Interview with: TARDIVE DYSKINESIA from Manthos Stergiou

Thank you very much Yiannis!!! It's nice to hear that, we worked a lot to make this album real!!

We started as a bunch of kids a band under the name OVERRIDE somewhere in ‘97, with the aim of playing music we liked to hear and having a good time. After making 3 demos, many lives, booze and line up changes on 2003 we changed the band's name to TARDIVE DYSKINESIA. Our sound changed and became more progressive and on 2006 we managed, finally, to release our debut album Distorting Point Of View, which got us deep into the Greek underground scene. We played lots of gigs; we also opened gigs for many well known bands. Since then, we got more creative and we recorded our second full-length album, The Sea Of See Through Skins which is out now by the Italian label, Coroner Records.

TD was a name that a friend of us had thought. We liked it and we asked him to be our godfather and he accepted!!! TARDIVE DYSKINESIA is a neurological disease that appears to people after a long term use of psychotic drugs and is characterized by repetitive, involuntary, purposeless movements. I believe that it's a representative name of our music because a lot of different rhythms are included and there are a lot of changes inside the songs. During our lives shows people can't do the classic headbanging because the riffs and the rhythms change all the time and their moves look spastic and abnormal, as if they had tardive dyskinesia!!! Hehe!!

One day I was sitting on the great shore of Nea Makri and I saw a miracle!!! The sky went grey and all the clouds came together and afterwards God's hand gave me THE SIGN!!! It was a key that looked like TD... He said...: FROM NOW ON YOU ARE NO LONGER OVERRIDE but... ALL OF YOU ARE THE TD's! TARDIVE DYSKINESIA!!!! Cause of your burned brains!

We changed our sound and we changed our name too, that's all!!

The deal with Coroner Records came through our Myspace site. Once again, network proved that can be good for a Greek band like us! After we were done with the mixing and mastering we started seeking for a company. We came in touch with many companies through the network, we even went ourselves and came in touch with members of big record labels but no one seemed to be interested in what we do so far. We didn't ask for much.. You know.. The usual stuff. Drugs, prostitutes, parties, limousines, red carpets, glory and fame. Coroner was the only record label that could give us that all!!! HAHA!!! They came in touch with us and I can tell that we had the best deal from all. They are very OK and they have helped us very much with everything that has to do with promotion.

The Sea as well as the Distorting were both recorded in Encore Studios in Athens, with Lampis Kastanas as sound engineer and Steve Lado, in a really great and friendly atmosphere. Afterwards, the mix and mastering were made at Split Second Sound Studios in the Netherlands by Jochem Jackob (TEXTURES, IN-QUEST) who understood immediately what we wanted and did a terrific job.

The artwork of our new album is my creation, as I'm a graphic designer for a living. The Sea Of See Through Skins is about the reality of our life. The sea represents the society we live in and the see through skins show the real inner self of us. It's something like an x-ray of our society but in the same time an x-ray of ourselves. No matter how hard we try to hide behind a beautiful mask, our character always appears in the end, something which explains the drawing picture of a thorax on the cover. The artwork of The Sea... is just what the title says, filtered through psychedelic mood and a little bit of weed!

We have many different influences that start from the 70's and come up till now. From the oldies but goodies there are bands we can name like KING CRIMSON, PINK FLOYD, RUSH, that come to the 90's like METALLICA, PANTERA, to end up to bands like MESHUGGAH, TEXTURES, GOJIRA and many other bands like INTRONAUT, KEELHAUL etc. Many bands and sounds that have passed over the years and each one has something special to give. Of course inspiration has no limits since you can always get a riff just by listening to a cicada...

We already played with bands that we really loved like INTRONAUT, CELICE and OBSCURA and we have also shared the stage with DARKEST HOUR, SEPTICFLESH and SOCRATES (DRANK THE CONIUM). We have many favorite bands. There are so many that I can not distinguish one of them right now. Maybe it would be interesting if played with a band from a different music scene, like CAVE IN or MOUTH OF THE ARCHITECT etc.

We have two official live dates until now, 5/12 at Harley Bar in Thessaloniki along with KVAZAR and FREEFALL and 11/12 at Sin City, in Athens, along with COMMON I and LUNATIC MEDLAR where we'll present live our whole new album!!! Before all these, we'll have a gig along with TURNING BACK on 20/11 in An Club. Our plans for 2010 include a tour in the countryside, outside Athens, and also, some appearances, outside Greece, but nothing sure yet.

In Greece we have a quite big Metal scene, which evolves during the years. There are many underground bands which in my opinion kick ass!!! Unfortunately in Greece the Pop-bouzoukia is the most popular kind of music and the most promoted on TV and radio. When you combine this with the little number of live stages and the little number of people coming to the live gigs, you understand why a Greek Metal band has to look for a career abroad.

The whole future depends on SALAMI!!! BUY OUR CD, COME TO OUR GIGS, BUY OUR T-SHIRTS, DRINK THOUSANDS OF BEERS AND MAKE US RICH!!! HAHAHA!!!!!!! m/