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Powerglove Interview

Powerglove Interview

 

Interview by: Zelda

Geek Girl Zelda recently did an interview with Nick Avila, from the Epic Nerdcore band Powerglove. If your like metal and are a geek best keep reading ...


Power Glove
Power Glove

Q: So, for anyone who isn't familiar with your music and who you are, give us a rundown.

A: I am Nick Avila, bassist/front man/koopa shell wearing fool for the band Powerglove. We take video game and cartoon themes and turn them into heavy metal songs that have an original twist to them, while still staying true to the original song.

At our live shows you might see man eating donuts, blood thirsty piranha plants, go go dancers, sword fighting, and full grown men dressed in over sized video game themed armor. We also like to give our audience candy for putting up with us. A simple life for a simple man.

Q: Originally you were all in a melodic death metal band together. What made you decide to pursue a video game/cartoon metal cover band instead? Do you ever miss writing your own music, or can we expect Powerglove to release their own original material at some point?

A: We never made an official decision to stop writing original stuff and focus on video game music. We just ended up having more fun with Powerglove than we were having with our old band. We are all very goofy people in real life, so it’s nice to be in a metal band that doesn’t have to take anything seriously but the music. If I were in a band like Slayer, I probably wouldn’t be able to get away with ideas such as emerging out of a smoking Super Mario Brothers pipe during our live intro. As far as original music for Powerglove goes, we have already started working on some. It’s really more about the timing and presentation than our ability to write it. Any original music we do would have to either fit with the theme of Powerglove, or be released under a different name.

Q: Do you find that more of your fans are metalheads or geeks? How does a show compare when you open for metal bands like Dragonforce to when you play conventions or events?

A: With some exceptions, the metal head/geek crossover is huge, so it never really matters to us what audience we are playing for. The fact that metalheads have a love for obscure, technically proficient music and a general distaste for mainstream culture makes us all nerdy by default. The difference is that instead of being obsessed with anime and video games, they might be obsessed with musical equipment, guitar playing, or musical sub-genres. Whether we’re on The Summer Slaughter Tour (The Black Dahlia Murder, Dying Fetus, Whitechapel,etc) or a tour with mc chris, every single person in the audience had a childhood, and that will always bring them together.

Power Glove

Q: So far you've released a video game album and a cartoon theme song album – Where is Powerglove going next?

A: Right now we’re working on a new video game themed album with a few extra surprises thrown in. It’s already been five years since we have released any new video game material, and I feel like it’s about time that our fans get what they want.

Q: Tell us about the costumes – Who designed them, who made them, who's idea they were, how difficult it is to play insanely fast metal riffs while wearing giant spiked Koopa shoulder-pads?

A: We come up with the concepts for the costumes, and then draw them out and design them with our friend K-Tron. She has also worked with Gwar and Kaiju Big Battel, so her style is right up our alley. At first it was extremely difficult to play with all of the gear on, but once you modify the costumes correctly so they don’t mess up your movement or playing, it’s not so bad. You get used to it.

Q: What's the best part of being in Powerglove?

A: The women, money, political power, and the fact that I usually have fifty to one hundred pounds of Starburst sitting in my room that we use for the stage show. Also, getting a room full of burly tattooed metal dudes to sing the Pokemon or Power Rangers theme song always puts a smile on my face.

Q: Have you got any good fan or tour stories? Both fans of your band and meeting bands/celebrities YOU are fans of.

A: One of my favorite tour memories was having Thanksgiving dinner at Bam Margera’s house with Dragonforce and Turisas in 2008. Bam’s place kind of looks like a mansion a thirteen year old would buy if you gave him millions of dollars. Giant skate parks, rainbow paved roads, a shrine built to one of his favorite bands, and I believe there was a Ferrari with the keys left in the ignition. After walking around the place for a while, our tour manager gave us a bunch of keys to some of Bam’s ATV’s and told us to have a good time. All of the bands on the tour proceeded to race each other, and I ended up doing some kind of idiot stunt and flipped one over, almost killing myself and damaging the ATV. I thought Bam was going to murder me, but he ended up not giving a shit at all, which was a nice relief! Anyways, Bam and his buddies were all very nice people, and we ended up cooking a huge feast, which on tour you appreciate much more than usual. Also, being from Finland, it was Turisas’s first Thanksgiving dinner ever, and needless to say, we showed them what American gluttony is all about.

Q: So guys, are you real geeks, or is Powerglove just a scam to pick up on nerd ladies? What other geeky stuff are you all into?

A: We actually discovered several years ago that the combined smell of our latex costumes and post show sweaty man scent is an extremely powerful aphrodisiac. We have contemplated capitalizing on this and naming our next album “Powerglove – For the Ladies”, with an added scratch and sniff tablet on the front cover. This way you can get that “Powerglove” aroma anywhere you go.

Q: I've been following your band for several years now, and I remember when even your website was a video game. Any chance we may see an actual video game based on the band for the Xbox Marketplace or something, similar to what Penny Arcade did?

A: You are quite the old school fan! I still haven’t been able to beat that game myself, our guitarist Chris made it so damn hard. We would like to release a video game in the future and write the musical score for it ourselves. The issue right now is finding time to program it. We are trying to find a few people to help us with the programming and art, while we come up with the concept and story for the game. If all of that comes together, there will be a full length Powerglove video game.

Q: Where can people go to find out more about you or keep up to date with your tours?

A: vgmetal.com & facebook


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December 03 2012



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