Following on from the release of their debut single, ‘Bag In Hand‘, earlier this month, Power Down took the time to speak to Essentially Pop, and to give us some idea about just what makes them tick.
Power Down has such great chemistry. How did you two first click creatively?
We both started our earlier years in music being live instrumentalists, which led to a natural path of working with multiple bands, running studios, and producing for acts– but each in our own realms. When we met and worked on our first mutual project together several years ago, there was just a ton of synergy and mutual understanding of the full creative and development process that it left a lasting impression on us both. Ultimately, fate brought us back together and through some conversations about some shifts in our personal lives, we became deeply inspired to dig deep and begin something totally different from the ground up. Hence, the birth of Power Down!
You come from different musical worlds – how do those differences make your music stronger?
We’ve talked about this answer at length, and at the end of the day, we have actually found that we both have similar tastes in the styles and eras of music that have influenced us. There are, of course, natural strengths that we each bring to the table, with one of us having a heavy background in rhythm and drumming, and the other in classical and jazz trumpet. I think the differences that make our music stronger speak for themselves in the range of instrumentation alone.
‘Bag In Hand’ feels emotional and cinematic. What inspired the story behind it?
I guess the easiest way to say what inspired the story behind ‘Bag in Hand’, is by saying there was a real story behind it. In fact, both of us were going through similar but different circumstances in our own ways, which brought a huge sense of understanding and relatability for what we were each dealing with. It didn’t take very long at all for us to start putting pen to paper, which created the title concept first, and from there, we kept exploring and set out on a mission to create a strong universal concept in which we believe everyone could relate to. As far as the tone of the music, it was definitely part of our vision board early on to make sure that each of our songs achieved some element of drama, heaviness, and emotional tug of war, where we push and pull the energy in sometimes unexpected ways. Creating an epic journey for the listener was quite literally the assignment.
There’s a sense of heartbreak and motion in the song. Was that drawn from real experience?
The short answer is absolutely. Some of that emotion was happening in real time, which created the entire emotional context for every line and creative choice we made for the song. We both saw eye to eye on the despondence and turbulence we had gone through, and it was simply fuel for the material.
Dan brings that rock edge, Zeus adds the modern touch – how do you blend your sounds so naturally?
While the music certainly does come together to present a combination of styles and instrumentation, we have both put much more emphasis on our songwriting itself being the figurehead of each song. Our priority is always about telling the truth, but making it catchy. We have had the privilege of creating most of this music entirely in the box (with a few exceptions), which has allowed us to have an unlimited amount of freedom in the choices we make. In the beginning stages of our collaboration years ago, we may have only known limited things about each other’s abilities and proficiencies, but as time has gone on we have found we are both just highly creative souls working to make some studio magic until we get something we both love.
The anime-inspired video is stunning. Why did you choose that style to tell the story?
Thank you! We have always been a fans of animated videos, no matter the decade it came out. The Beatles’ ‘Yellow Submarine’, Pink Floyd’s ‘The Wall’, Aha’s ‘Take On Me’, and especially anything by Gorillaz are all paramount in musical and visual influence to many generations of fans. Some people become fans of these bands simply because they saw that one video that one time. Anime has always been such a highly emotional and expressive genre of animation that, by and large, does a great job of capturing both young and older audiences with its emotional visual range, and I would say it is at an all-time high of fandom than it ever was in the past. In fact, one of the highest-grossing films this year was an anime film! So it felt natural to tap into that lane to showcase our first song visual, as many will find it familiar and engaging.
Zeus, you directed it yourself – what was the most exciting or challenging part of making it?
The most exciting part is how much technology has shifted to allow a video like this to come together much easier than it would have in the past. The freedom to explore multiple scenarios and to see them in full before committing to the edit is a tremendous time saver while also keeping the inspiration flowing. I would say the most challenging part of this was to visually represent something that was very close to a real-life event, while finding a unique fantasy element to incorporate. It would have been too simple to simply show a couple going through the usual motions, so it became key to create the bubble as a device to metaphorically represent a deeper emotion when it comes to being disregarded and forced into an increasingly isolated existence.
Your music feels made for movies. Do visuals or film ideas often influence how you write?
That’s an amazing compliment! We are both large fans of cinema as a whole, so going to movies is routine, and of course, we are always paying attention to the music that moves the scenes along. It would be accurate to say that we often mention how we could see “this part of the song” in “that type of movie”, so yes, I guess it does influence the writing a bit!
As your debut single, how does ‘Bag In Hand’ set the tone for what’s next from Power Down?
‘Bag In Hand’ certainly checks a lot of boxes that became sort of our gold standard of what we aimed to achieve with our subsequent material. With each song we craft (and we have several!), we’ve been aiming primarily for lyric continuity within the subject matter itself while making sure there is a particular vocal styling that is persistent within a specific headspace. We are building a world around it for sure, and so you can certainly expect more of this dramatic, bittersweet, and slightly avant-garde material to come!
Anything you’d like to say to fans discovering you for the first time?
We hope you enjoy not only this, but all of the upcoming releases along with all of the messages within! Even though this first release of ours carries a heavy tone, it’s the reality of life that nothing comes without its obstacles and challenges. If you can overcome them, you can find strength and beauty in everything, and that is exactly what we want to portray in the music. Please follow along the journey, as we are just beginning!
Watch the moving music video for ‘Bag In Hand’ below, and find out more about Power Down and their music online on their official website, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.
