MM - Please, do introduce yourselves to the readers!
Who are the members of Power Quest, when was the band first formed and
how has it evolved to it’s current membership?
Steve Williams - Hey everyone! I’m Steve Williams, keyboard player and
founder member of Power Quest. The band currently consists of Steve Scott
(bass), Alessio Garavello (vocals), Andrea Martongelli (guitars) and Gav
Ward (drums). This line up has been together since August 2003.
Steve Scott and myself originally formed the band in early 2001. We
recruited Sam Totman and Adam Bickers as our guitarists shortly
afterwards. Since recording the Wings of Forever album in 2002, Adam has
left the band to concentrate on his career in the medical profession while
Sam is very busy these days with Dragon Force. Alessio and Andrea both
joined the band in 2002 so 4/5ths of the current line up has been together
for 2 years.
Gav joined in August 2003 after helping us out on our UK tour last year as
we were without a drummer at the time. Given that he only had 2 weeks to
learn the material and about 6 hours rehearsal time with the rest of us,
he did an awesome job and basically earned his place in the band with some
fantastic performances.
MM - Where does the name ‘Power Quest’ originate from and what does it
represent? Can you remember any of the other names that were toyed with at
the time?
Steve Williams - To be perfectly honest I can’t remember too many of the
names we discussed for the band. I’m sure one was something like “Twilight
Symphony” or something like that. The name Power Quest just seemed
straight forward and to the point. Power = power metal and Quest = the
long road involved in getting our music heard by all the metal fans out
there.
It also sounds really good when you hear the name chanted by the fans….
haha, discovered that at Bloodstock last year, and again this year. It’s
an amazing thing to hear from the stage!
MM - Who writes the songs and the music you perform? Is there a key person
who does this or do you all add in to it?
Steve Williams - So far it has been me writing the bulk of the songs
although we have had other band members contributing songs (Adam Bickers
wrote “Freedom of Thought” and Sam Totman wrote “Beyond the Stars” on the
Wings of Forever album, while Steve Scott wrote “into the light” and
co-wrote “Well of Souls” from Neverworld. Andrea and Alessio wrote the
Japanese bonus track “Find the way to the Top”).
The whole band is involved in the arrangement of the material,
irrespective of who actually brought the song to the table. This is a very
important part of the PQ process. Lyrically, it tends to be the person who
wrote the music writes the lyrics as well. Seems to work well that way.
MM - How would you describe your style of music to someone who isn’t
familiar with the band and who do you see your target audience as being?
Steve Williams - I think the Power Quest sound is rooted in melodic power
metal with a dash of 80’s hard rock and a twist of progressive influences.
I think these influences are far more evident on the Neverworld album than
on Wings of Forever, although this has proved a bit of a stumbling block
for those who were expecting Wings of Forever part 2. Neverworld has a lot
more variety and hopefully a broader appeal.
If you like Stratovarius, Van Halen, Marillion, Iron Maiden etc then
hopefully there will be something in the PQ repertoire that may interest
you and tempt you to scratch beneath the surface and see what lurks
beneath! In many ways I don’t feel like we have a specific target audience
as we have seen on tour that the band seems to appeal to
teenagers and
fans in their 40’s as well. It’s great to see these guys getting on quite
happily together as well.
MM - How hard have you found being split between two countries when it
comes to writing, practise and rehearsing new material?
Steve Williams - To be honest, we haven’t found it difficult at all. The
guys based in the UK get the basic demos together and then send them over
to Italy and we work on the material in two separate units and then get
together prior to recording and touring in order to fine tune the
material.
I know people will say that we are not a proper band because we don’t hang
out in the rehearsal room each week but really it is a case of horses for
courses and this course suits this particular horse! Hehe!
MM - The new album ‘Neverworld’ is getting rave reviews from the music
media around the globe at the minute. What feedback have you had from the
fans so far?
Steve Williams - The feedback from the fans has been nothing short of
amazing. Of course, some people preferred the full on style of the first
album but the majority of fans have been won over by the depth and variety
on offer with the Neverworld album.
