Artist: Power Quest  

Date: 2 March 2011   

With the turmoils of 2009 well behind him now, we catch up with founding member and keyboard player Steve Williams from the power metal legends Power Quest to find out more about the new album, the new line-up and their forthcoming touring plans.

MM - Hi Steve, thanks for taking the time out to do the interview. 
SW - My pleasure.

MM - The last few years has been quite traumatic shall we say for Power Quest.
SW - Yes you could say that.

MM - Let's start with the departure of Steve Scott.
SW - Yes he longed for New Zealand, family and the green green grass of home, and you’ve got to support people when they make these types of decisions.  He’s a great friend and fantastic musician and he’s been with me right from the word go, which probably made it all the more difficult.  I never really envisaged a PQ without the two Steve’s in it, but yes, he made that decision and went off around Christmas time / New Year 2009.  I thought that was going to be that.  Getting a new bass player I thought wasn’t going to be that much trouble, but it never worked out like that did it. (laughs).

MM - No. 
SW - I think it was about April when Alessio called me to tell me ... “he was retiring from Metal” ... to quote his very words, and that he was jacking in Power Metal in general.  That meant Power Quest and Arthemis, the whole shooting match.  That was a bit of surprise to say the least.  He'd been with me for most of that time as well, but again people come to these cross-roads in their life at different times and we all have to face them at some point.  You gotta do what’s right for you.

MM - Yes. 
SW - The great thing about all of this, both then and now, is that the band are pretty good friends and you support your mates.

MM - Yes Alessio leaving didn’t just impact on Power Quest, it also affected Arthemis as well.
SW - Yes that’s the thing, another irony of the situation was Andrea had exactly the same issue with Arthemis as he's had to replace everyone as well, which brings me onto him leaving Power Quest.  That was a very emotional phone call that one.  He clearly didn’t want to stop doing it, but given the circumstances I can clearly understand the time it takes to rebuild something and to be involved in two things that have to be rebuilt would have been too much I think.  What Arthemis was for him, Power Quest was for me in a sense.  Again I totally understood his decision and supported it, regretfully if you like, but he’d been doing it for some fifteen – sixteen years.

MM - Yes, just as Power Quest is your baby, Arthemis is his baby ...
SW - Yes, it’s a labour of love.  Even now, especially when your starting out and trying to get off the ground, but arguably it has to be the same even now, in an era when there isn’t much money to be made in this business.  If I did it for the money then I wouldn't be doing it.

MM - I think that goes right across the board whether you're just starting out or have been at it for years.  I know its an old cliché doing for the love of the music, but people like yourself who’ve taken a band from obscurity and built up such a strong following over the years ... I remember seeing the band for the first time supporting Threshold in a sports hall in Rotherham.
SW - Yeh that was back in 2004.

MM - The band was in its infancy then, we really got into the band and I remember we had a good chat outside the tour bus after the show into the wee small hours.
SW - Yes (laughs).

MM - Even then you could see all the hard work that was going into the band.  We’ve followed the band ever since and you can really see how its grown.  We’ve seen the many changes in the band, we’ve seen the highs and the lows. SW - Yes there has definitely been bits of both and I suppose the last year and a half have been the hardest for me personally.  Once Francesco had gone it was me all on my tod.  It really was a case of have I actually got the energy to sort this all out and get back on track?  But the curious thing was the last show we played with that line-up, it was Metalfest in Dudley, even though Steve had already gone, the reaction we got from the crowd that night and more particularly, the fans that came up to me afterwards, who were people I didn’t know and were people who had just got into Power Quest, were telling me ... “you’ve got to carry on, you’ve got to carry on”  ... it was just great.

Yes there were people who I knew really well that were saying that as well, but when complete strangers were saying it I thought maybe I should, but prior to that I was seriously considering hanging up the keyboards, all be it briefly.  Fast-forward to now when we've brought in Chity and Gavin to join Andy, Rich and Paul.  I realised at that point that I’ve got guys here who are really committed to the band.  Arguably more than anyone had done before in a funny sort of way.

