* First off congratulations on the amazing chart success you guys achieved with Nightmare Logic. Were you surprised with all the chart placing’s that you got?
To be honest, I didn’t know we were on any charts! What charts are or were we on? That’s cool to be on any chart, I guess. Unless it’s like your hospital chart or something and you have cancer, that wouldn’t be a good chart to be on.
If you give a shit about your record then it takes a very high level of focus to sit and write the songs
* It’s been 4 years between Manifest Decimation and your newly released “Nightmare Logic” – why the big gap? what was going on?
We were touring the entire time. If you give a shit about your record then it takes a very high level of focus to sit and write the songs, so we needed time dedicated to where all we could do was eat, sleep, and write the songs. So we had a lot of tours and life just going on, it took us about 3 years after Manifest was released to start writing again.
* This is your 2nd record with Arthur Rizk right? What would you say are the biggest differences in what you guys did on Nightmare Logic to Manifest Decimation?
We knew what we were doing this time around. We learned a lot, recording MD. For me and Blake, it was our first LP we’d ever worked on. It was a huge learning experience. So since then, Arthur has been producing records and he’s only getting better at his craft. We wanted to “trim the fat” from the songs, and making sure this record was like a polished circular buzzsaw. strong and clean in the center of it, but still rough and razor sharp around the edges. Personally, I was a better vocalist now. We were wiser and older and knew what we wanted to improve on from the last record, and i think we accomplished that.
* This is your 2nd album with Southern Lord right? How did you come about getting signed to such a legendary label?
Greg Anderson, founder/owner of SL had heard of us through a friend. He checked out the music we had, we had just released the self-titled 7”, he liked it and wanted to sign us. So we said yes. It was really very simple.
* Even though you guys are all relatively young I’m hearing some classic metal/hardcore influences in your songs? How did you guys get into such old school bands as your influences?
There’s very few good modern bands our there that really excite us. We don’t think very many modern thrash or metal bands are doing a very good job, so we’re writing songs we want to hear. I don’t consider us young though. We’ve been a band for almost 10 years, and I’m 31. Our youngest member is 26. So most of us are 80’s babies, and I can remember growing up with hearing bands like metallica, sepultura, napalm death, slayer, anthrax, etc… I had a neighborhood friend, and he had an older brother who listened to lots of punk and metal bands so that was probably my first real introduction into the harder underground, and it’s stuck with me ever since.
* Can you give us a brief history of how the band came about for those readers who may not be familiar with Power Trip?
We came together in February, 2008. Blake heard I was wanting to start a heavy NYHC influenced crossover style band, and he hit me up to jam. I didn’t really know him, and he was really young in comparison – I was 22, he was 16 – so I wasn’t sure how it would turn out. His parents lived in the same suburb as my parents, so one weekend when I came to visit from college, we got together and wrote pretty much the whole demo in that first session. That was the spark.
* Seems like every time I turn around you guys are on another tour – what’s been the best tour you have played so far?
Hard to say, there’s been so many good ones, but I think I would pick our recent headliner that we did in support of Nightmare Logic. Every single show was great, not one bad one. For every city we played, it was the best show we had performed in that city before. It was our first time headlining a tour off of a record we just released, to be doing that whole thing for the first time felt really great. It was exhausting, but it was the best reactions we’ve ever had, everywhere we went.
What happens in the van, stays in the van, man
* Any crazy tour stories yet? They say you experience more one year on the road then the average person does in their lifetime.
What happens in the van, stays in the van, man. I will say this: I do want to one day write a book, or a comic book, or a movie, or anything that’s a comprehensive, accurate portrayal of touring. I just want to get all my friends together, tell tour stories for hours, and then we construct a narrative around that. It would be so easy to write, and if you layout the premise well enough, you could do sequels because you’d have so much material, so many stories.
* Touring with bands like Iron Reagan and Napalm Death you must learn a lot – what’s the one bit of advice that you would give yourselves from 2011 if you could go back in time?
2011? It would have been to work harder at MD. I would have given ourselves advice on recording. I don’t think we put out a bad record, but looking back there’s a lot of things I would change.
We always have a great time in Springfield, Missouri
* You guys have any favorite tour towns yet? I know some bands prefer to play places like say South Dakota over NYC as the fans are so appreciative that you made the trip out to play for them, unlike say a “jaded” NYC audience.
I really love Texas still. Texas is #1. I really like playing NYC, the two times we went to Russia, Moscow and St. Petersburg, have been incredible. I’ve really liked our shows in Finland and most of the UK. Toronto and Boston are both really good to us. LA and SF, too. In relation to the South Dakota vs NYC thing, we always have a great time in Springfield, Missouri. The shows aren’t huge, but the kids are just so awesome and energetic that it doesn’t matter.
* How’s the local Dallas scene these days? Are their many bands playing old school Thrash like you guys there? (For some reason I imagine you guys probably still have some nu metal bands knocking about the local scene…)
To my knowledge there really isn’t any other bands from our area trying to do the thrash/crossover thing, but I’m also not too strongly in touch with the modern scene around here. I do like this band called Creeping Death. They’re kind of like us, in that they started as a hardcore band with metal influences, and now have morphed into a full on metal band. But their style is straight up death metal.
South America, Australia, Japan… I want to go anywhere that’ll have us
* Any countries on your wish list of places to play that you haven’t played yet?
I really want to tour South America, Australia, Japan… I want to go anywhere that’ll have us. The world is both big and small and there’s still so much to see.
* What can we expect from Power Trip for the rest of 2017?
Business as usual – just touring, touring, touring
* Any final words?
Thank you for the support, and asking unique questions! You are a good interviewer.