The real test has been to see the reaction of the fans when we have played
the new material live, and songs like Sacred Land, Neverworld, Edge of
Time and Temple of Fire have gone down a storm
MM - How long did it take for the new album to be created from first
initial conception to the finished product?
Steve Williams - The actual recording of Neverworld began on June 6th 2003
and was finished by July 18th. The writing process began almost
immediately after the recording of Wings of Forever with most of the new
material complete by early 2003.
I think the most frustrating aspect for us was that we had to wait until
March 2004 for the European release of Neverworld, while the Japanese
version came out in October 2003. Not ideal really but there you go.
MM - Do you think that the UK is a hard country for your genre of music to
break into, as the style is more associated with perhaps other parts of
Europe?
Steve Williams - I think there are definitely people in the UK who love
this kind of stuff and I think the magazines are becoming more open than
they were a couple of years back. Powerplay, Fireworks and Terrorizer have
been great with their support of the power metal scene but other magazines
seem more interested in the latest trend from the USA.
Really I guess it all depends on what you hope to get out of the scene.
For me, it doesn’t matter whether 50 people or 500 people turn up to see
PQ live. We will put on the same show no matter what!
MM - The bands like Lacuna Coil and Nightwish seem to be getting more
airplay at the moment that some of the male fronted bands. Do you think
this will actually help or hinder the progress of your band and this genre
in general?
Steve Scott - More airplay, I didn’t notice that actually, maybe they
getting more airplay due to Evanescence etc hitting MTV hard. I have always said
and always will, there is plenty of success to go around all the bands.
I don’t just have one band that I listen too, and I'm sure most metal
fans are diverse in what they listen to and with what they buy and want to
spend there hard earned money on. Male fronted bands have dominated metal
and will do so, nothing against female fronted bands, but I do think it’s
a bit trendy to have a female up front at the moment.
Alessio is probably the best singer I have worked with to date I can’t
wait to do the next album to see what he can do this time round.
MM - The band has recently returned from their latest UK tour in support
of the new album ‘Neverworld’. How did it go and what’s the bands mood
like at the moment?
Steve Scott - We had so much fun this tour, we are a band now, and we have
a great line up and it’s the line up that has been together the longest,
we all know the songs inside out, we can look at each other on stage and
know what we are going to do, for example in each song we have different
positions and moves and it worked out visually really well, last tour we
were more worried about just playing live, this time the audience were
more involved and we were relaxed and just had a party on stage every
night.
It’s the best feeling seeing a crowd of happy people digging the music and
singing along at the tops of their voices. The band at the moment are on a
high as always after any tour and cant wait for September for the next few
shows in the UK, then onto the studio for the next CD.
MM - How did you decide which songs to perform live and did you perform
the same songs each night or did you mix it up a little bit?
Steve Scott - We actually posted a set list on our forum
www.power-quest.co.uk go to
the forum link. And we had people vote on what set list they wanted. We
then did the best mix of what came back to play, and it matched up to what
we thought would be a killer set.
MM - Which songs do the fans enjoy the most being played live and what are
your own particular favourites and why those particular songs?
Steve Scott - I love 'Sacred Land', I love this song so much, it’s catchy
fast and has
heaps of melody. The bit that I most like with 'Sacred Land' is when in the
solo it changes key, the chords give me a shiver down my spine every time,
I’ll never get sick of this song.
From the last 2 tours in the UK I think
'Edge of Time' is the song that gets every one going, even the guys and gals
up the back leaning against the wall holding a pint or 2 start to head
bang, or maybe if they are too cool to do that they tap their foot, its
funny cause it’s a song that will hook you in, it’ll be the song that
wakes you up at 4am and its stuck in your head and you are trying
desperately to get back to sleep hahaha
MM - If you could nominate just one song that you’ve recorded to sum up
the bands playing style and feel which one would it be?
Steve Scott - Probably Power Quest, it hard rock, it power Metal and a
splash of prog
with one time change in it, there is a 6/8 part in there, its subtle part
its part of us.