The key to that, and I’m very, very lucky in that way, is that they were all fans before, every single one of them.  Paul you probably know used to be our stage manager.  He’s come up the ranks as it were.  Then there’s Andy and Gav, two great guitar players.  The thing that’s amazed me about them is these are two young guys, really talented and they really get on.  Twin guitarists don’t usually get on that well because of the competition thing.  When we’re rehearsing and it's time for a break and a cup of tea, we’ll all go off apart from those two, who’ll stay in the room and will be jamming Dream Theatre songs together.  It's ... "check this out" ... and ... "how did you do that?" ... that sort of thing!  It's really pleasing to see to be honest.

MM - I know it was important to you this time to have the majority of the band UK based, I know the logistics with the Italian guys was a nightmare when it came to rehearsals and touring.
SW - Exactly, I think we compensated for that really, the three Italian guys used to rehearse together and that aspect of it was tight, and then it was just a case of me and Steve slotting into that, which did work well, but now we have a completely different routine.  We have one complete weekend of rehearsals every month, which we do in Derby as it's pretty much the centre point for everyone.  Paul comes down from Glasgow and Gav up from Port Talbot in Wales.  The both of them pummeling down the country on the motorways.  Andy’s over in Manchester now so it's not so bad for him and Chity just jumps on a plane and pops over as well.  It's all working out rather well.  

It was a novel experience working on the arrangement and all of us working together on the album in the rehearsal hall, which has never happened before for a Power Quest record. It was all done by Andrea and myself remotely and we’d bring it all together at the studio for the actual recording.  Yes this is a different approach, but I it think it’s working out for the better.

MM - Speaking Chity, he’s quite a well known vocalist in the Power Metal genre, he’s working with Red Circuit, he’s worked with Domain and many more, he’s a name you recognise.
SW - Absolutely. 

MM - I know you brought in a vocalist prior to Chity, to replace Alessio, but that never worked out.  So what does Chity bring to the band, not just as a vocalist but also as a frontman, because Alessio was quite the exuberant frontman to say the least?
SW - Yeh very much so.  Alessio was much loved by the Power Quest fans and he built up a rapport with them, both on stage and off.  So when it came to selecting someone new we had a whole heap of people to choose from, from all over the world to by honest.  What I was looking for and the wrong thing to do was look for an Alessio II.  I thought this time gave me was the opportunity to try something quite different in the vocal department and I’d done a bit of work with Chity previously, we worked with David Shankle together and we both got on famously.  It was one of those classic ... “we should work together sometimes” ... conversations.  You have those all the time and nothing really happens, but when it came doing the vocal sessions for the new album, I was talking to Andy and Paul and we thought lets give Chity a pop at this. 

The first thing was would he be interested, never mind would he be able to do it! But he was jumping the walls about it when we asked.  He said send me a couple of tracks and I’ll record something. So I sent him over a version of 'Human Machine' off the 'Master Of Illusion' album with no vocals and a version with the vocals, so he could do his own version.  He got that back over and we thought ... hell this is a bit tasty! ...  then he was like ... “send me more! send me more! “ .

Both the lads and me all thought yes, this is what we want to do.  And to answer your question, he’s a vocalist with that rock blues sort of vibe, as well as being able to do the more metal stuff.  He also brings experience to the table as well which is important for me because, where you have a bunch of guys who are great musicians, they’re not that experienced, but having another steady hand is a wise move and as regards to his frontman skills, they are pretty well known throughout the scene.  

What I like about him is he’s not the kind of guy who when he’s up on stage  just swears all the time.  He actually talks to the crowd and it's not all f-ing this and f-ing that.  Just because you're in a metal band it's not big and it's not clever and we’ve seen it all before.  Yeh he brings an awful lot to the table to be honest and as I say. experience is equally as important.  Vocally the new album is a challenge to him, there is stuff on there that is new to him.  I think he’s done pretty damn well to be honest.

MM - I’ve only heard snippets from the album prior to the interview, because we haven’t got the promo from Napalm yet. 
SW - Have you not?
MM - No, but what I have heard was good, it is Power Quest but a little heavier.  It's also not all off the scale stuff, it still has those fluent keyboards of yours and the melodic speed element, but there is a little more edge to it than previous stuff.  I think that is perhaps more to Chity's vocal presence. 
SW - Yeh you're right, I think that is the case.  I should sent you some stuff later on so you can listen to a bit more (which he did and I just loved it).  I think the other thing is the guitars

MM - Yes the twin guitar element brings something more, I know Andrea is a brilliant guitar player but the twin guitars boosts the overall sound of the band, it gives it an extra energy.
SW - I think so.

