• With the first hearing of their name, I thought one more band who plays typical power, as their name reveals. But I was fooled, cause talking with their singer Danie, I learned that not only their music is not usual but their band name as well. Truly, I got very interested and I want to learn more about them. I advice you to do the same as well, if you claim you are power metallers.

BTV: FIRST OF ALL GIVE US A SORT BIOGRAPHY OF THE BAND AND THE CURRENT LINE - UP.

• DANIE: We formed in 1990 under the name EQUINOX and released our first demo in 1993. Our first full length CD came out in 1996 and now in 2001 comes the release NINE KINDS OF HELL on Dragonheart Records. The current line up is Steve Murray, bassist, Mike Evans on drums and myself on vocals, guitars, mandolins and keyboards.

• DANIE: Right before we were getting ready to release the first full length CD we began noticing there were several bands out there, local and otherwise, that were going by the name EQUINOX, which was our original name.In order to avoid confusion, Steve (Steve Murray- bassist/producer) came up with the idea to call the band POWERS COURT. We all agreed and figured we wouldn't hear of any other bands with that exact name.
• What would I like to say with the name? Well...the name of the band comes from Powerscourt Estate and Gardens, to tell you a little more about it. It's located in County Wicklow in Ireland. My ancestors on my father's side are from Ireland, County Waterford,where all the famous crystal comes from. My grandfather was directly from Ireland, so I'm second generation 'American'-Irish on my father's side.Steve (bassist) is also of Irish descent. Part of his ancestors are from County Cork which is right next to County Waterford, wild coincidence no? We also met for the first time on a St. Patrick's Day, we thought maybe our ancestors had brought us together. Anyway, regarding the castle, from my understanding it was originally an important strategic site for the Anglo-Normans who came to Ireland in the late 12th century. By the year 1300 a castle had been built there and was in the possession of the le Poer (Powers) family from which it takes its name. Originally my ancestors were from France and they migrated to Ireland, they were 'Norman' thus the 'Le Poer', which they later adapted to the English pronunciation, 'Powers'. We didn't name it POWERS COURT for any of the usual trendy power metal reasons. It seems like a hell of a lot of bands now have the word POWER in it if they're power metal for some corny, redundant reason. Steve just thought it was kinda cool and had some valid historical significance and it coincided with my last name. We had seen pictures of the castle and gardens in a huge book that his father just happened to have...it was just this weird mystical thing and we decided to go with it.

• DANIE: We term it 'Dark Power Metal', because it incorporates the melodic vocals and bludgeoning guitar and powerful bass and drum elements of classic power metal, but the lyrical content is different from most typical power metal bands. Ours incorporates more dark and brooding elements, more doomy atmospheres. We play more in the minor keys and the lyrics are horror and occult themed.

• DANIE: A couple of months.

• DANIE: Steve Murray, our bassist was the producer. We recorded it at THEE DUNGEONN STUDIOS.

• DANIE: Yes, very.

• DANIE: No.

• DANIE: TRAGEDY OF FAUST is the classic tale of the magician who sells his soul to the devil for power. This was based on the work of 'Goethe' and there is a play by Christopher Marlowe from I believe it was the 15th century that I read. This is just such a classic story and I would think all metal fans can relate to it and get into it.
• ECHOES OF SILENCE is an original story of mine. A Viking from somewhere around 795-800 A.D. or so, is washing his face in a stream after a  battle, there is a vision of a woman that appears in the water and he's transfixed. The woman is from the American Victorian era approximately mid 1800s or so. She's sitting at a vanity table lazily brushing her hair and suddenly she sees him as well. Through some strange time warp they are suddenly seeing each other at the exact same point in time. They become enamored with each other, but they cannot reach each other. It's as if they're both shared some life together before. They feel they truly know each other, etc. They both feel as if they must be going mad, their longing to be with each other is so powerful.
• DEVIL'S TRIANGLE is about a ship that goes down in that region, the lyrics and vocals are from the viewpoint of the ship's captain.
• AGNOSTICA is about an Agnostic that of course claims she doesn't believe in God, but she's constantly making reference to Satan which makes no sense, hence the line,"You can't have one without the other!"
• DARKENED PARADISE is yet another original story of a woman who is very distraught and angst ridden. A spirit comes to her telling her he will free her of all her anxiety,  "Come join my shadows, disappear." Basically he's telling her he knows her sorrows, he understands. All she has to do is join him and he comes in the guise of light, but in truth he's trying to convince her to kill herself and that is how she will join his shadows...in death.
• TANZANIA is about an archeological dig in that region that goes awry. They dig up an ancient statue of a Pazuzu like deity that then possesses their minds and tortures their spirits telling them, "Now you're one with me." He's a gatherer of souls basically.
• EMPTINESS is a song about feeling extremely down.
• CONQUISTADOR is another story of mine about a couple during a war in Spain. They are engaged, he's a farmer, his crops are failing. The war breaks out and he feels that he must go to defend his country and also to have some sort of financial support for his bride to be, etc., She begs him not to go,  but he has his honor and his reasons. He feels he's doing the best thing for them as a couple.One of the scenes is her looking out of her upper loft window at the men marching through the streets in their uniforms, the crowd is cheering and throwing flowers on them. She is filled with dread as any woman in love would be at the prospect of her lover going off to war. One night not long after his departure, she's suddenly awakened by a dream that her fiancé has fallen in battle and is dying. So the song is about the immense cruelty of their being separated by the circumstances of war.
• HOUSE OF SORROW is about a woman during the American civil war era who sits in her parlor trying to make contact with spirits through the ouija board. She thinks she is enlisting the help of benevolent spirits, but in reality they're misinforming her and causing her a lot of mental anguish.
• What subjects do I like to touch on? Probably number one would be occult subjects, tarot cards, ouija board experiences, magick, things of that nature, but also emotional subjects. I like to do original stories of mine, but I also like to get away from the stories sometimes and just write about sheer feelings. EMPTINESS is one of those type of songs, DYING EMBERS from the 1st CD is also one of those type of songs.