Maybe the King Crimson, Dream Theater, Glass Hammer coming
out. The chorus is catchy up lifting and has a sing along feel to it, I
think this is what we aim for every time, good melody, great harmonies,
hooks, catchy-ness (is that a word) hehe and thought provoking lyrics.
MM - How would you compare the recorded version of the new material to
your live sound?
Steve Scott - The live sound is better I think, its louder, more rock,
lots of people have told me they think we sound better live, the studio
stuff is very clean, and most bands are a bit rawer live, and I think
that’s where we are too, louder, and rockier.
MM - The last couple of years have really seen the
band come out of the shadows and into the spotlight. Can you tell us about
some of the highlights and some of the lows so far?
Steve Scott - Highlights:- 2 Great and different CDS, 2 UK tours,
great reviews, cool
fans, the letter and emails we get always make me smile and we reply to
all of them, the guys are all great friends and when we are together it's
just a great time, our tours are so much fun, I can’t tell you everything
that goes on but we have caught some of it on video, I’ll be making a
movie soon and it'll be on the next cd
LOWS:- ummmmm
MM - What’s the biggest misconception people tend to have about you
because of the music you make?
Steve Scott - I think on the first album the photo on the back with us all
in black leather was misleading, we aren’t Motorhead or Priest etc, we are
a cross between good 80s metal hard rock and speed power metal, so the
image now is more in that vein, so when people looked at the picture on
the back of wings cd they thought death metal or extreme metal, then when
they hear it they go, damn I have been ripped off or cool its not what I
expected and this is actually not that heavy and yeah this is cool, it’s
usually the later comment too !!!!
MM - The new album feature’s a special guest appearance by Sabine
Edelsbacher of Edenbridge. Is there anybody else in the business you’d
like to write/perform with in future?
Steve Williams - Yeah, there are a number of people who I would love to
work with in the future but being realistic I would imagine it will be
hard to organize. Jordan Rudess, Steve Harris, Kevin Moore, Jorn Lande,
Timo Koltipeto the list goes on!
Hehe! It’s really tough to find the time to do additional projects when
you work a day job too. One thing I would love to do is an epic
progressive rock album in the vein of Yes and Genesis!
MM - How do you feel the band has evolved musically since it first began.
Have you changed direction musically or perhaps matured as you’ve all
found your niche market?
Steve Williams - I think it always takes a little while for a band to gel
properly, especially when the line up of the band is a little uncertain. I
think the 5 of us have now found our sound, so to speak, although we still
are keen to keep pushing the boundaries rather than just repeat ourselves
over and over. There hasn’t been a concerted effort to change direction or
anything like that. I guess it is just natural progression and evolution.
MM - You’re currently signed to ‘Now & Then’, how did you come to hook up
with them and what sort of deal do you have with them. Was it just for the
release of ‘Neverworld’ or does it go further than that?
Steve Scott - We have signed to Now and Then for 2 albums and we are
currently
talking to them about what we are going to next, the promotion has been
great and lots more fans have been able to get hold of Neverworld which
has been great, also in Japan the album has done really well.
MM - Have you had a chance to start work on the follow up album yet and if
so can you tell us any details on how it’s going and when it might be
released?
Steve Williams - We are constantly working on new ideas and I think there
are 8 songs written for the next album. Hopefully we will have 12-14
tracks to choose from for album number 3. The plan is to record early in
the New Year, all being well but you never know how things will pan out.
It certainly won’t happen before then that’s for sure. We hope to be able
to return to Thin Ice studios and work again with Karl Groom and Clive
Nolan. I would anticipate a summer 2005 release.
MM - What are you listening to these days yourselves? Old classics or
modern bands? Do you ever listen to music that is very different from what
you do, if so what?
Steve Scott - I’m really getting into A-HA and Whitesnake, these bands
have great musicians and a great singer, the songs all are usually stories
in there own right, great lyrics melodies and some really good solos
especially Steve Vai on the slip of your tongue, 1987 was a great year for
music in my opinion, I bought more CDS that year than any other.
