2008/2024: sixteen years have passed since the release of “Animal Instinct”, the first Tygers Of Pan Tang album with me on vocals. Sixteen years in which the band has never stopped playing live and releasing records despite the lineup changes.

“Animal Instinct” has been re-released in a remixed and remastered version by Marco Angioni on the Mighty Music label and it still sounds fresh. It’s probably not an objective judgment, but the hard rock charge of “Rock Candy”, the melodic metal of “Cry Sweet Freedom” and the pachydermic riff of “Hot Blooded” continue to excite me today as they did then. In fact, even more today because I remember perfectly the anxiety before entering the studio mixed with excitement. It was winter and it was really cold: the studio was in an old mill near a river; the humidity was very high. I remember that to go to the bathroom you had to leave the studio and go through a freezing corridor. I drank a lot of water and tea during the recordings and the mere idea of leaving the box terrified me.

If I think back to those days in the studio as the singer of Tygers – which weren’t the first because luckily I had recorded the EP “Back & Beyond” in 2007 – I remember that I wanted to enjoy the moment by giving the best of myself, without creating expectations for the future. For me it was like the debut album in which you put all of yourself without too many filters. I think it was the same for Robb, Craig, Dean and Brian. Each of those 11 songs had to convey that desire to play the music we liked without too many filters. “Live For The Day” with that Bad Company touch and the heavy metal of “Dark Rider”, the pairing of “If You See Kay” and “Let It Burn”, each song contains a sliver of memory, a small recollection, a piece of this wonderful adventure that continues today.

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