blah! And so we made a joke about all this metal clichés and stand with a beer in your hand!

Konstantinos: The "Beast Of Bourbon" album, as you said, is a big step for TANKARD. The new album will be a bigger step for the band?
Gerre: As I told you we don´t have any songs ready for the new album, so I can´t tell anything about it! The only thing I can say is that it will have different cover and different song titles! We have 3-4 more shows and then we start to write new material.

Konstantinos: But it will have the same direction as your last album?
Gerre: We are satisfied with "Beast Of Bourbon" so it could be on the same direction but we always look forward.

Konstantinos: Are you satisfied from AFM Records?
Gerre: From whom?

Konstantinos: From your record company
Gerre: Do we have a record company? (laughs) Yes, of course! We did the second album with AFM Records. We had a deal for two albums but now we are going to release also the next album from AFM records. We are the hottest band on this bloody label (laughs). The only reason that we are in this label is that I am together with Doro Pesch. She is my girlfriend! She is on the same label! Don´t laugh! Ok, we are satisfied with AFM Records. They did a lot of promo stuff and that´s good! So we haven´t any reason to change label. They believed in TANKARD when TANKARD was really down at the end of the nineties. "Kings Of Beer" wasn´t a good album in my opinion. But they said that they wanted to have TANKARD and to work together with us. So we sold more records of "Beast Of Bourbon" than of "B-Day".

Konstantinos: How did you decide what songs are you going to play live?
Gerre: I decide them (laughs) because "I am the leader of the band"! This is something that I prefer sometimes to decide by my own. And if they aren´t satisfied with some stuff, I get on their nerves! Generally we decide together. You know, as you can see for the new album, they are already two hits on it, "Slipping From Reality" and "Die With A Beer In Your Hand". We have to play these two songs for the next couple of years. Like "Rectifier" from the "B-Day" album. It´s the same thing that we have to play "Space Beer" or "Zombie Attack".

Konstantinos: What are you missing from the early days of TANKARD, back at the ë80s?
Gerre: I miss my weight! (laughs) TANKARD was bigger band at the end of ë80s, start of ë90s, but I am very proud that the band is still alive after 22 years and I am waiting to celebrate the 25th birthday. It will be very cool! I mean, sometimes when you return home after 3 or 4 days you are totally out of order. But when you are on stage and you see people getting crazy, that gives us power to make music.

Konstantinos: Which is your favourite TANKARD album and why?
Gerre: Oh! This is a very hard question. The first ones are special. They have very good feeling. The "Tankard" album is the more melodic album. I really like the last one - I can´t decide

Konstantinos "The Sentinel" Vogiatzis