Another band I love is Andrew WK he has some wicked tunes, the last cd of
his The Wolf has some great chord structures, check him out.
Steve Williams - I’m currently listening to bands like Edguy,
Thunderstone, Nightwish alongside classics like Van Halen, Marillion,
Maiden. Outside of metal, I listen to bands like Pink Floyd, Jefferson
Airplane, The Who etc Good music is good music, irrespective of genre or
category.
MM - What bands/artists have influenced you the most over the years?
Steve Scott - So many, even standing in the elevator, lounge jazz or a
mobile phone
going off or a movie theme music effects me, something sticks and I’ll use
it in a song. Even the ice cream man in his truck driving outside my
window has a catchy tune.
Steve Williams - Obvious influences for me are Iron Maiden, Dream Theater,
Marillion, 80’s hard rock bands like Cinderella et al. Not that the
influences are necessarily apparent in the Power Quest sound but those are
the kind of bands that stuck with me over the years alongside the likes of
Judas Priest, Motorhead etc
MM - If you could ask one of your heroes/someone who's inspired you a
question, who would it be and what would you ask them?
Steve Scott - I would ask Mozart how he wrote operas at the age of 8, he
is incredible!!!!. How did he do that??
Steve Williams - So many people to ask! I’d love to sit down with J.S Bach
and discuss harmony and counterpoint. In many ways the people who have
inspired me most are music teachers I had when I was younger, without
their encouragement and that of my parents I doubt very much whether I
would be answering this question today!
MM - With all the changes that music has gone through over the
years, what do you think of the current music scene in general?
Steve Scott - I think in UK the rock scene is getting better and bigger
every year, the stale old boy bands are slowly becoming a thing of the
past which is great, the money grabbing by record companies exploiting
kids and manufacturing bands is sick in my opinion.
Bands like The
Darkness, HIM etc are getting more commercial airplay and are flavour of
the month, at least kids are getting to hear real musicians play real
instruments and it’s not some guy employed on a keyboard to write some
songs for a pretty 16 year old who is a great looker and can dance.
MM - What's the 'grand plan' for your band? Are you aiming for anything
like fame, fortune, artistic acceptance etc?
Steve Williams - I think the most important thing is for the band to be
highly regarded within the power/melodic metal scene. I certainly do not
yearn for fame and fortune. I think it is a privilege to be able to write
and record with such a great bunch of musicians. I just hope we can
continue to make albums together for many years to come.
Steve Scott - I just want to play and record and see some success for
Power Quest, I’m not too much of a dreamer, but if it ended tomorrow, I’m
still really happy with what we have achieved to date, tomorrows a new day
you never know what’s going to happen.
MM - OK, a two part fun question now. (A) If you could have anyone locked
in a room so that you could torture them for a day, whom would you choose,
and how would you torture them? (B) Now turn the tables. Who would you
most like to be locked in a room with for a day and how would you like
them to torture you?
Steve Scott - A. It’ll be Yngwie Malmsteen, I would lock him in a room
and I would try and play a ukulele to him.
B. locked in a room for a day hmmmm that’s a tough one I need to think more
on that one …it probably would involve some form of back scratching with
long finger nails hmmm dribble dribble!
MM - What’s your motto in life?
Steve Williams - Do unto others as you would have done unto you! Life is
too short to be any other way.
Steve Scott - Live life to the fullest, it’s not as easy as it sounds
too!!! My poor liver!
MM - Lastly, is there anything you would like to say to all our readers
out there?
Steve Williams - I’d just like to say thank you to everyone who has bought
our albums, come to the shows and visited our website and forum. Without
you guys it would be impossible for the Quest to go on! We look forward to
seeing you all at future PQ shows! Thanks also to you Linda and everyone
at the Mayfair Mall for your support! We really appreciate it.
Steve Scott - Firstly HI and if you are reading this hey thanks for taking
the time too and secondly, please support the bands that you like by
getting out of the house, go to the shows and support them, then they can
continue to record and play live again, with all the burning of cds going
on it’s getting harder for bands to survive. Hope to see you on the next
tour !!! |
