A l'origine, cette interview était prévue à l'attention de Gerre, le frontman de la formation. Comme l'explique brièvement Olaf (batteur de TANKARD depuis "The Tankard", sorti en 1995), Gerre était un peu submergé et c'est donc lui qui s'y est collé.Hi Gerre ! As an old Tankard die hard fan, it’s more than a pleasure to ask you a few questions for the french webzine Thrashocore. You’re about to release your 18th studio album on june 20, it’s been a long road since the « Heavy Metal Vanguard » demo ! How do you explain such a long career ?
Hi there. Olaf here because Gerre is way too busy to do all the interviews alone. Hope that this is not too bad for you.
As this all started nobody expected that it will still rolling on this days. Everybody was happy to play in a band and has the chance to release a few albums. Later on it turned into a special kind of hobby and nowadays we ask ourself : "what else should we do"?
Al Jourgensen stole you a laughable album title with MINISTRY’s « From Beer To Eternity », so you had to call yours « R.I.B. (Rest In Beer) ». What will it be next time ? « Beer sells … But Who’s Drinking ? » ?
Maybe "Bonded In Beer“ or "Beer Awaits".
After a couple of more or less sober releases (« Thirst », « Vol(l)ume 14 »), « A Girl Called Cerveza » brought back all classical TANKARD elements. With the even superior « R.I.B. », you guys are definitely back for speed and fun …
Yes, and we like it ...
When I first listened to « Fooled By Your Guts », I though I had dig up a forgotten song of the oldie « Chemical Invasion », kind of « Tantrum » Pt. III. Who wrote this song ? Frank ?
I think it was Andi but I'm not sure. We usually start with the songwriting much too close to the first studio day and so we work on different songs separately.
.« R.I.B. » offers both various and agressive material. Thrash metal maniacs will crave brainless and hilarious up tempo song « Enemy Of Order » while others should consider « Breakfast For Champions » and « Riders Of The Doom » as strong metal anthems …
Not to forget "Hope Can't Die“. Very untypical kind of song for us.
On « R.I.B. », Gerre delivers such a great performance on vocals, the best since « Beast Of Bourbon » I think. How does he manage to keep his voice intact, years after years ?
Michael Mainx is always asking for more if he isn't satisfied with the result and he has a big eye on Gerre's vocals.
Back in the days, you used to team with old partners in crime Axel Katzmann and Andy Bulgaropulos. What happened to them ? Do you still see each other ?
Andy is still writing lyrics for us and different melodielines as well. Beside that he is writing books now.
About Axel I can't tell much. It looks like he has a very different live now and don't like us to keep in contact with him.
NDLR: A ce jour, Andy Bulgaropulos a publié deux livres, "Ebquizeon" (science fiction, 2012) et "Pennyflax" (fantasy, 2014), malheureusement seulement disponibles en allemand
Is it possible that one day you’ll record some kind of reunion album with all past members and friends ? For a cover thing maybe ?
Today I would say that there is no big chance for that but who knows what the future will bring?
From « Zombie Attack » to « Two-Faced », TANKARD used a standard two-guitars formation. Since « Kings Of Beer », Andy Gutjahr is doing all the work. Ever thought of hiring another riffing machine or do you intend to keep things that way ?
In our case the sound on stage is much more transparent with only one Git. So we decided to do it like this.
Which TANKARD album are you particulary proud of ? If you ask me, I consider « The Morning After » being as perfect as « Reign In Blood » can be …
The first one I appeared on was "The Tankard" and it inludes a few songs I wrote for the very first time so I would pic this album for your question.
NDLR: Olaf parle ici des titres "Grave New World", "Poshor Golovar" et "Hope?"
Last year, I asked Steve Souza (who’s back in EXODUS, yeah !) why new thrash metal bands weren’t as popular as original ones, I mean all that rose from the eighties decade. His answer was like : « There are a lot of good bands now, but the world has seen it before, so there’s not the impact there once was ». What do you think ? Too many followers, not that much leaders ?
On the one hand I would agree but on the other hand you can't forget that in the present day there are so many many many more bands doing all kinds of Metal and the fans can choose from a bigger plate as they had in the 80's.
Speaking of thrash metal albums, what would be your top five ?
"Reign In Blood", "Bonded By Blood", "Kill Em All", "The American Way", "Doomsday For The Deceiver".
Hard to pic only five because there are so many great albums to put on the must have list ...
I grew up with tape trading and first listened to your music when I was in Highschool (« The Meaning Of Life », which is my second favorite TANKARD record). Twenty years later, I’m downloading « R.I.B. » on the Nuclear Blast ipool and sending you some questions by email ! Considering the metal scene, what main changes did TANKARD face during the three last decades ?
I don't have to tell you that it's way easier to communicate via web and don't have to write letters. You can chat with people all around the world and every show is recorded with somebody's phone and also uploaded faster than a blink of your eyes.
There also is a loss of privacy if you just hang around with friends for a few cold ones and somebody else think it's a good idea to put snapshots on facebook without asking if it is OK or not. These changes are in general and not only by spotting the metal scene so I shortly failed to answer your question.
In our case I would say it's easIer to travel all around Europe and the rest of the world than it was in the early days.
.« Stone Cold Sober » is the most technical album you’ve recorded so far, introducing progressive elements and longer songs, not forgetting the memorable instrumental concluding the record. Can we expect another similar attempt in the future ?
As we started the songwriting for RIB we just talked about to keep the songs a little shorter than we did in the past. Maybe we change this "agreement“ for the next one but we don't think about that too much.
I was disapointed when I heard they choose Jennifer Lopez to introduce world cup ceremony, I was expecting you playing « Breakfast For champions » ! So, who’s gonna win this time ? Do you believe in nationalmannschaft chances ?
I don't have much skills talking about football so I avoid doing so. I think that this game is highly overrated.
Well, this is it, thank you very much for your time and long live to TANKARD ! Last words are yours …
It's better to die full of beer than full of thirst!
Cheers, Olaf.
4 COMMENTAIRE(S)
20/06/2014 15:38
C'est clair...
Il joue du Thrash...
... qui parle de boire de la bière...
20/06/2014 15:22
C'est clair...
Il joue du Thrash...
20/06/2014 13:20
C'est clair...
20/06/2014 13:11