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An Interview with Eric Powell of 16volt
Posted: Sunday, June 01, 2008
By: Ilker Yücel
Editor

Like many of the greatest bands of any generation, 16volt have endured many trials and tribulations to rain the respect and adulation they enjoy. Since the early '90s, Eric Powell has been steering the coldwave machine down a sordid highway of record label politics, changing lineups, and an underground music scene in a constant state of flux. Yet through all of this, he has endured to continue feeding his musical addiction, finally culminating in 2007's FullBlackHabit, the first 16volt album in just shy of a decade. Featuring an all-star lineup of musicians such as Steve White of PIG and KMFDM, Jason Bazinet of SMP, and the late Paul Raven of Ministry and Killing Joke, the album marked the return of one of the most revered bands in industrial rock, pummeling out a vicious array of mechanical rhythms, bludgeoning guitars, and cutting-edge electronics; it was as if the band never left. Now, 16volt is set to embark on their first tour since opening for KMFDM on the 2002 Sturm and Drang tour. Sharing the road with them are Metropolis label-mates, goth rock act Bella Morte, along with a plethora of today's rising young industrial stars such as Cyanotic, Left Spine Down, Rabbit Junk, and Erase the Virus. Powell shares with ReGen his travel plans as he takes 16volt audiences on what is sure to be a roller coaster thrill ride down the Denial Highway.

The Denial Highway tour is the first tour 16volt is going on since the opening slot on KMFDM's 2002 Sturm and Drang tour. What are the significant differences you've noticed in the process of putting together a tour? How is going on tour different now than it was six years ago?

Powell: It actually isn't really that different at all. It's just like jumping back out there like it was last week. I would actually say with all the tricks, secrets, and knowledge we have gained over the years, this one so far has been pretty easy to get together. That's not to say it hasn't been a ton of work, though. The level of effort it takes to get a tour out is an amazing amount of work.

That's interesting and refreshing, too, in light of the recent wave of tours that haven't gone well in the last two or thee years.

Powell: Well, that remains to be seen for us. The end result of our work will be realized out on the road. We have done all we can do. I put together a killer lineup, got the best dates and openers we could within our routing, got some great promo sponsors on board, and have been pounding the digital pavement to get the word out. A lot of the tours that you are speaking of haven't really adjusted to the new challenges of putting shows of this genre on the road; you really have to be more strategic and calculating. It's a much smaller scene than it used to be, and people aren't as willing to part with their money to pay for a show. You have to deliver something special. You have to have something to stand on. In some ways, my hope is that our absence from the road will only make it that much more special. It's been a long time, and I think people will be very happy to see we haven't lost a beat. We have a great record to get out there with FullBlackHabit and for the first time since I can remember we are going to be playing a lot of old stuff. If you haven't seen 16volt before or are on the fence, this is a tour not to miss.

Returning to the live lineup is 16volt veteran Mike Peoples; around the release of FullBlackHabit, you'd mentioned it wasn't too likely that he or Servo would be involved due to some of the tumultuous times you'd all been through. Besides the unfortunate passing of Paul Raven late last year, what prompted Mike's return to 16volt for this tour?

Powell: Mike and I have been through a lot of ups and downs together, and I think we both reached a place where we could let go of things that happened and realize that our tension was a result of the environment we were in. It was us against the world, and when the world started winning, we starting crumbling apart. I have never had a better writing partner than Mike; we just work together like magic, and since 1996, Mike has been on my left side on stage. It would feel like a hole over there every night if he wasn't there. The first second this tour started becoming a reality, I called him. We have this old inside joke that was actually started by Jared Louche, which is in this scene we are all 'denial junkies,' which is basically saying that no matter how beat up we get by trying to 'succeed' in this scene, we always think we can do better, we always believe that things are getting better and bigger, when in truth, it is what it is and it changes and it cycles and it waxes and wanes, but nonetheless we still believe. So in that way, we all just live for that denial. So anyway, I call up Mike and the first thing I said was, 'Hey man. So, um, you wanna take another trip out on the Denial Highway with me?' Two things happened: one, he said 'Of course,' that's because he is a denial junkie, and two, the name of our tour was born.

So that's the reasoning behind calling it the Denial Highway tour as well?

Powell: Yes. It seemed to fit entirely. The funny part about all this...the last tour we did in 2002 with KMFDM, mostly sold-out shows, playing to 500-2000 a night, traveling in a tour bus. Now we are getting back out in an RV, playing to maybe—I'm guessing here—75-250 a night. That's the essence of being a denial junkie. But it speaks volumes about our passion. Or our lack of common sense; I can't decide.

