My best ever trip…

Our host in Spain told us to sleep on the roof in his dog’s stinking room

All trips with my band Forsaken have been exceptional. It’s always a blast travelling abroad with my band mates as we are like brothers and we always have a great time together.

The best country to gig in is Germany – the home of metal music – but I cannot leave out the UK and Holland.

And with my other band, Reflection, I have travelled many times to Greece and once to Cyprus.

My favourite festival has to be Doom Shall Rise in Goppingen, Germany. The community element there is simply astounding.

We played at the first and fifth editions of Doom Shall Rise – at the fifth edition we headlined the second night and it was my birthday… I enjoyed a lot of excellent beer!

I have also visited this festival on another occasion as a fan.

I felt most relaxed in…

Definitely Switzerland. We played at a Christian metal festival called Elements of Rock. It was simply out of this world.

We were located in a town called Uster. One minute we were walking past shopping arcades and tall buildings, and then we’d turn a corner and find coloured houses, a park, river and ducks. We stood near the river bank, drinking beers, chatting and dozing, on the grass.

The festival organisers bought everything for us and we also had a personal guide. It was another awesome weekend.

I lost my cool in…

I very rarely lose my cool abroad as I am usually enjoying myself. But on our first tour of Spain and France, we played one gig where everything went wrong. The two guitars had some technical problems and the amplifiers broke down. It was really frustrating and I lost my nerve. I prayed to return home.

I felt so welcome in…

We have been welcomed almost everywhere, but two standout places were Dutch Doom Days festival in Holland, where we stayed at the house of some friends, and Korydallos in Greece, where I feel I have a second family with Reflection.

Korydallos is always so much fun and I love the food – especially souvlaki (like fast-food kebabs). The first time I went there, my band mates showed me a souvlaki menu with three kinds beef, pork and chicken.

I told them I wanted a mix – meaning one mixed souvlaki – but instead they got me three and ordered me to eat them all. I managed, but my stomach nearly exploded!

I couldn’t wait to leave…

Vinaròs in Spain. It was the worst place and gig I have ever been to. The gig was extremely disorganised, we were in the middle of a tour and my voice was in a terrible shape.

There were drunks and people on drugs everywhere. I opened the toilet door and it was full of syringes. We couldn’t wait to play the set and leave.

I partied hardest in…

We party hard everywhere. We really had anawesome time at the Keep it True festival in Lauda Königshofen in Germany. We gave an awesome performance, made lots of new friends and got lost in the metal market – there is so much merchandise to buy there.

I cringe when I think of…

After we played a gig in Barcelona we went to sleep at a Spanish band member’s home. First he served us a really horrible meal of spaghetti in a pink sauce with a couple of shrimps which no one ate.

Then he told us to sleep on the roof in his dog’s stinking room, which we obviously refused to do. So we ate some of the preserves we had brought from Malta and slept in the tour van.

I laughed so hard in…

In France it was bit difficult for us to communicate with people as many adults refused to speak English, so we decided to talk to them in Maltese. It was really funny, and we actually managed to communicate to a certain extent.

Another funny experience in France was when our French manager at the time wanted us to paint a Forsaken logo banner for the gigs. So we bought a large black banner, white paint and a crate of beers.

The guitarist Sean and I went by the river bank in Grenoble and started painting some sort of Forsaken logo. Once it was finished we had to wait for the paint to dry before we could fold the banner and leave. So we were stood there drinking the crate of beer when suddenly a dog came out of nowhere, stepped on the wet paint banner and left white paw prints all over it.

You can imagine what a mess it made, but we found it really amusing – Forsaken go Scooby Doom! We toured without the banner, obviously.

My longest journey was…

The first Forsaken tour back in 1993 when we toured all over France and crossed into Spain. There were two bands crammed into a van, eating and drinking all sorts of stuff.

In France it was bit difficult for us to communicate with people as many adults refused to speak English, so we decided to talk to them in Maltese

One time Sean was drinking chocolate milk and tuna when he spilt it on his T-shirt. You cannotimagine how bad it smelt after a few hours, but we could not stop the journey as we had to arrive on time for our next gig.

I wish I could live in…

Germany – it’s the best country for heavy metal. There are lots and lots of festivals and everything is so well organised.

I treasure the memory of…

Instead of a travel moment I will choose Daniel Magri, our long-standing guitarist who, unfortunately, passed away in 2001 after battling a terminal illness. He was a really cool guy, fun to be with and an extremely good musician.

The most delicious food I’ve tasted was…

On an Aegina island in Greece. I went to Greece for two weeks to record my first album with Reflection. We had lots of free time and we decided to visit this magnificent island.

I still remember the exceptional food we ate at a restaurant in a very quiet bay. There was lots of delicious seafood and small fish deep-fried in delicious breadcrumbs with squeezed lemons.

The hardest part of travelling is…

After a gig. I’m always very tired after a show but we have to carry the equipment back to the hotel or in the tour van. However, if the performance was good I don’t care about that.

The flight back home is generally hard too, due to the fact that wewould have had a good time and we wouldn’t want it to end.

Travel has taught me to…

Really appreciate true friendship. Travelling as a band brings us closer together. We are more like brothers today. We have also made new friends from all over Europe.

I dream of one day visiting…

US and Scandinavia.