Powerman 5000

It seems ironic that the music Powerman’s been making for a decade is suddenly all the rage, yet this wasn’t the group that brought hard rock hip-hop to the mainstream. The style has made bands like KORN, Limp Bizkit and Kid Rock radio superstars.

Spider told POLLSTAR it’s interesting how Powerman’s demos from around 1990 sound like something you’d hear on radio today. “Maybe we were a couple of steps ahead of the mainstream,” he said.

The Boston-born band didn’t remain underground all those years for lack of notice. Early in its career, Powerman had quite a few major labels sniffing around. But the members resisted the temptation for overnight success to make sure their career would be what they wanted – long lasting.

“We just wanted to get better and make sure that when we came out on a major label and had an opportunity to reach a lot of people, it was right and we were ready,” Spider said. “We waited and I’m certainly glad we did.”

Now, Powerman has taken that leap of faith with DreamWorks – a label which Spider says encompasses “all things creative” (an explanation that is fitting for the artist himself). The band was one of the first to sign with the young label, backed by power players David Geffen, Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg. Perhaps it took those creative minds to believe that Powerman’s brand of sci-fi-themed rock is “the supreme excitement of our time,” as the band’s action-packed album cover states.

The material that Spider writes is unusual in that it doesn’t derive from personal experience; it takes imagination and creativity to a new level. “I like to think of the music in a real visual sense and if I don’t see something in my head visually when I hear it, then I think we have to push it further.”

As one reviewer gushed, “[Spider’s] done for the sci-fi aisle at the video store what his brother Rob Zombie has done for the cutout-horror bin.”

Yes indeed, there is hardly a mention of Powerman 5000 without noting that its frontman is the younger brother of Mr. Zombie. Being accused of riding the coattails of your older brother can certainly get old – especially when you are as gifted and as driven as Spider.

“I think there are certain people who don’t understand the history of the band, who make completely uneducated assumptions about what this band is about, assuming that, ‘Uh, the only reason these guys got a deal is because of Rob Zombie,’ or something ridiculous like that,” he explained.

“There may be some similarities but we’re brothers; what can I do? We grew up in the same household. We enjoy the same things. We like the same kinds of music. I’m not going to force myself to start a jazz band just because I’m Rob’s brother. We have very similar voices but that’s genetic. I can’t do anything about that either.”

However, he said, “I think that more and more people are coming to realize what [the music] is and that it completely stands on its own and that it’s not Rob Zombie Jr. or anything like that.”

On the upside, it was nice to have someone close to the band who had experienced the music industry from an artist’s point of view. Zombie used to act as co-advisor to Powerman’s management. “Sometimes there’s no better perspective than the artist perspective. Bands are the only ones that know what it’s like to go on tour and play 250 shows a year.”

Now that Spider has his own perspective on the industry, he says he’s 150 percent involved with every aspect of the band, from songwriting, to writing the video treatments, to co-directing videos. “I do all the CD packaging myself and any ads or copy. T-shirt designs are all me.”

That’s quite an undertaking for someone who’s living on the road indefinitely.

“I don’t know if I’m just a control freak or what, but I feel like it’s important to be involved in every aspect and I think a lot of bands don’t do that and they suffer for it,” he said. “I can do that or I can go sit around and watch TV. I’d rather put my energy into getting this band to where it needs to be.”

And where does Powerman 5000 need to be? “I definitely want to push this band to be as big a band and as popular a band as we can get it,” Spider said.

He and his cohorts will strive to meet that goal through touring and more touring. They are currently opening for Kid Rock and plan to launch a solo tour early next year.