Well, human beings in general seem to live in a state of denial anyway, and common sense is never quite so common.

Powell: Amen.

So, 16volt is an industrial rock/coldwave band going on tour with the goth rock outfit Bella Morte. Besides the fact that you're on the same label, what drove the decision to tour with a band from a different style than yours?

Powell: I think on a business level that is one of those calculated decisions we made. It will result in a bigger draw for the tour, no question. I also think that we will probably tend to draw an older audience than them and vice versa, so we are helping each other gain more exposure to each other's fan bases, which is a win-win. You mention the label connection, and that makes it about 2000 percent easier on the label for promotional reasons. On a personal level, they have been touring like mad and have a really solid reputation as being really cool guys on the road, pros who don't throw attitude and ego around. We wanted the tour to be void of a bunch of rock star bullshit. No one deserves to be treated poorly by the attitude of non-rock stars, and we don't want to work with anyone who is throwing the drama around on the road. When we roll up to a venue, we start the day off with 100 percent respect and cooperation with the people who are there to help put on the shows, and when you tour with another band, you have to be on the same team and work together. Otherwise, it can be miserable, so we felt like it would be a good fit personality and business-wise.

Bands like Rabbit Junk, Left Spine Down, and some of the others appearing on the tour have yet to play outside of their respective regions where you'll be playing on the tour. Was that also why you decided to include local openers for various dates of the tour?

Powell: We just wanted to try and get the people on the shows who we think are cool and are pro and can add a cool element to the lineup. Too many times, if you leave the lineup to the promoter, it ends up being really awful shit that no one wants to see. But when you have a lineup like Rabbit Junk, Left Spine Down, etc. opening, that's rad! I mean, it's like this fragmented festival of sorts. I always had this idea of putting together a festival-type tour in this genre. It's just too hard to get the wheels turning on it, but if it all came together, it could be cool. I have thrown some ideas out to Metropolis. We'll see.

Now, let's talk about the material you'll be playing on the tour. Obviously, you just released FullBlackHabit last year, which was a long time in the making. After all, you performed 'American Porn Song' and 'Suffering You' in 2002, and the latter appeared on the album with the former appearing in a remix form on the Hordes of the Elite compilation. What sort of considerations go into the set list, especially since it's been quite awhile since you last toured? Is it fair to say that it will mostly be the newer songs?

Powell: No, it really is a balanced mix of everything. Obviously Mike didn't want to play just all the new stuff, since he had nothing to do with it. But I think after being away from the road and the feedback we have had, that's what our fans want. They want to hear 'Motorskill,' and we haven't played it in over 10 years and you will hear it live this tour. It's actually really refreshing to me. I will say, though, that putting together a set list from all these albums is really fuckin' hard. It's a lot of material, and ultimately you have to pull songs off it. There are songs we all want to play that we just simply can't fit in.

I'm sure many of the fans will be relieved at that too, especially since on Ministry's final tour, a lot of the songs have been from the newer albums, with the older material in the encores, and it's certain that a lot of people wanted a more assorted package, so it's interesting to hear that you'll be going down a different road.

Powell: I went and saw that tour and I feel the same way. I was really disappointed by the decisions on that one. Being a ministry fan for a very long time, all that can do is help us learn by it. I think honestly with that tour, it was Al being self-indulgent. I don't think he wanted to do the tour, and I think his position was 'My way or the highway,' and in a way I can't blame the guy. But in a sense, it really was an end of an era, and my two cents is that it could have been so much freaking cooler.

This question is slightly off the tour topic, but Cyanotic is playing several dates on the tour, and you perform a guest vocal on their Transhuman 2.0 album. They've covered 'Two Wires Thin' and done remixes for 'The Defect People' and 'American Porn Song.' As Sean Payne is collaborating with Jared Louche and Matt Fanale in Prude, has it ever come up that you and he might work on a project separate from 16volt and Cyanotic?

Powell: I never say never, but I have my hands full right now with projects. I have my own production company, musicwest.info, and we are very busy, as well as a project I am doing with longtime friend and ex-16volt live keyboardist Bildeaux Sarver called Graphic. I am also producing a record this year by the guy who penned a few of the FullBlackHabit tracks with me, Drøne. It's going to be a great debut for him, really amazing.

So from the production standpoint, what's it like now to be working with members of the younger generation of industrial music? How do you find that their methods of working are complementary to yours?

