Pic courtesy of: Tankard "We had 25 years long of a lot of fun and more or less success, it really became more than we ever had dreamed"

CR: Hey how are? Thanks for the opportunity! What’s been Tankard up to lately?
Andreas "Gerre" Geremia: Thanx a lot we are fine, just doing a lot of interviews for our new album, in the beginning of august we start to play a lot of shows again, so everything is fine in the tankard campaign.

CR: Pretty soon "Best Case Scenario: 25 Years In Beers" will be released, there is a “Tribute” cd on that album right? How and who picked the songs and bands for that tribute?
Andreas "Gerre" Geremia: Yes the first limited edition contains a tribute album with 18 songs on it. We just asked around who wants to join this tribute album and a lot of bands were really interested, so we found a lot of them, that really makes me proud!

CR: Man 25 years of playing metal, congrats!!! Looking back was it all worth it? Has Tankard become what you dream when you started playing music?
Andreas "Gerre" Geremia: Of course it was all worth it, we had 25 years long of a lot of fun and more or less success, it really became more than we ever had dreamed. The most important thing is not to give up although there were some periods in the mid and by the end of the nineties were times were very hard, especially when nobody was into thrash anymore! But we still kept on going and so we are able to have a great celebration this year!!!!!!

CR: You guys have a couple of gigs set up for this year, Spain and Russia included, has this been countries you visited often when touring?
Andreas "Gerre" Geremia: We already played a couple of times in Spain, it was always amazing, Russia will be the very first time, so we are really looking forward to it, we know we have a lot of fans over there :)

CR: Most if not all of you guys have “day jobs” how long does it take Tankard to write a new album?
Andreas "Gerre" Geremia: We all have regular jobs, so we spend all our free time in band activities, to write a new album we need between 6 and 10 months I would say!!!

CR: Lets talk “The Beauty and the Beer” a year since its release, now that the album has been out for quite some time, how did it do on sales? For a band with such a long and respectable history like Tankard, are album sales still as important as they were when you started?
Andreas "Gerre" Geremia: We sold nearly 10.000 copies worldwide which is not bad nowadays, the best selling album was the meaning of life in 1990 with more than 50.000 copies. The album sales are more important for the record company, for us it’s important that the albums will be released worldwide.

CR: Love this line on “We Still Drink the Old Way Just girls and wimps drink import-beer” jajaja, that’s a conception every beer lover has, over here (Costa Rica) if you don’t drink Imperial or Pilsen you are a girl! It’s kind of obvious that you guys write lyrics taking jokes and comments from your daily life, how long do you take to finally just add the word beer into a song that didn’t have it before?
Andreas "Gerre" Geremia: hahaha, you don’t have to take our lyrics too seriously, we have a lot of fun with them, but we also have some serious stuff! I know that we use the word beer very often but if Tankard would not use it nobody would believe us, so we have to….hahahaha!

CR: Tankard doesn’t only talk about beer, in “Forsaken World” you guys aim a little at the whole atmospheric “anomalies” that we have been experiencing lately, maybe even talking about the consequences of global warning. Do you feel that is much easier to talk about serious topics when you add a little humor to that topic?
Andreas "Gerre" Geremia: Yes as I told you we try to mix humor and serious stuff. As we don’t walk with blind eyes through the world, we really want to write about this stuff. But first of all we are a band taking ourselves not too seriously!!!

CR: Be honest with me…just how much do you like beer?
Andreas "Gerre" Geremia: To be honest: I hate it, tankard is just an image Band hahahhahahaha!!!!!

CR: A certain improvement in sound with “The Beauty and the Beer”, at least compared to “Beast Of Bourbon”, what was different this time around, what kind of production were you guys looking for?
Andreas "Gerre" Geremia: Personally I think the sound on our latest album is a little bit better than the one on Beast of Bourbon, because you can hear every instrument very clear, some guitar parts are a little bit more melodic, but it’s still a typical Tankard album I really would say that :)

	Pic courtesy of: Metalchroniques "You don’t have to take our lyrics too seriously, we have a lot of fun with them, but we also have some serious stuff!"

