TARDIVE DYSKINESIA - Manthos

\r\nMetalzone.gr:Hey Guys! Congratulations on the terrific brand new album of yours! First things first, I’d like you to tell some things about the band’s history
\r\nManthos:Dimitris, thank you for your kind words! 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 lineup changes on 2003 we changed the band’s name to Tardive Dyskinesia, our sound changed and become more progressive and on 2006 we managed, finally, to release our debut album “Distorting Point Of View” that got us deep into the Greek “underground” scene and we played lots of gigs we also opened gigs for many well known bands. From then, there was our most creative time, as we recorded our second full length album, “The Sea Of See Through Skins” which is out now by the Italian label, Coroner Records
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\r\nMetalzone.gr:Concerning your way of playing, we observe a great progress in your new album compared to the first one. Why is that so? Do you study daily?
\r\nManthos: Hmm…I don’t think so, I haven’t studied during the past 10 years, since I went to music school! (Laughters). The one who studies the most is Stavros (drums) who is getting better day by day! The thing that I believe you saw evolving comparing to “The Sea…” I’d say that happens due to the fact that we’ve been more concentrated on making and the structure of our songs.
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\r\nMetalzone.gr:In “Sea Of See Through Skins”, we saw that your singer has taken care of the artwork. Which is the source of his inspiration for those cool drawings? Is the artwork in any way linked with the lyrics?
\r\nManthos:Imagine the “sea” as the society/nation where we live in and the “transparent skins” showing the real internal world of each one of us, which, even though we want to hide behind a beautiful mask, is our character and can never be hidden. The title “The Sea Of See Through Skins”, is for us something like the “X-Ray” both of our society and of ourselves, something which explains the picture of a chest on the cover. The artwork of “The Sea…” is just what the title says, filtered through psychedelic mood and a little bit of weed!
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\r\nMetalzone.gr:Would you like to tell us who are your main spiritual fathers-influences for the music mix you’ve created?
\r\nManthos:When we create music, we hold in mind what we’d like to hear from a band. In general, every one of us has his own influences beginning from 70’s psychedelic/progressive rock like Rush, king Crimson, Pink Floyd, passing through “metal classics” like Metallica, Pantera, Sepultura, Death, Testament and reaching today’s bands like Meshuggah, Gojira, SYL, Mastodon, Textures, The Ocean, Keelhaul etc. The main composers of this band (me and Stavros) are both fans of Progressive Rock/Metal and if you pass all those influences through the prism and the vision of Tardive, the outcome is our music.
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\r\nMetalzone.gr:We saw that you moved from Venerate Industries to the Italian label, Coroner Records. Are you satisfied from your new label?
\r\nManthos:To make things right, we didn’t move from Venerate as we never had employment relationships with the guys, we were and we are still friends and we continue to belong to Venerate, something which doesn’t have anything to do with contracts etc. By the time we finished mixing and mastering “The Sea…” we instantly got in the process of finding a label. We made several contacts, sent many promos, travelled a lot and had meetings with executives of major companies but no one seemed to be interested in releasing “The Sea…” until then. That was when, yet again, Internet was proven helpful for a Greek band like us and after several propositions we had via MySpace we ended up in Coroner Records. It is a new company that made us the best possible offer. It’s also important that they have a lust for new things.
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\r\nMetalzone.gr:Your second full length album is out now. Will you continue on touring? Which are your upcoming gigs?
\r\nManthos:We have two official live dates until now! 5/12 on Harley Bar in Thessaloniki along with Kvazar and Freefall and in 11/12 on 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.
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\r\nMetalzone.gr:Your history extends to other bands of your field (Override, Buried Emotion etc). Which is your best and worst memory until now?
\r\nManthos:To be honest, we only have good memories! I wouldn’t say that there is any bad memory at all in our career until now, our presence in both older and our current bands fill us with experiences which make us better as musicians as well as persons. Something that came up to my mind is meeting Peter. He attended one of our gigs as Override and he fuckin’ liked it! We instantly started talks on making a gig with his personal band, Buried Emotion. Five months later, he called and asked me if I wanted him to be a guitarist on Buried Emotion and I said “Yah, why not?”. Then, I got into the band but after three studio sessions we stopped playing and so, I asked Peter –who didn’t belong to a band at the time- to play second guitar for us and so it happened! (Laughter) Basically, it’s funnier to live than to tell!  
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\r\nMetalzone.gr: It is a common fact that many bands mix elements from different kinds of music and specifically Metal with Hardcore. Do you believe that you belong to a specific genre?
\r\nManthos:I believe that “Metal” can be our most correct description concerning our sound. To be more specific, though, in order for someone to deeply understand our “Metal” there are key words such as progressive, math, death, technical, experimental, core etc. The truth is that I am not able to describe what we play with just an expression however I am able to give examples from the new European scene that is composed by bands such as Textures, Hacride, The Ocean, Gojira etc which is something that fully represents us.
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\r\nMetalzone.gr: Why did you choose “Tardive Dyskinesia” as a name for the band? In “Distorting Point Of View” you gave us a small analysis by mouth 9:Deathoftheeast:9…
\r\nManthos:Tardive Dyskinesia is a serious neurologic disease that is an outcome of long year use of psycho drugs and causes shivering to hand and feet. In our gigs, due to the fact that our songs are complex, we can’t make people who watch us do the “classic head banging” (you know, up and down) because our riffs change in such a way, that people seem to make convulsive movements, fully irrelevant to music. This is a bit funny sometimes, it seems that something’s going on with those people, as if they had this disease! (Laughter)      
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\r\nMetalzone.gr:Finally, I want you to end this interview with the first thing that pops into your head, anything.
\r\nManthos: LEGALIZE MARIJUANA!!!
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\r\nTARDIVE DYSKINESIA "The Sea of See Through Skins" ALBUM TRAILER
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\r\nInterview: Dimitris Spoonman Karatzinis
\r\nTranslation: Chris WildChild Zarkadakis\r\n

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\r\nLinks: MySpace \r\n

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