MM - It gives a 3rd dimension to the actual sound.  When you seen the band live with Andrea he was giving it his all, you just had to see him off stage after a show he would be sweating buckets.  Having two guitarist means they can bounce off each other and break up solo’s into two parts and support each other. SW - Exactly, it brings something to the live shows as well, as one guys shedding a solo the other can be posing, moving around the stage, interacting with the band and the fans and vice versa.  But I think the styles of both guys works really well together.  Gav’s a more shredding guitarist while Andy’s more of a John Petrucci kind of guitar player, he thinks about it a little bit more, whereas Gav seems to do it a little more off the cuff.   The interesting thing is that they both like Dream Theater and the both like the Journey AOR thing as well.  Gav's into the Stratovarius kind of thing as well as being a Malmsteen fan and I think that’s where a lot of his technical skills come from.  He’s obviously watched Malmsteen a lot, but puts his own spin on it which I like.

MM - Yeh I’ve seen loads of bands with just a single guitar player and yes they are good but sometimes I think...  yeh a second guitar player could really bring something to the sound, even if it's just keeping a rhythm going in the background.
SW - Yeh and as you said, it gives it another dimension to the sound

MM - The classic twin guitar band that many people modeled themselves on was Judas Priest, before that two guitar players in a metal band wasn’t really heard of.  You had your single guitar players like Tony Iommi, Ritchie Blackmore and the like that was the main stay, but now it’s a lot more common, although it's when a band play live that the two guitar bands really shine.   It must also take a bit of pressure off you as a keyboard player, as previously you had to fill in the rhythm sections on the keys.
SW - Yes that was something we talked about in days gone by.  It's trying to keep things busy while Andrea was doing his thing so the bottom didn’t fall out of things.  I mean some songs don’t lend themselves to keyboards, which would be more suited to say a rhythm guitar.

MM - I suppose you could get out the old keytar?
SW - Yeh that's long over due it think.  There are a couple of tracks on the new album that lend themselves to that sort of thing.

MM - So what can we expect from the new album? 
SW - Well we’ve touch on it a little, it's certainly the heaviest Power Quest record ever.  I think the production is partly to do with that, as well as the drum sound and the guitar sound, which are quite a world apart from what we’ve had in the past.  I think it’s a good time to do that instead of trying to top the previous line-up of the band, that's why we tried a different studio as well.  To try something different and see where we go.  I think we’ve got a great combination that starts off with an instrumental that’s around two minutes long, then it’s a real shred-fest, all guns blazing affair, then the first two songs 'Rising Anew' and 'Glorious', which are probably the fastest songs we’ve done for a long time.

MM - Going back to the Neverworld sort of thing?
SW - Absolutely.  Something around the 'Sacred Land' sort of speed, but I think ‘Glorious' might be faster than that.  Then we go into a song called ‘Sacrifice’ which is very much a hard rock/ heavy metal kind of song with a Hammerfall styled riff, with the melodies that you’ve got used to from Power Quest.  The solo on that is a blinder. Then it’s the one you’ve heard on MySpace ‘Survive’.  It was the last song for the album.  We needed one more and the lads asked me if I had any ideas.  I said I had three of four ideas flying around in various stages and so I played them a couple and it was ... "Nah, I don’t like that one"... then I had this 'Survive' thing and I thought its worth a go and it was ... "Yeh that’s pretty good! Got any more?" ... I said give me a week and I’ll sent it over.  That ended up being the one.  I think because it has a bit of everything in it, kind of an Iron Maiden bridge section, the blinding solos, quite powerful vocals in places and that speedy blues that people associate with us most of the time. 

If you like the classic stadium rock thing then you’re gonna love ‘Better Days’.  It’s a time leap from 'Forever More' with a bit of a Journey feel to it as well.   ‘Crunching The Numbers’ was probably the weirdest song we’ve ever done.  It’s very heavy.  It starts off in a very off beat sort of way and then builds on a very powerful riff.  It's all about the economy and the recession, but it’s the middle section that’s the killer.  Andy and I co-wrote this one, but he’s primarily responsible for what happens after the second chorus.  Basically it goes into a sort of Dream Theater with a crunchy riff and throws in a couple of blood curdling screams as well for good measure, which works really well and which has one of the best solo’s I’ve heard for years from Gav right at the end, before crashing back into the chorus once again.  It's about seven minutes long and I it think it’s the heaviest song we’ve ever done both musically and lyrically.  

