Spider One of Powerman 5000 on their Electrifying New Album and Tour

With their brand new release, Somewhere on the Other Side of Nowhere, Powerman 5000 is returning with great force, supporting what singer Spider One claims as their best record yet. Kicking off their tour October 24^th, the tour promises to be as hard and heavy as ever, while adding a new repertoire of already well-received new tracks such as “V is for Vampire” and “Super Villain”.

With their brand new release, Somewhere on the Other Side of Nowhere, Powerman 5000 is returning with great force, supporting what singer Spider One claims as their best record yet. Kicking off their tour October 24^th, the tour promises to be as hard and heavy as ever, while adding a new repertoire of already well-received new tracks such as “V is for Vampire” and “Super Villain”. Powerman 5000 will make Chicago one of their first stops on the tour when they will perform Thursday, October 29th at Penny Road Pub in Barrington. It’s been three years since the band released Destroy What You Enjoy and according to early reviews and fan reaction, it was well worth the wait.

In the following interview with Powerman 5000 leader/front man/founder, Spider One, talks about the band’s sci-fi influence – how Godzilla and Ultraman affected the latest release, creating the new record, maturing as a band, his likeness to Howard the Duck and much, much more.

So you’re getting ready to get back on the road to tour the first new release, Somewhere on the Other Side of Nowhere, since Destroy What You Enjoy in 2006.

Spider – We always have ambitions to come out with a record every year, but for whatever reason it never works out. This particular release, part of the reason for the three-year gap, is that a lot of it was trying to untangle the mess of the last record and the record deal and it was a disaster, and also, in form with Powerman, replacing members and then having that learning curve with the new members…writing with them… We also do shows all year round so we’d be in the studio working on the album then have to go off and do a weekend of shows. There were a lot of stops and starts making this record. In some ways it was a really great way to make a record because really gave us a lot of perspective and it also allowed us to put some songs out on the Internet and really gage the temperature of what everyone thought about the new material.

I really thought it was interesting when earlier you had mentioned that while recording you watched old Godzilla films and Ultraman episodes to “ensure the sonics were on point”.

Spider – Yeah, absolutely. We have our Pro Tools rig and right next to it we would have a box set of Godzilla movies and Ultraman and stuff, so we’d start writing a song and crank it up and start watching the TV and if we thought that it went together or it made the visuals of the movie more exciting, then we’d continue with that song. We’d be like, “OK, we’re on to something now.” But that goes in line with the way I’ve always approached music – not obviously just a musical standpoint but also a visual standpoint and relating music with movies and comics and things like that. That’s where a lot of my inspiration comes from.

That whole sci-fi and comics scene is definitely apparent in Powerman 5000’s musical theme.

Spider – Yeah. It was who I was growing up. That was my whole identity. I watched way too much TV and a lot of movies that I probably shouldn’t have seen when I was really young - comics and all that stuff. And then I kind of discovered music. I was always into music when I was a kid, but I started to discover bands that opened up a whole new world for me, so bringing those things together just made perfect sense to me. I’m not the kind of guy who’s really open to writing about the standard musical fare, which we like – you know, girlfriend problems, or whatever. I’ve always looked at Powerman as a great science fiction movie where you can comment on social issues, political issues and do it in such a way that it’s not so heavy-handed because it’s represented through the sonic and imagery of robots or whatever, so it takes on a whole different identity.

Do you guys touch on a lot of political issues on this new album?

Spider – You know, it’s more like grandeur statements in a weird way. Like in the liner notes, on the artwork of the album, I pulled an H.G. Wells quote where he said, “Man is the unnatural animal, the rebel child of nature”. I just thought that that described a lot of the themes of the record. What that says to me is that we’re supposed to be the most advance being on this planet, but we are certainly the most fucked up and the one that seems to have the most difficulty finding a place on his own world. You know what I mean? So that’s kind of a common theme that I write about – identity and maybe feeling like you don’t quite belong, and that’s a common rock and roll theme but taken to sort of a grandeur idea that starts to mean more. There’s a great comic when I was growing up called “Howard the Duck” where he’s kind of trapped in a world that he never made. That’s kind of how I feel. I’m like Howard the Duck.

