Interview with PanzerBastard at Great Scott
By Jim Slimedog
PanzerBastard is a band that I only recently became familiar with. And poking my nose around a bit it would seem they’re quite loved by local heavy music fans. They ably straddle the lines of heavy metal, punk, hardcore and thrash. I think of them as a hardcore band that falls a little bit on the side of metal but they’re probably more accurate when they call themselves a rock’n’roll band. All I know is if you want to experience a rip roaring, take no prisoners, all out assault on your eardrums, intestines and other vital organs then PanzerBastard is the band for you.
Slimedog- So how did your name come about, I looked up what a panzer was and it’s a German tank.
Keith (Lead vocals/bass)- There’s nothing sinister or metal about how we came up with the name. What happened was when we started jamming and it was obvious it was gonna be a band, we said, “If we’re gonna make a go at this we need a name.” And I was sitting in my house writing down anything and everything and nothing was clicking. I was just having a mental block and I was watching a dvd of “The Young Ones,” and Vivian, the punk rocker, on the back of his cutoff denim in studs it says, “Very Metal.” And I’m thinking, “what’s very metal?’ And I’m thinking Motorhead but then as a joke I wrote, “Panzer” and then I wrote “Bastard” in the Motorhead logo and then I started cracking up about how stupid it was but then after a minute I go, “Wait that’s pretty fuckin’ good.” And everyone in the band who I called up went through the same reactions.
Slimedog- How did the band get started?
Andrew (Guitar/vocals)- I moved up here from Providence in 2005 and I was looking to get back into playing music in the Boston area and I ran into Keith who used to host a DJ night at The Paradise, where he played mostly metal music. And we just kind of hit it off; we have a lot of the same musical tastes. Both of us were in between bands so we’re like, “Fuck it, let’s get together and jam,” same thing with Bobby, the guitarist and Marcus, the drummer, just through mutual friends and mutual tastes, all things heavy.
Keith- You know, it’s like people get the friends they deserve, water finds it level. It’s true- we’re the biggest dickheads in town so we kind of deserve each other, (Laughter)
Slimedog- How would you describe your style?
Keith- Honestly, We just call it rock’n’roll. We know we’re far from original but we’re honest. And punkers think we’re a metal band, metal kids think we’re a punk band, so we’re like, “We’re a rock’n’roll band.” Another thing we say is we play both kinds of music- Motorhead and Discharge. (Laughter)
Andrew- Every review I’ve ever read of one of our releases has been completely different interpretations. Someone calls us a thrash metal band, someone calls us a punk band, someone says we’re a hardcore band- but we don’t give a fuck. We like it all, we listen to it all, we’re influenced by it all.
Slimedog- Is Centurion your newest release?
Keith- It’s the most recent thing we’ve released but that’s been at least a year ago. We have a new ep that’s about to come out but that’s the last thing we released.
Slimedog- Centurion a bit different from your other stuff, is this a new direction?
Keith- No, it just happened at the time. We don’t have a great marketing scheme. We just get together and a riff might just come from tuning up. Or I could be walking down the street and hum something. It’s a very organic process. I tried to see if we could do our version of “Orgasmatron.,” (by Motorhead) slow, menacing kind of thing. I hope we did okay.
Slimedog- It sounds great, what was that last song of your set?
Keith- That was “Iron Fist” by Motorhead but it was more like, “Aluminum Knuckles.”
Andrew- We just did such a bad job no one can tell.
Slimedog- Oh, I was telling Howie (singer from The Scrapes) that is sounded very Motorhead-ish so you did it well. Who’s better than Motorhead?
Keith and Andrew- Nobody.
Slimedog- Who writes?
Keith- We all do.
Andrew- We have songs our drummer has written entirely. Not the lyrics, but all the guitar parts. It really is everybody.
Keith- Nobody plays our songs like we do. If, God forbid, somebody did a cover of one of our songs- it’s not gonna sound like us. We need each other to be the band that we are. We’re family, we love each other, we couldn’t exist as a band without each other. If anyone leaves this band we’re done.
(At this point Slimedog has started to openly cry, uncontrollably, with the warm sentiment expressed in the last reply. As Keith and Andrew stare awkwardly at the ground, shuffling around, he tries to pull himself together to continue.)
Slimedog- Where do you, ….where do you think metal is going?
Keith- I honestly have no idea. As long as there are underdog kids that aren’t cool and have a low tolerance for bullshit there’s always gonna be heavy metal. I’ve seen it rise, fall and come back again but it never dies, and I’m a lifer.
Slimedog- I’m more on the punk side but I’ve have always had a great admiration for the metal scene.
Keith- No disrespect for any other scene but headbangers are the most down to earth, loyal, no pretense- we are like a brotherhood.
Slimedog- Who drinks the most in the band?
Andrew- We do. (Laughter)
Keith- It’s a four way tie, a four way tie for last.
Andrew- We all have our nights and they go into days, they go into weeks.
Slimedog- Who’s most likely to become a serial killer?
Andrew- We’ll say Hollywood Bobby on that one.
Keith- The egomaniac part of me really wants to say it’s me. I never wanted to be, I’ve got a really good steak of life going right now. And if my life, as it is, ever goes south- see, I have a plan “B” when I decide I’m done and there’s no future for me. I will walk down Commonwealth Ave on four hits of ecstasy with a machine gun and just kill people until the police shoot me.
Andrew- With what he has to put up with the other three guys in the band, it’s gonna be soon.
Keith- My disclaimer is I hope that day never comes.
(At this point, Slimedog realizing that the interview is, in fact, taking place on Comm. Ave wisely decides to end the interview and run away swiftly in the other direction. A great band to see live but see them at your own risk).
You can check out their band profile here and their CD review here.
