Interview Barish Kepic - POWERWORLD + Solo-project

[Interview] Well, the official interview of Barish Kepic by myself has been done this month. It's time to ask some questions to mister Kepic about him and POWERWORLD. As a fan, it's a great moment for me !
After many years, you and Ilker Ersin have decided to work (again) together in POWERWORLD. Last time, it was with ACEZ. Could you explain me why you've been agree with this new project ?

Barish : Well, back in 2004-2005 Ilker has been looking for a guitar player for POWERWORLD and asked me to join the band. But at that time i was in JADED HEART and had no time at all for another band or project. As you know, i left JADED HEART in early 2006 and started working on some instrumental tunes. Ilker was still looking for a guitarist and asked me again...actually, his kind of songwriting wasn't really the style i like, but i thought, it might be good to try out something different and finally i joined the band.
The second reason for my decision was, Ilker and I are long time friends and I just wanted to help him out 'til he finds the right guitar player ...but since then, things have changed a lot for second album.

Before first POWERWORLD release, there are some rumors about Chitral Somalpa joining the band as singer : is it true ? And why your final choice has been Steffen Brunner ?

Barish : Yes, that's true ! Chity -who is a very good friend of mine- was in the band for a while. To be honest, I don't know the reason why he left and Steffen came in ...at that time POWERWORLD was completely Ilkers baby, and he made all the decisions regarding the band on his own. So, you better ask him...


Melodic Metal with some progressive touches at first. For this new one coming soon, what kind of music ?

Barish : As I've mentioned before, a lot of things have changed for this second POWERWORLD release, which is entiteld Tame Your Demons. Ilker and I had some discussions before we started working on the new record. I've told him, that it doesn't make sense to me to stay in the band, if we would do it the same way and style how we did the first album. He agreed in that point, and we've decided to put the focus more on writing good songs with tight arrangements, and cut the prog - touch out. I think, this album is more melodic than the first one, but at the same time there are some really heavy tunes on it, too. We are very lucky with the result !

I've noticed many difficulties in 2010 : two membres has left the band. Could you explain it, please ? What do you hope with this new line-up ?

Barish : I think Steffen wasn't really happy with this kind of music at all. He's still very young and has to find his own way and style. Drummer Jürgen "Lucky" Lukas left because of the famous "musical differences" and we wish both of them all the best for the future!
Anyway, fortunately we could replace both of them with two great guys. We've Andrew "Mac" McDermott (ex-THRESHOLD, ex-SARGEANT FURY) on vocals now, and Achim Keller (VICTORY) on drums.
Macs voice fits perfect to the new songs ! And Achim I know now for almost ten years. I've played with him in a band called FATE OF NATIONS. He's a great drummer and was our first choice.
We hope to play as much live shows as we can, to promote this album. Which is not so easy to realize nowadays ...but we're working on it !

Many years ago, you worked with JADED HEART : a fantastic experience ? Was it hard without Michael Bormann at the end ?

Barish : Yeah, I've had a great time in this band. But after almost eight years I was just kind of bored, and things were going not so well after Michael and the rest of us decided to go separate ways. The thing what bothered me most was, that I had to do most of the work on my own, as I had no real songwriting partner on my side anymore. Johan is a nice guy but as a musician there are worlds between him and Michael.
Well, that's the past ...I always look forward to new challenges and I'm happy like it is now ! My aim is always to learn and raise my abilities as a musician, and also as a human being, as much as I can.

And about your solo career : could we hope an other great solo album as Sensitive Crush ?

Barish : Yes, of course! I'm already collecting song - ideas, but at the moment my focus is more on CRUEL DAZE which is the band I have with Robby Walsh (vocals, Ian Paice Band ). About half of the songs for the debut Album are already written. I hope, we can start recording in september-october. After that I'll go on with the work for my 2nd Solo record...I'm really looking forward for that! I've had so much positive response to Sensitive Crush that I just couldn't believe it! That's motivation enough to do a second one...

In general, what do you think about music industry ? Is there a real crisis ?

Barish : Well, it looks like there is a crisis...if you look how things in music business have changed in the past few years, you can't deny it ! Album sales are going down, labels going bankrupt ...there is definitely a reason why this all happens. People don't spend so much money for music anymore ...I think especially the younger generation is much more into downloading music than buying Cd's.

To conclude, have you something to say to your fans, to Hard Rock and Metal fans ?

Barish : Hard Rock and Metal fans are the most loyal fans in the world ! They don't care about new trends and stuff like that, and that's really great !
Rock Music in general, is a very honest kind of music ...it has heart and soul and is "handmade", and luckily there are still people out there, who appreciate this. Without the fans it wouldn't make much sense recording music and playing live shows. That's the main thing about it what keeps us going !
To carry on with playingmusic.

--------------------
Interview released in April 2010 for (Hard)LoudNDeep blogzine by Axldobby
Barish Kepic link : Myspace | Website