Ελληνικά
Last Updated on 08:36 AM by Giorgos Tsekas
Hello Joe, it is our pleasure and honor to have you in Metal Invader and we welcome you our hometown.
Thank you, it is my pleasure to be here! What a great town it is!
Tells us about your holidays in Greece… Ok I’m joking; tell us about the UTH and Horns Up festivals and your headline shows there.
No, I must say it has been a great experience to see more of this great country and meet so many nice people on tis trip! The shows were great! One at UTH, which is more of a bigger show and venue…a great assemblage of bands and so much fun to share the stage for my first time with Armored Saint. The other being Horns Up, which is a small, intimate club which was sold out and packed full of intense metalheads…another cool lineup of various bands and a great time for all!
Almost 20 years ago you reunited the band for a Wacken show and it took you a dozen years to rejoin again for KIT? Why took you so long and why did you decided to stop in 1990 in the first place?
The band stopped because Matt (original founding bassist) decided that the band had reached a point where we either had to resign ourselves to being totally broke or move onto other things. There was no monetary support from the label or shows and we didn’t have proper management. We didn’t want to try to continue without him.
I always wanted to keep the music going and continue where we left off. Originally, Wacken was supposed to be a reunion show with Matt and Tony but in the end, it was only myself and Paul Nelson. The time was not right yet for a full reunion.
Then Oliver from KIT contacted us about headlining there and things just fell into place. We must thank Oliver for pushing the right buttons and getting the machine restarted!
I know you haven’t played in the first two albums but which one of them is your favorite and why?
I like a lot of the songs on “Burn to My Touch” but I would have to say I like the spirit and the vibe from “Freedom’s Rise” more.
You are active since 2012 but we haven’t seen any new recording? Will it see the light of day soon; I have heard rumors about a 2020 release am I right?
Everything is pretty much in the final stages of writing. We hope to record this fall (come Hell or High Water!) for a 2020 release!
I know you schedule a re-issue of your three albums via Metal Blade. Any special box set? Give us a hint of what we should expect from these re-releases.
I would imaging the box set will come out this fall. It will have all 3 cd’s with original artwork, a new updated booklet on what we have been doing and some interview footage etc. I am also pushing for some cool inserts such as a patch and/or poster, picks etc. They will most likely do vinyl as well.
Do you miss the days as a guitarist in Overkill? Or the days in Annihilator? Which album from these two bands you participated you are the most proud of?
I miss playing guitar onstage a bit yes but I play and write at home…however, fronting the band and singing is what I enjoy the most. I was a fan of Overkill and Annihilator before I joined…I was honored to be in those bands and gave 1000% of myself to them. I really like most everything I did with both those bands.
You were also in Tad Morose for a couple of years. Is there any recording from these days?
Unfortunately, no. We did a few shows and demoed a few new songs but we realized it was too difficult financially to have me so far away from the rest of the band, with me being in the US. If we got offered a show here and there, we wanted to take it but 1-2 shows didn’t justify the costs to fly me over. We still remain great friends to this day. Great bunch of guys and cool band!
Please tell us some more of your future plans and Liege Lord’s ones.
I want to focus more on writing and releasing more music with Liege Lord, my other band Dusk Machine and a solo album one day. I just want to play music full time.
Any special message to your fans?
Thank you for all your support over the years! The fans are the true heroes of music…especially in heavy metal where the flames never die! We can’t wait to visit Greece again!!!
