Features
Powerhouse Factories Launches Internet Band Series
It turns out Billy Joel was right all those years ago when he said there’s a new band in town, but you can’t get the sound from a story in a magazine.
You can, however, hear the music industry’s next big acts online, performing stripped-down acoustic versions of their songs from a renovated furniture store in Newport, thanks to an Internet series produced by a local graphic design company.
The new series, dubbed Powerhouse Live, is produced by Newport-based Powerhouse Factories. Founded 10 years ago by a trio of friends in Covington, the graphic design and branding firm made its name by producing rock concert posters for much of its existence before branching out to more straight-laced, mainstream corporate branding work in recent years.
Last year, remaining founders Ben Nunery and Pat Jones felt the pull of the music industry again, and Powerhouse’s concert series was born.
“Powerhouse Live is a way for us to get back to our roots in the music industry, but to change how we’re connected to the whole music culture. We wanted to be more involved, to be content providers,” said Nunery, “so we started last summer with a local band and have been working to get more bands to stop in when they’re in town. We’ve been getting bigger and bigger names, bands that are on the cusp of being really big.
“It’s snowballing and happening a lot faster than we anticipated,” said Nunery. “As word gets out, we’re seeing bands and their labels come to us, instead of us chasing them.”
With 10 videos online and a handful waiting to be released, the performances are akin to NPR’s “Tiny Desk” concerts – just a band, hanging out and playing their favorite songs. The Powerhouse Live roster so far includes national acts like Royal Teeth, the Louisiana band that was recently highlighted by Harry Connick Jr. on “American Idol,” and Los Angeles-based Soft Swells, named by Time as one of “Five Buzz-Worthy Bands to Check Out.”
Tim Williams, the Ohio native and singer-songwriter frontman for Soft Swells, recently recorded his Powerhouse Live session during some down time at the
“We knew (Powerhouse’s) poster work, of course. They’ve done posters for every major artist out there. A lot of people do posters, but not many do them well. They do. So, we got to meet with them at SXSW, and it turned out they are really great guys. We just went out to the pool and did it,” said Williams.
“It was really great fun. They’ve got a great energy. They’re not a small company, but they still have that drive, that energy. I’d love to do more with them in the future. It was great to just hang out with them,” he said.
Powerhouse began producing the series last summer but has picked up the tempo recently. A few new concerts are already filmed and waiting to be released, while more bands are scheduled in the coming weeks, said Jones.
“I think one thing that’s appealing for the bands is it’s very laid back. They come in, and we’ll get some pizzas and beer, and they can look over our posters. We’ll give them some T-shirts. It’s like jamming in your friend’s garage, rather than having to sit around in the tour bus,” said Jones, a guitar player in his college days. “It really does feel like sitting around and jamming with your friends.”
For Jones and Nunery, the attraction is a return to their rock roots. The pair formed Powerhouse 10 years ago with friend Mike Amann, who went on to found the BLDG art gallery in Covington before passing away last year. The three were fresh out of Western Kentucky University’s design program when they came to Covington and began producing concert posters. Before long, they were doing projects for the likes of Bruce Springsteen, The Black Keys and the Wu-Tang Clan.
“We started doing the rock posters right out of college. We didn’t necessarily see it as a long-term business opportunity or strategy. We just liked music, we liked to design. It just took off from there,” Nunery said.
In 2007, Amann left to focus on contemporary art with BLDG. Nunery and Jones carried on with Powerhouse and found themselves adding more lucrative corporate work to their resumes. The firm has done extensive work with Procter & Gamble and with brands like Tide detergent, Pampers and Marzetti foods. In 2012, they merged with the Empower Group and began working on even more Fortune 500 projects.
These days, Powerhouse has 32 employees spread between offices in Mount Adams and Newport.
The blend of its rock background and recent work has made Powerhouse a sought-after commodity.
“Our history with the rock posters gave us a kind of ‘art house chops.’ We’re the ‘crazy and creative guys you can’t control,’ but we also know the business side of things, so more brands have started coming to us,” said Jones.
The Live series will only bolster that image, he said.
“We always wanted to find a way to do more in the music scene. That’s where it began for us. It’s an elemental part of us, but we didn’t have the time or the resources to do more than the posters,” Jones said. “Now, we do.”
Ultimately, they hope to produce a few videos a month. At some point, they may even sell a limited number of tickets to see the performances at their Newport studio.