MM - I can’t wait to hear the full album. 
SW - It’s a real shame you haven’t heard it to be honest mate. 
MM - I know, it will come eventually. 
SW - It’s a ballady one next.  There's a sort of Van Halen vibe on ‘Only In My Dreams’ then the title track ‘Blood Alliance’ in another mid paced stomper if you like.  Chity's vocals are really great and the mid section is another one co-written with Andy.  It's 9 minutes long but it seems to fly by and seems more like 5 minutes, which is a good thing.  Then we wrapped up the album with ‘City Of Lies’.  

There's the bonus track we did for the Japan release was a track called ‘Time To Burn’, which is an environmental song really with a Helloween vibe.  It was quite difficult the come up with the bonus track, we couldn't come to a decision because everyone had different ideas, so in the end I just said I’m going to choose it myself.   

I’m really proud of the record because of everything that proceeded it and we recorded it in 3 weeks, when normally it would have taken 6 or 7.  The guys were doing fifteen hour days to get it done.  We were recording things at 3.30 am in the morning and things like that, and then getting up ant 9.00 am to do it all again.

MM - Having the majority of the guys based in the UK must have made this a lot easier.
SW - Yeh.

MM - You touched there a little on the writing element of the album.  Most people regard Steve Williams as the main writing force for Power Quest, but you said Andy helped with the writing on this new album? 
SW - Yeh Andy co-wrote 3 songs on this record.  I think I can honestly see the genesis of a good writing team which we find even when we’re jamming or playing some warm up exercises.  We gel, we find ourselves drifting here and drifting there then it's yep, we’re ready.  He’s only a young whippersnapper at 23 years old but he’s a great guitarist and has a great ear for a riff or a melody.

MM - This again helps you out, I know from past talks that you’ve had to be not only a part of the band, but tour manager and babysitter along the way.  I know you see the band as your baby, but you need some help along the way.
SW - Definitely.  Rich organises all the rehearsals and he puts us up while we are there.  Paul’s pretty good also with his background with the band.  He knows how I work better than anybody.  He just rings up and asks what I want to do this week and it's great. You don’t have to ask for them to offer their services, it's exactly what you want.

MM - Tour wise things seem to be unusually busy for Power Quest this year.
SW - Yeh, definitely.

MM - In addition to the headline tour coming up you've also got the support slot for Symphony X.  
SW - That was a late comer to the table I suppose, but I’m really delighted about that one.  I think one of the great things about that is the reason why we got picked.  Obviously the agent had been doing some homework on the band and the reports went back about us being nice guys and easy to work with.  They know what they are doing and no mucking around.  I think that put us in good stead.  I’ve always put myself forward as being a total professional both on and off stage.

Yes all the guys have day jobs, but they seem to be able to get the same time off together which is great. We were supposed to be going to Europe to do three shows in April, but I think that’s going to be in May now after the UK shows, which makes more sense.  We’ve never played in Luxembourg, Belgium and Holland before so that will be great.

MM - Plus the Symphony X show will be multi cultural events with their fans coming from far a field, so that will impact Power Quest as far as reaching a wider fan base.  
SW - The problem with that tour is knowing which songs to play.  Obviously we will want to do some new stuff and some of the more prog songs, but maybe ease off on the Hard Rock stuff on those particular shows ... but there again!

MM - Yes you might only have 40-45 minutes so you don’t what to cram too much into it, but at the same time you want it to be diverse.  It’s a fine line.
SW - That’s another thing I’ve said to Chity, listen to the back catalogue, do some homework and pick songs (a) you like and (b) feel comfortable with and then we’ll discuss it.  He’s thrown up some interesting ones for the May shows, some songs we haven’t played for an awfully long time.  Probably songs we haven’t played since you saw us in 2004! (laughs).  One song we’ve never played live at all from the back catalogue, that will be interesting to see what works best.  