• ICED EARTH, KING DIAMOND, MERCYFUL FATE, SOILWORK, IN FLAMES, DIMMU BORGIR I really got into 'Enthrone Darkness Triumphant', but the releases after that time I kind of lost interest. I was really into the keyboardist on that one, Stian? He really added a lot to it. TYPE O NEGATIVE, MANILLA ROAD, DEMONS & WIZARDS I thought was excellent, STORM, 'Nordavind', NEVERMORE. OPETH, I bought several of their releases, they're very original, DISSECTION, SLAYER, DEATH, TESTAMENT. BLACK SABBATH, JUDAS PRIEST, IRON MAIDEN, OZZY with Randy Rhoads, were some of our earliest influences. I also was into LED ZEPPELIN, ELP, STYX bands like that. I mean influences are just that, 'influences'. That doesn't mean we 'sound like' any one of those bands, we have our own unique sound. I think if someone is looking for us to be a clone of any of the above mentioned bands they'll be disappointed. We aim to be original and it gets us a lot of flack from all the conservative, conformists out there but hey, somebody has to break some new ground out there. We're drowning in a vast sea of sameness in the power metal genre right now. It's boring as hell in my opinion. If you can't do something different, why fucking bother you know?

• DANIE: Thanks! Wow you know you're the first person to ask that. I guess I just assumed it was so obvious what the painting on the front was about but I guess if you're not inside our heads then you wouldn't know...good question. The cover painting depicts the song, THE TRAGEDY OF FAUST from the album. It portrays the magician Faust summoning up the 'Mephistopheles' character that's mentioned in the song. He's surrounded by writhing  souls in hell, he's protected somewhat by the magick circle he stands in. On the front of his robe there are two strange symbols, these symbols are from angelic script. I'd be interested to see if anyone knew what the symbols stand for. It's just one of those simple 'hidden meaning' kind of things. The painting on the back is of a Celtic knot. This particular Celtic knot is the Celtic symbol for 'fire'. On our first self titled CD there is a picture of a Celtic knot on the actual CD, it is the Celtic symbol for 'earth'. Giovanna Corsini, the label artist did those. We were extremely pleased with how she portrayed the concepts we described to her. She's very talented.

• DANIE: Yes, many. Yes of course we like performing live, that's really what it's all about...the exchange of energy between the audience and the band. Which show did I enjoy the most? We did one on a St. Patrick's day, there's that magickal day again *laughs*, here in St. Louis that wound up with us being drug off the stage by the police because one of the members of one of the opening bands claimed I assaulted him...long story involved there *laughs*. It wound up being a really kick ass show actually.

• DANIE: To be understood, accepted and appreciated and for who I am and what I can do musically would be a dream come true for me. Also for the entire band to make a comfortable living at it would be great.

• DANIE: BUY OR DIE! *laughs*

• DANIE: Now that's a really tough one because all of the songs are so varied. I don't think any one is representative of what we do. Especially on NINE KINDS OF HELL because it's a concept album, it's nine different hellish experiences brought together on one album. Each song follows its own individual theme for each particular song, not only lyrically, but the way the song is structured and performed. So picking one as representative would be difficult.

• DANIE: Well this is going to sound really strange I'm sure, but I really enjoy reading psychology books more than anything. I can get really into those. There's a really interesting one I read recently about Metal, HEAVY METAL, The Music and It's Culture, by Deena Weinstein. It's kind of hilariously accurate in spots and has this vibe that we're all like some bizarre tribe of sorts. It would be especially interesting to someone who isn't metal trying to sort it all out I suppose. Also on a fiction level I really dug the Dragonlance series a lot. The ELVEN TRILOGY of the Dragonlance Saga was really, really good. Marion Zimmer Bradley is an intriguing author, I really liked TWO TO CONQUER by her. I read that one several times. I really could relate to the main character in some respects for some reason.  Anne Rice's INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE was a brilliant work. I was really into Ray Bradbury's Sci-Fi books. I read a lot of metaphysical books, that's mostly what I'm into at present. I'll get on weird kicks and research different topics at times too, so I might load up on books about one particular subject. I'm really far more of a movie buff than a 'reader'. I like getting lost in movies, it's a relaxing escape for me.

• DANIE: Every hero has to go through a series of trials and tribulations from minor to extreme. They're usually very isolated and lonely in whatever their quest is. Though they're more often seen as a legendary figure endowed with great strength or some fantastic ability or an illustrious warrior or something. I mean given that description above I think we're half way there already, the first two sentences of the above paragraph for sure! *laughs* I see heroes as mentally strong and triumphing over their hardships. Trying to champion true heavy metal against all the odds we've faced might classify us as such in some people's definitions already. *laughs*

• DANIE: Yeah that would be great! I get a lot of inspiration 'from' movie soundtracks, I have a small collection actually. What movie? Well if I had my absolute druthers it would be great to be something I had written the screenplay for! Some sort of vampire movie would be most excellent or a full length flick about one of our songs, 'Echoes of Silence', 'Conquistador' or 'Darkened Paradise' would be killer.

• DANIE: Many hails metalheads! We really hope to have the pleasure of meeting you all some day very soon! Meanwhile come visit us on our web site! http://www.powers-court.com . Stay heavy and keep your rock hard! Thanks Christine for your interest and support, we really appreciate ya!