Interview with POWER SURGE
We had a conversation with Serj (Guitars). Enjoy!
Welcome to the FILTHY DOGS OF METAL Webzine.
Tell us a few things about POWER SURGE (Members, Starting Year etc).
Power Surge start in late May/early June 2024, when Roko and I jammed and recorded 2 demos. We bonded over the same music taste, and generally making music and travelling the main thing in our lives. When promoter friends heard these the next day, they offered a support slot on the Fifth Angel tour dates in September 2024 if we organised ourselves. We sensed that supporting these 80s legends is a launch opportunity we cannot miss, so we quickly got to work preparing enough originals for a live set, and 2 promo videos to release to spread the name before the concerts.
You have recently released your single ''Shadows Warning''. What is the feedback from your audience as well as from the press?
It’s been really positive, in particular we were getting lots of organic sharing on social media, comments on the NWOTHM channel, and even Metal Hammer listed it in their “videos of the week”. With this project we really want to be the complete package visually and musically, and our efforts seem to have worked as we are getting a lot of engagement from the real die hard fans and bands on the scene.
Are you in searching for a record label and what do you prefer label or DIY and why?
We are mainly looking the right people in the industry to form relationships with, it doesn’t matter if they’re big or DIY labels. We can see bands like Riot City and Claymorean achieving success on the strength of their music, it’s most important to us that our music connects us to the right festivals, promoters, bands, fans and media.
Is there any funny or weird story from the recordings or from your live shows that you would like to share with us?
We’ve only had these 2 shows with Fifth Angel, but there’s always little funny moments when you’re doing rock n roll. On the first show in Zagreb Roko ran past the microphone when he entered the stage, and then couldn’t see where it was so was looking around for 10 seconds. He also found a broom behind he stage, during the guitar solo and played air guitar on it. Our live bassist Radek was a source of amusement, lots of little things like not wanting to turn on his phone, but then messaging from a different country asking me to book him a local taxi.
Do you prefer Vinyl, Tape, CD or Digital Format and why is that?
Vinyl feels amazing to hold in your hands as a physical product, so I will go for that. Whenever I find an album on vinyl that is very personal to me, I have to buy it. I understand the romantic nostalgia for tapes but the audio quality will never be as good on those… sorry to tape enthusiasts!.
Your music style is Heavy Metal. Which are your main influences (Favourite Artists / Bands etc.)
Roko and both share a few favourite bands like Judas Priest, Saxon, Glamtera, and bands that kept the traditional sound alive before NWOTHM, like Wolf and Grand Magus. Roko’s also massively influenced by Eric Adams of Manowar. I like all things that keep the romanticism of heavy metal alive, from AOR to speed metal. While I think Power Surge can be compared to bands like Queensryche, Warlock, Dokken, Armored Saint, it’s because we are pushing the classic influences forwards like them, not copying them.
Which things do you think a band should sacrifice in order to succeed? Have you ever sacrificed anything in your life for a better future for your band?
I think if you want music to be the main thing in your life you need to organise the rest of your job commitments around it. Don’t let music get in the way of important things, but also don’t let anything get in the way of music. I have sacrificed job promotions and going to earn lots of money in Saudi Arabia or Kazakhstan oil projects, because I would rather be in London, going to work with a guitar on my back because I have a rehearsal or soundcheck to run to after. The rat race sucks, but being on the underground at 7am with a flying V makes me feel like I haven’t been beaten.
Describe your ideal live show as a performance band. Have you already experienced that?
For me it would be 3 main things – a great sound on stage and front of house, great bands playing on the bill, and great audience. If you have those, you can have the perfect night even playing to 40 people. Some highlights I would list would be playing with Primitai at Bloodstock to 3,000 people, or playing with Enforcer to 200 people in Belgrade.
Recently you have released your new official music video "Shadows Warning". Tell us about this experience of making a video clip.
It was quite a DIY video, we did it in our drummer’s garage because we didn’t want the logistical nightmare of taking drums and soundsystem to a random location. We put all our small budget into having a good videographer and post production, because that is what makes it look professional, not the content. The only thing we did is trying to look good, and hanging camoflague netting everywhere to make the small garage look a bit mysterious.
What attributes do you think that a new Heavy Metal Band should have in order to gain identity and be unique?
I think if you want to do a certain style or subgenre, don’t copy the bands in that scene, but listen to the same music that influenced them. If you want to sound like Iron Maiden, listen to the Beatles, UFO, the Who, Led Zeppelin, don’t just play the E C D chords. Power Surge main influences are late 70s/early 80s, but we sound probably late 80s, we’re playing the musical next step.
Do you believe that Digital Platforms help the new Heavy Metal Bands? Which, do you think, is the ideal way for a band to promote its work?
I think digital platforms is what connected the NWOTHM scene, I discovered bands like Enforcer on myspace and White Wizzard on youtube in 2008. When people still bought records, there was money to build bands through the music industry, now digital platforms is the only way to do it. I think the best thing to do is still to go to shows and festivals, independent record shops, you will organically meet people who share your passion and some of them will one day be pulling strings. A lot of important moments in my career can be traced back to bonding over music with people in casual situations, not in an opportunistic way but just sharing the love of the music. That’s how I met the dude who put us on the Fifth Angel shows, I checked out his record shop 5 years ago and now we’ve remained mates.
Do you know anything about the Hellenic Metal Scene?
I know that Greece is a real strong hold for heavy metal. A lot of my favourite obscure bands have their biggest audiences out there, like Crimson Glory. You have the legendary Up The Hammers Fest. I’ve met a lot of Greek musicians on the London metal scene and they do your country very proud, from young talents like Tasos Lazaris and legends like Gus Macricostas.
The last 4 years, worldwide in the world, we have faced many dark, strange & new situations in our everyday life (covid, lock-down etc.) Did all of this affect you positively or negatively?
It affected me quite negatively, I was pretty depressed during lock down and burnt out trying to keep my job going. However, now things are almost back to normal, the work from home culture has given me the possibility to start working freelance and being a digital nomad, which has given me total freedom perform and travel where I need to. So now I’m pretty happy with the flexible working that didn’t exist in my industry before covid.
What are your future plans?
Our plan is to prepare a proper release as soon as possible to make us a candidate for gigs, festivals and tours. Also a full release means you can do a long promotional build up and gain traction, so that is our immediate focus. After that we will look at the medium term plans once we are done focusing on the music.
Thank you very much for your time & keep up the good work! The closure is yours.
Thanks for reaching out and your hard work promoting heavy metal. Please check out our socials on linktr.ee/powersurgeheavymetal, and feel free to comment and message us, we love interacting with new fans.
By Steve the Filthy Dog.