Obviously people are saying you’ve got to do ‘Faraway’, you got to do ‘Temple of Fire’, I think no I haven’t, what I don’t want is for this band to become a cover version of the previous line-up and that’s really important.  Clearly there will be a healthy portion of the new album, because it’s the only one the guys have played on.  We’re trying different things to finish the set off with.  We’ve finished on ‘Neverworld’ for I don’t know how long, probably since the album came out.  I think maybe it's time for a change at the end of the set.  It will probably take a few shows to do that because playing something in rehearsals in one thing, but playing it on stage is another.

MM - Yes this is the Blood Alliance Tour not the Power Quest Revisited Tour. 
SW - Exactly.

MM - As much as fans want the hear the old stuff you're out there to promote the new album. 
SW - Exactly.

MM - Not only the album but the new band as well. 
SW - To be honest Barry I’m quite prepared for some of the die-hard fans not to like the new album and say its not Power Quest anymore.  There are plenty of people who are now saying ... “well I didn’t like the high pitched vocals, but now I really like this.  This is the best album ever” and that’s what you want to hear you know.  You don’t want to put down what’s gone before, but you want the next thing to be the best you’ve done.

MM - As a band you want to spread out to a bigger audience, as much as the older fans love you, you want to bring in new fans, because that’s what keeps a band going.
SW - At the end of the day, the bottom line is it is a business, all be in on a small level, and after 10 years I dread to think how much I’ve invested in the band over the years, but I have to start being a bit more brutal about things, I can't say yes to shows where I know we’re going to lose money, even if I want to play them.  I know I’ve done it in the past but I felt that was a necessary evil if you like to keep the momentum going.  With the way the line-up is now we have a more natural momentum going being so close together, so we have to use that as well.  It's exciting times on that front.

MM - So do you see this new line-up as a solid band?
SW - I think so.

MM - Based on the last time we saw you on the Michael Schenker tour it did seem like it was a band put together in a hurry, not to be disrespectful to your good self.
SW - Yeh.

MM - Yes Paul knew the band, Rich is an outstanding drummer but there were some other elements in the band at that time that didn’t quite fit into what you had envisioned for the band from the beginning.
SW - Absolutely, and I guess I have to carry the can for that to some respect, we’ve been joking about it since saying 3 out of 5 ain't bad, this time we got the replacements right, I guess to get 5 out of 5 would have been a miracle to be honest, but now I think there is a unity here now their isn’t a single person who doesn’t exactly fit in, or they don’t feel comfortable or they need to gel with the rest of the band, and that sort of stuff. I think the lads are all focused, and they are all at that point were they don’t believe they’ve done an album that’s going to be available all over the world, it not just a record is probably the best Power Quest record ever, so no matter what everyone else thinks you should be proud of that fact. I the review that have been done so far have been glowing to be honest, and when it comes to rehearsal weekend the emails go round and everyone’s yes cant wait and all that. When you think that Paul has a drive of 3-4 hours to get down.

MM - People you don’t know you like we do, don’t know how focused you are and how much Power Quest actually means to you.  For most Power Quest is Steve Williams.  If you speak to any of the fans they think that and if you go on the Ultimate Metal Forum the fans would say the same.
SW - It’s funny you mentioned the Forum because its the busiest it’s been for a long time over the past month or so.  New people coming on left right and centre, it's awesome. You used to have two or three discussions a day, now there are 15, which is brilliant. The forum is another area where it’s my responsibility to keep in touch with the fans, I could never get that across to the Italian guys, but I think the new guys, Paul and Andy are on there quite a bit.  Rich and Gav drop by quite often as well which is good.  It’s just not me the fans want to talk to, they want to talk to the new guys as well.  They want to get to know them and that’s what the whole things for.  People asking questions and enjoying the whole interaction.  Questions like ... when are you coming here? ... and  ... who is your favourite guitarist?

MM - And when is Rich going to do another Mattessons advert? SW - (Laughs).  You’ll have to ask Rich about his new tattoo, he’s got the band logo across his shoulders; he doesn’t do things by half that boy!

MM - Well that’s commitment right there. 
SW - The first time I saw it, it told him afterwards he was fired! (laughs).  He just looked at me for a second.

MM - You should have said they’ve spelt it wrong ... who's this Pewer Quist then? (laughs) 
SW - (Laughs).