CR: You guys have a video for “The beauty and the beast”, was the blond a real stripper or just a very agile girl…man watching Gerre trying to climb the pole was hilarious! Did you guys hold auditions for the video or all the girls were friends of yours? How many videos does Tankard has?
Andreas "Gerre" Geremia: Yeah, the video-clip is really funny and really fits to the attitude of tankard. All the girls in the pub were good friends of us, the girl in the sex club was a professional table-dancer in a nightclub. We had really a lot of fun together!!! we did 4 clips:
1. The morning after (1988)
2. Space beer (1990)
3. Minds on the moon (1995)
4. Tanze samba mit mir (1996)
5. The beauty and the beast (2006)
The first 4 clips you can find them on our dvd!

CR: Tankard has a DVD “Fat, Ugly And Still (A)Live”, did you had fun taping it? What’s the best part of it for you?
Andreas "Gerre" Geremia: Yeah of course we had a lot of fun, the first dvd contains a 2 hour live show, the second one some private recordings we did on tour; some of them are very strange and funny, that’s why I prefer them!

CR: With the Internet nowadays you can pretty much know right away what do the “critics” and fans think of your most recent work; previously on the late 80’s early 90’s when Tankard was formed how long did it took you guys to read the first reviews and opinions from fans? How much do you think the Internet affected the way bands did promotion and did it all brought something negative, like the disappearance of tape trading?
Andreas "Gerre" Geremia: Yeah in the eighties we had to wait for the reviews in magazines and from letters that fans wrote us. The internet makes it all faster and easier and it’s great to communicate with all the fans over the word via mail.
The only negative thing for little bands is the illegal downloading, but in general the internet is great for promotion and communication, I really would miss it!!!

CR: Tankard started out close to the fall of the Berlin wall, some pretty though years for Germany, was that “social” environment one the main factors or motivators for you guys to join a metal band? There is a very nice view at what the cold war was in your debut album “Zombie Attack” on the song “Maniac Forces” as a German how did you use to feel about the separation of your country?
Andreas "Gerre" Geremia: Oh I think we didn’t think so much about the separation, it was normal for us to have two German countries. But it was always very interesting for us to know how the people lived in a communist system. I was able to be in East Berlin two times before 1989, so that was very exciting.
After the wall came down there were a lot of problems with the reunification of such two different systems, I think they did it too fast, but however it’s good for the people to be free now. Of course we had some songs concerning these problems!

CR: For some, Tankard is one of the most influential German thrash metal acts out there, but I have read that the influence and acknowledgement that the band has and had is not as big as it should be because of the lyrical topics in witch the band dwells; do you think that if Tankard wrote more albums about war, personal dilemmas or whatever, you guys would be a much bigger force of influence for younger bands?
Andreas "Gerre" Geremia: Maybe that could be, but we really have fun playing this kind of music, that’s why our lyrics are this way. But to be honest we never wanted to have this kind of evil image, that’s not our thing and doesn’t fit us personally.

	Pic courtesy of: Tankard "But we really have fun playing this kind of music, that’s why our lyrics are this way. But to be honest we never wanted to have this kind of evil image, that’s not our thing and doesn’t fit us personally"

CR: How many concerts have you guys played completely “shitface”, “hammered”, “drunk as fuck”, “Hasta la picha”? Or does the drinking begins after the show?
Andreas "Gerre" Geremia: In the beginning there were some really bad shows, but nowadays we really try to get as sober as possible on stage, the fans pay entrance so they have the right to see a good show! What happens after the show I can’t speak about, it’s always hard to remember… hahahahahahaha!

CR: How much has thrash metal change since its early beginnings?
Andreas "Gerre" Geremia: Better sound, more technical playing, but the spirit is the same like in the eighties and that is the most important thing!

CR: Many bands change during time, I mean change in the way their sound goes transforming into something different that what they started to play, but you guys have always manage to improve and stick to your thrash principles, how can one stay true to oneself despite the time and outside influences?
Andreas "Gerre" Geremia: We only play the kind of shit we are really into and never run from it because of what’s in the music scene, that’s all, but maybe the next album will have some jazz influences, we will see hahahahaha!!!

CR: So what’s next for Tankard?
Andreas "Gerre" Geremia: Promoting the new album as good as possible, playing some festivals and a lot of shows and start to prepare for the next album!!!!!!

CR: Well thank you very much for your time, please if you have anything to add, do so!!! And if you can check out these two beers, Imperial from Costa Rican and Cusqueña from Perú, they’re pretty good!
Andreas "Gerre" Geremia: Thanx a lot for your support, hope to come to Costa Rica and Peru as soon as possible to check out those beers, hell ya!!!!! Thrash metal will never die!!!!