I know that comic.

Spider – Sure. There’s a lot of kids like that identify with that theme.

How does this record compare with past records that you made?

Spider – I always hate to say this because everybody has said it before in the past where maybe I didn’t quite believe it, but I really think this is the best record we ever made. The reason I say that is become I’ve kind of come full circle and realized what this band really is and what we do the best. I feel like I’ve jumped off of Tonight the Stars Revolt!, which is probably our most well-known record, we kind of jumped off from there but added ten years of experience and songwriting and vocalizing – I feel like I’m that much better now. So we’re doing what the band does best, but executing it in a much better way. Another thing that makes this record different from any other record we’ve made is the reaction from the fans. Honestly, I’m used to putting out a record and having the fan base go, “We don’t like it.”

Really?

Spider – Yeah. I think it’s a common reaction with most fans of bands. They either have a record or time period of the band that they relate to and it’s difficult to beat that for them. Or, you’ll have – in a band like us where to take a left turn and do something different, it can sometimes leave a certain amount of the fans disappointed. But with this record, from the release of “Super Villain” on, I’ve never had this experience before where I’m 100% percent happy with an album and the reaction across the board has been positive. I don’t think that I’ve heard one bad thing from fans that have written to me on Myspace, Twitter or any comments I see on Amazon, I Tunes – and I do look at all this stuff since I’m kind of obsessed with what people are thinking – and it’s all positive, which is freaking me out because I’m not used to that (laughs). So that’s definitely one of the unique things about this record.

So it sounds like you’re pretty accessible to your fans, too, then?

Spider – I try to be. Look, I come from a crossover time. I’ve been doing this long enough to remember when bands and music had much more mystique around it. Maybe your only interaction with a band would be to see them live. When I used to go to concerts as a kid, I never even dreamed of going up to the tour bus, knocking on the door and actually meeting the members of the band. I’d go to the concert and then go home. I remember those days and I think there is something about that that was very cool. You know what I mean? That it did have this distance to it. And now fast forward to today where it’s the exact opposite. You don’t have fans now - you have friends. You’re expected to be accessible to everyone and write back to everyone that writes to you on the Internet and all that kind of stuff. I think there are certain advantages to that, and I think that cool, too, because you do create a stronger band between your band and anyone who cares about your band. I don’t know. I guess I try to walk the line because I think there is a towering and mystique in some ways, but I also know we’re coming up on 2010 and you can’t be the mysterious guy in the band that doesn’t communicate with his fans anymore. It’s a different sensibility now. So I think there is a way to do it to try to maintain both worlds.

With all the science fiction in your videos, your futuristic theme visually and musically – have you ever personally considered taking this entire entity to film?

Spider – I think about it all the time. I have a huge interest in doing that. Over the past couple years I have been working on things and developing ideas  - I guess like anybody else living in Los Angeles I have like fourteen unfinished scripts and things like that. But yeah, absolutely. I think that it’s a natural progression. I just get excited creating stuff. That’s all I want to do – make stuff up. Absolutely, I do see that as part of my future.

Well, that will give your fans something else to look forward to then.

Spider – Well, you know there will come a time when jumping around on stage and screaming your head off (I’m sure Mick Jagger says the same thing), but when you’re in a rock band you see sort of a finality to it. Quite honestly, I thought it might have been a long time ago. I would always make a record and think, “Oh, this will be the last record.” Then you make another one and another one after that. It’s interesting, before I started the band I went to art school and one of the reasons I quit art school was because my attitude was like, “Look, I want to be in a rock band. I can paint when I’m eighty. But if I’m going to be in a rock band, I better get it going now while I’m still young.” But if you transition to filmmaking or whatever, that’s something you can do as you get much older. I think all things find their time and their place.

For more information on Powerman 5000’s new release Somewhere on the Other Side of Nothing, tour dates and more visit www.powerman5000.com or www.myspace.com/powerman5000.

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