MM - So Steve what does the future hold for Power Quest, any word on the follow up album?
SW - As you know I’m always thinking with one eye on the future.  At the minute it’s all about time scales.  I want to do another UK tour in the Autumn and I’m toying with the idea of doing a tenth anniversary show in the Autumn as well, but I don’t want to start that till we finish touring with this album.  By that point I’m sure we’ll have already started writing new stuff.  I've got a couple of ideas at the minute but I haven’t had the time to develop then yet.  We were talking about a new album for the end of next year, which would be a reasonable follow up time as it's been 3 years between this new album and the last one Master of Illusion.

MM - Since the departure of the Italians and Steve Scott the brakes had been well and truly put on, but now with this new line-up it brakes off, into gear, foot to the floor and go forward.  There is no reverse gear just onward and upward.
SW - You're dead right mate.  We were intending to get Blood Alliance out a lot earlier, but as things didn’t work out with some of the new guys, and to be honest it’s turned out to be a good thing, it's turned out to be the right decision.  And because of what’s gone before and the time gap involved, we really had to come back with something good.

MM - It's no good coming back half hearted. 
SW - Yeh and I was conscious of that, not just from when we started to record the album, but back when I started to write the album.  I hit a stream of about a month and a half where things just clicked and I think some of the inspiration came because some aspects of the press had written us off and more so written me off.  I just thought I’m going to show you, you bastards ...

MM - The big two fingered salute as they say.
SW - Yes and what the rest of the guys brought to it all was just the icing on the cake.

MM - Power Quest have never been the traditional Dungeons and Dragons fantasy lyrics sort of band. 
SW - No, we had the odd song here and there.

MM - You’ve never done the concept album based on some mystical creature. 
SW - (Laughs).  Again its an interesting thing you’ve touched on there, one of the problems people had with the last album was that the lyrics were getting more serious and that didn’t go down well in some quarters, not at all.  The same could be said about this album, there is a lot of social commentary featured on it again, but I just put that down to getting older to be  honest.

MM - Yes there's a lot of that around.  Everyone is in the same boat, everyone’s struggling for money.  It's on the news 24/7 and everyone relates to it, so why not write about it.  If it affects you then write about it.
SW - If you tackle a serious subject in a song then it doesn’t have to be a boring song, it can still be a catchy song. That was the main consensus about the last album and its amazing now how many people are coming out and saying that.  I wouldn’t have minded at the time, I’m always open to criticism, but that was then and this in now.  I think we are going to surprise a few people with this one.

MM - Yes, this is a new chapter for the band.  It's a new chapter for the fans and if they are true fans they’ll embrace it for what it is and they’ll embrace the new line-up.
SW - Yes, although maybe it will take another album to get their heads around it.

MM - Maybe they will just have to give it a few whirls and maybe catch something they didn’t catch first time around.
SW - There's definitely a few things on the album that you don’t realise straight away.  Sometimes when you listen to an album through headphones and you’d catch something you wouldn’t hear normally.  There’s a lot of that going on. Subtle little things that on their own are nothing really, but at a key moment they work really well.  We tried to be not modern with that sort of thing but try to bring forth a magic moment that enhances a song.

MM - This is a new band with a new singer who has a track record a mile long.  If you're not sure what he’s going to sound like then check out some Red Circuit, check out some Civilization One, then you'll know what you're in for.
SW - He’s surprised himself on this album, I don’t think he’s ever done songs this fast before.  This is definitely a challenge in the studio, but one he rose to and he got what I was trying to do and just rattled things off.  Another little snippet of news is we had a lot of guest appearances on Master of Illusion but on this one we only had one, a guy from the Midlands doing a bit of backing vocals, Nick Workman of Vega.

MM - Oh yeh we know Nick. 
SW - I’ve known Nick for sometime now and I asked him if he wanted to do some backing vocals.  He said yes, how about next week?  So he came over and we did a bit in the afternoon, then he was off again.  It added some nice touches here and there.

MM - Well Steve I’ll let you get on, it’s been an absolute pleasure as always and we’ll see you next at Sheffield and then Glasgow.
SW - Excellent, looking forward to having a jar with you.

MM - Yes there will be one at the bar for you.
SW - Cheers.  

We'd like to thank Steve for taking the time out to chat with us today and look forward to seeing him and the rest of the band while they're out on tour.  Whether you're familiar with the band or not be sure to check out their new album 'Blood Alliance' as it really is a stunning release. 

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