Tactician's Interview ('cause I can't get enough of them on this blog)

So, how do you think the single launch went?
We thought it went great. It was totally packed, pretty ladies in the front row and people kept shouting for more at the end. What more would you want. Very satisfying all in all.

How much were you affected by all the problems with sound?
The sound was not so much an issue during the gig. We got really stressed during sound check though. The Fly people fucked up the booking of the sound engineer. So they had to get someone in last minute. The poor fella had never worked there before and didn’t know where things were. Not really what you need when you got people cueing outside, waiting to get in. But Spiro did a great job and during the first song we knew it was going to be alright.

Going back to the beginning, how did The Tacticians come about?
The Tacticians are the songwriting partnership of me and my brother (Joe Jr.). We started writing together about 2 years ago and played gigs with ever changing line ups over this period. Al the bass player has been with us for a while now and Mark the drummer played with us on and off. We are turning more and more into a unit with this current line up. We released 2 singles on Dancing Giraffe Records and got more and more attention. Myspace features and some radio air play helped quite a bit.

You’ve become firm favourites with the likes of Jim Coulson from Kerrang Radio. How does it feel to finally be getting some media attention?
Of course it feels great to hear your songs on the radio. Jim is generally a man of great taste. It’s nice to be picked by him. It’s a bit odd at first but I feel one could easily get used to it. We work extremely hard and are totally committed to what we do. Media attention is a crucial thing and I believe we deserve it.

Do you get sick of people calling you The Tactitians? :P
Well it is more surprising to see how many people also in the music press can’t seem to write properly. We never thought it would create a problem when we picked the name. Just think of tactic and the spelling is so logical. It’s not tactit? It’s got nothing to do with mammary glands. Maybe man boobs in a few years time :-)

Do you have a favourite Tacticians song?
That’s a difficult one. We only play the songs we love. Naturally you are always more excited about the newer ones as they seem more fresh to you. Hardcore Porn is one of my all time favourites. I’m very proud of this one. It has the right amount of depth and lightness and a very commercial title.

You seem to have a lot more foreign fans than your average unsigned London band. At the launch party alone, I was surrounded by Spanish, French and German people. Any idea why the Europeans love you so much?
Have we? You know more than I do then. There’s such a high percentage of European foreigners living in London. Quite a huge chance they come to your gigs at some point. We’ve got a lot of French, German, Italian, Spanish....friends on MySpace as well as in real life but I’ve never noticed we had more at our gigs than other bands. If it’s so that’s great. Bring them on!!!

Finally, and most importantly, please tell me you have plans for an album!
Yep. We have piled up three albums worth of material by now. We are really ready to record our debut album. If everything goes to plan we should release something in spring. We are still negotiating but it looks like the album release might not be Dancing Giraffe Records anymore. :-)