Friday, May 4, 2012

Girls,Guitars, and Fireworks? - Eric Anthony of Powderburn


Recently you may remember my review of Powderburn's EP One Fix. This band has some fantastic old-school metal elements without becoming cliché. They are on their way up that much is true.
On that note I am really pleased to welcome PB's lead guitarist Eric Anthony to the blog. He has graciously agreed to chat us up about what makes him tick.. you know beside the usual drink, women, and geetars. So let's just get with it shall we?

 Welcome Eric, glad to have you aboard!
 So tell me a little about Powderburn. How it came to be?
How did Powderburn form? I don’t really know since I was not a part of it then but some thing happened in an apartment in Jersey or here in Texas (as I have read on wiki) and then bam!!! Powderburn formed. There must of been some serious jamming or bro hugs cuz Powderburn has been going strong ever since.
 There are three original members right now: Ken Lockman (guitar/vocals), Greg Enkler(bass, vocals, pizza maker) & Joel Reyes(drummer, back up vocals) I joined in 2008 and it feels like its been 15 years of my life. There were a lot of member changes back in the day but this is now and who cares about then, right??

Who are the band's big influences? What is the writing process for the band like?
What is great about us is we have SO many influences. But we do agree one..Metallica. That has both pros and cons. Not every one of our songs sounds the same or has the same feel over and over. But writing sucks sometimes because there are four different ways we want the song to go and its hard compromising to just one. But we are good at letting the song take its own path and not shoe horning riffs just because..which I like to do,a lot. We all have a hand in writing but 95% of the time it's me or Greg with riff ideas or a whole song structure and then the others put in their two cents and then the song suffers because it's not the way I wrote it. So threaten to quit and then I get my way. I am the MVP! HA HA not really! I am a riff machine, some bad, but most good! ;) And Greg is a composing genius! He is real good at making the songs something that I would of never thought they could be and it usually sounds fukn kick ass! Joel just complains he doesn’t have a real drum set at practice and Ken writes music videos for the songs before he writes lyrics. Kind of backwards but I guess it works. Wait, we aren't famous yet, I guess it doesn’t. ;(

(greg enkler and eric anthony)


OK let's talk about you-What made you pick up the guitar?
“Stone Cold Metal” I was a HUGE Stone Cold Steve Austin fan back in the day. Anything he liked, I liked more. Kind of gay when you think about it now. haha. But he came out with a compilation CD of some of his favorite metal/rock songs. Scorpions, Kiss, Ted Nugent, Def Leppard, Accept, and one of my biggest influences, Dokken. But only because of George
Lynch. I hated Don’s voice. Like a camel making love to a terrorist or vice versa.
What kind of guitars do you use? 
 I play Jackson guitars through a Peavey 6505+ amp head. I love the look and feel of Jackson guitars. Very smooth and rugged at the same time. Does that make sense? fuk it, it does to me. I get certain tones and squeals out of my guitars that I can't seem to get with others. I want to eventually have my own line of Jackson guitars called “Jacksoff” HAHA get it??? I’m sorry if that was rude :(

 Who are your big personal influences?
I have four main influences: Metallica, Pantera, Slayer, & George Lynch. I broke my VCR from playing an instructional video of George Lynch from playing it EVERY single night so I could fall asleep. I also listen to a lot of pop stuff you might not expect. Lady gaga, Katy Perry, Rhianna, and even gangsta rap like Bone Thugz N harmony. I get a lot of arrangement and small riff ideas from listening to that stuff. And it's catchy as fuk, and there’s just no denying that.

 What do you do when not playing with Powderburn?

 I am a state licensed pyrotechnic! Fireworks, special FX, flame FX anything with fire or explosives, I am all about! I also off-road when I can in my jeep. Luxury to me, is dirt and mud. I used to race ATV’s but mine breaks all the time and I have no money to keep fixing it. I shoot guns with my family and LOVE LOVE LOVE Call of Duty! And I am a gym rat.

 Favorite fan moment? 
It's always an honor when there is a line at our merch booth to sign posters and stuff. Girls showing their boobs. Some good, some should never take their bra off ever again! EVER! But one of the most intense moments was in Laredo, TX. We played our first arena show with Korn and right after we got off stage we packed up and loaded in to Average Joe’s Sports bar. It was a pretty drastic change. Kind of, “back to reality” We were setting up for the official Korn after party. The show was absolutely nuts! There were about 250 people and it could barely hold 175. In the middle of the set I am playing a solo and all of a sudden my feet are not touching the stage. The crowd lifted me up and I was crowd surfing while playing my guitar solo. I felt like I was part of the crowd. They were so into it they decided to be part of the band themselves. BEST FEELING EVER! I am glad they didn’t flip me over, cuz I am sure I had a chub going. (Hope that’s not rude either) ;)  

Most embarrassing moment?
 I’m not typically embarrassed much. Falling down is usually what does it. I fell off stage completely one time. Thought the stage was a bit bigger, and I bit the dust. All you can do then is get back up, laugh, take a shot, and keep playing. But only in that order! Or the whole thing is ruined.

Whiskey or vodka?
JAGER!!!!!!!!

 If you could sit down to dinner with 5 historical figures who would they be and why?
 I don’t know if my list is technically “historical” but to be honest, eating with George Washington or some other dead boring dude just doesn’t seem like much of a party. And I love to party ;)
 1.Dimebag Darrell- No explanation needed for that one.
 2. Chuck Norris - was a big fan when I was a kid, and still am. And I want to pet his beard and shake his beard hand.
3. Leslie Neilson- one of my favorite actors of ALL TIME! Love every one of his movies and have always wanted to meet him.
4. Mikhail Kalashnikov - he invented the most famous gun of all time. And Russian accents are awesome.
5. (skinny)Anna Nicole Smith - She was my first love! And this dinner is starting to look like a sausage fest.

 Favorite books?
 What’s a book?

What's next for Powderburn? What can we look forward to?
We just released a brand new EP entitled “Come And Take It” It was produced by Aben Eubanks (guitar player for Kelly Clarkson). I know what you're thinking....WTF?!?! But the dude was pretty metal for being a vegan. Surprised all of us! And he knew what he was doing! We are about to hit the studio again with Sterling Winfield. He did the last two or three Pantera albums and the first 2 Hellyeah albums. We are giving up on doing a CD/album every year or every 2 years. It’s 2012 and the majority of people get their music online via iTunes, Google music, etc. So we will most likely be doing that from now on. Just keep an eye out on www.powderburn.net or on our facebook for updates and such. Hope I wasn’t too graphic in the interview and I thank you from the bottom of my little black heart for this interview!!! Thanks sooo much! -Ecrest out

Here's a bit of a teaser video for you all!


Thanks for dropping by, pleasure to chat with you.. come back anytime!



you can find the band here:
 www.powderburn.net
on twitter -@powderburn
 on facebook-
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Powderburn


you can get their music here!!
on bandcamp~
  http://powderburn.bandcamp.com/album/come-and-take-it
http://powderburn.bandcamp.com/album/one-fix

on iTunes~
 http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/one-fix/id336816634
http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/come-and-take-it-ep/id520561880

1 comment:

  1. Eric, you are a funny guy. Heh. Enjoyed hearing how you started, what you're into, and the music is rad as hell. Thanks for doing this, Synde!

    ReplyDelete