TANKARD

ANDREAS 'GERRE' GEREMIA

Tankard is a classic thrash metal band. They've been around since the early eighties and since the early beginnings their lyrics have mainly been about beer and alcohol. They have kept on playing thrash metal through the whole nineties when most other bands went elsewhere. It's easy to disregard Tankard as just an unserious band but Tankard were great musicians and their longevity is a proof of that. I have spoken with vocalist Andreas 'Gerre' Geremia of Tankard.

About the future, have you got any plans of recording a new album? Some rumoursabout releasing a new album on AFM is going around, tell us more about it!

Yeah, we will bring out the next album over AFM Records, that´s for sure. We plan to go to the studio in october 2005 to bring out the album in january 2006. but there are no songs written till yet, because we are very busy with touring. As everybody in the band has a regular job, we spend all our free time in the band. But we are not able to practice every day……………..

Has the beer-soaked lyrics been a advantage or disadvantage for you?, I mean, most
people talk about Sodom, Kreator and Destruction as the big bands of the German scene, but Tankard is not always mentioned in the same way, what's your opinion on that?

First of all tankard is really a fun band, we don´t take ourselves too seriously, this aspect you always can find when your read our lyrics. If this is an advantage or not, I can´t tell you, but we are a little bit different, that´s for sure!!!! As I told we all have regular jobs, so tankard is a big hobby for us, we don`t have to live from the music, that could be an advantage fur us!!!

The Morning After

How did you come up with the concept of mixing thrash metal with beer lyrics?, It's quite remarkably that you still can find things to write about when it comes to alcohol.

We called our second demo alcoholic metal. This was a big joke because at that time a lot of new metal styles came out like black, speed, poser, etc. since these days we have this beer image. We tried to get rid of it in the nineties but this really didn`t work hahaha…….so as we have so much fun on tour there will be always ideas to write about funny things, that´s for sure!!!!!

Will there be any Europe tour soon? or world wide tours in general?

We just can play at the weekend because of time problems, but we played in italy, austria, holland and go to greece, sweden, maybe russia and france. Personally I would really love to go to south america one day, that would be very cool!!!!!!!!

Has the side-project Tankwart been laid to rest for good?

So this project doesn`t exist anymore. Maybe If somebody has a great idea for coverversions we can talk about it again, but at the moment it seems the project is over forever!

It feels like Tankards popularity just keeps growing, have you also noticed that?, or am I wrong?

We had hard times in the middle to the end of the nineties, when nobody was into thrash metal anymore. But we kept on going and after the last two albums the popularity grows and grows again. That´s quite a great feeling after more than 22 years in that business!!!!!!

Name five favourite albums!

- Exciter - Heavy Metal Maniac

- Exodus - Bonded By Blood

- Riot - Fire Down Under

- Slayer - South of Heaven

- Omen - Battle Cry

You've got a good taste in music but what's the highlight of your career?

There were a lot of highlights, a really great feeling was to held our very first record in our hands. To conquer the official charts in the nineties was also very funny.

What are you doing ten years from now?

A very good question, I will be 47, hope to be still alive and keep on going thrashing hahahaha………….

Of all gigs you have done, which one is your favourite?

I´m really too drunk to remember them all, but I prefer to play at open air festivals like bang your head, summerbreeze, with full force, sweden rock, wacken, etc.

How is the thrash metal scene in Germany these days?

There are still the old fans from the eighties, but also a lot of younger metalheads listen to that kind of music!!! That´s quite cool. There are a lot of bands, we had the reunions of destruction, holy moses, assassin and a lot of small talented bands!!!!

Have you got any funny metal story to tell?

Two years ago we played a little festival in germany, at the middle of the gig a guy came upon the stage and wanted to as ask his girlfriend to marry him. I asked him what`s her name, he told me monica. I took the microphone and asked for petra to come on stage. So the confusion was big and they had really great trouble after the show! I thought I t was a funny joke………………..

Any last words for our readers?

- Thanx a lot for your support, keep on thrashing!!!

Cheers Gerre

By/Ruthless

(10-09/2004)