Powell: Well, all I can say really about that is that it hasn't changed too much. It's just fun seeing these guys and the energy and the ideas and they just flow, and in the case of Drøne, it's a matter of helping give the album a thread that ties it all together and a sonic signature that you just don't get unless you've been doing it awhile or had the chance to work with people like David Ogilvie, Bill Kennedy, etc. The biggest thing you learn from those guys, especially in the case of working with Bill, is the song. That's the key to it all: it's the song. No matter what style of music. The mix, the sounds...all those need to do is help tell the song's story and add interest to it, but if you don't have the song, you don't have shit. That's a differentiator with a lot of the bands in this genre. Anyone can buy a sampler and a computer and plug-ins, but if you don't have that intangible innate ability to have a vision of the story in it, you just have a mediocre assemblage of rehashed and recycled ideas. And that's why bands like Nine Inch Nails and Ministry and KMFDM and Skinny Puppy all stand above the rest. They had that something new and dangerous, and they gave it all a sonic signature and all that, but it's—again—the song. You take any one of those guys' bigger 'hits,' and it's there. It doesn't matter if you play 'Stigmata' on an acoustic guitar. It's still fucking amazing. Or 'The Beautiful People' by Manson. All song. The extra shit is just giving it voice and interest and style. In the case of Skinny Puppy, they took the art of the song to a different level. You can't play that shit on an acoustic guitar. Well, it can be done, but again, it's still about the song. So for them, the voice and the interest can be the song. But they were pioneers; they embarked on a trail that no one had done, except maybe Neubauten to a degree. And that's all stuff you learn along the way, and it's stuff that you never master, and that's the fun of it. Every new song I do, to me, is better than the last one I did. It may not end up that way, but that initial spark is.

So on that note, considering that the tour lineup includes Steve White and Jason Bazinet, who also performed on FullBlackHabit, and you mentioned before that you'll be playing older 16volt songs like 'Motorskill' on the tour. What sorts of new sounds can people expect to hear on this tour? In other words, with a new lineup of such powerful performers, what sorts of adjustments have you made to the music to fit the tour?

Powell: None. They have absolutely respected those songs. That being said, though, it's being played live, so it's not going to sound exactly like the record.

Since you've been a part of the scene for a long time, and you've not only seen it go through peaks and valleys over the years, and as we spoke about before with your involvement with the younger generation (Cyanotic, Drøne, etc.), what are your thoughts on the scene today? What do you see as the major problems that need to be addressed? What needs to change?

Powell: If there ever was a time when this scene needed to come together, it's now. I think that in some areas, we are seeing a resurgence of it, but I think a lot of that resurgence is based on fashion. I think what people need to remember about this scene is that its roots are based in the open-mindedness of it. In the mid '90s, we saw the scene start to get really segmented and fickle and snotty. No guitars in industrial, and if you did, you were coldwave. No ballad-y stuff in industrial metal, or else you were goth metal. To me, that is counter to the ideal of this scene. We should all open our eyes and our minds and realize that we are all in this shit together, and this scene is about wanting to be a part of something that isn't being spoon-fed by mass media, that it's about individuality and expression and it's about acceptance and not about judging who you are by how tall your boots are. There isn't a difference between you and the people you don't want to be a part of if you are like that. This scene has the potential to be an innovator in art, and it's lazy about it. Think about the Warhol movement and think about Bauhaus—not the band—and think about how they bonded together to make the shit cooler than the cubicle zombies walking around with nothing in their lives but what the outcome of the reality show they are watching is. This scene has the opportunity to redefine music as the world knows it. How? Well, we can start with support. Support the artists. Go to the shows, show your support for the hard work they put into it, and be there for them, because in return, you get a lot out of that. Stop downloading MP3s and not paying for it. Sure, get the songs off bit-torrent, but if you keep listening to it, buy the stuff. We can change this world of art and music, and now is the time. The labels are dying, so we can help redefine what this all means. I would just say again, we are all here on this ball of fuckin' dirt and magma that's floating in space, spinning a thousand miles an hour together. We come in to the world the same, we leave the same. It's up to us to do with the shit in the middle. Be active. If you truly love this music and this culture, then support it and help shape it into something that is more positive.

It's interesting how you addressed MP3s, saying to stop downloading them, but then continuing to say that if they get them off of bit-torrent and keep listening, to buy it, because we live in an age when it seems like people's sense of values are warped. They won't pay for a CD or a concert ticket, but they'll pay hundreds for an iPod. What do you think is the best way to instill this sense of support and instill the right values and ideas in this age?

Powell: Man, I don't know. If I had that answer, I'd be taking over for Steve Jobs when he steps down. All I can do is state my case and my perspective and hope that someone hears me. It's just sad from my end of the business to see and hear firsthand what downloads have done. I mean, from people top down, it has had a negative effect. But to me, there are bigger fish to fry in my statement. It's even deeper than that. It's the state of the whole scene. If you don't feed it, it dies.