With the release of the band’s fourth album (and their first on Napalm Records) Master of Illusion imminent it’s an exciting time for Power Quest especially after we here at HardRockHouse gave it a whopping 9.25 out of 10! This release should cement the Anglo/Italian quintet at the forefront of both the European and British metal scene and if that isn’t enough, Quest main man and keyboard player Steve Williams has also joined up with ex-Manowar guitarist David Shankel in the latest incarnation of his solo group. Clearly then there is much to discuss with Mr. Williams himself and exactly 7pm on the dot the obviously conscientious ivory tickler is on the phone. 

SW: Hi Simon, how are you? 

HRH: I’m great, how are you? 

SW: Full of a cold but can’t complain because everybody else seems to have had it. 

HRH: Well I haven’t so don’t give it me down the phone line! 

SW: I think we’re safe on that count. 

HRH: Actually, your voice sounds familiar – is it your voice on the promo copies of the new album. 

SW: Yeah, we thought it would be better than some scary Austrian guy so I did it. 

HRH: Indeed, I reviewed the new Edenbridge CD and when the scary Austrian man came on I nearly shat myself! How did you get involved with Napalm Records? 

SW: It’s quite logical really in some ways. I asked around the scene – Karl Groom, the guys from Edenbridge and said “What do think?” and they all came back and said the same thing, “Why not these guys?” So I opened the lines of communication as it were and because the European tour with Angra raised our profile they were interested. They asked for six or seven demos so I offered them three, purely from an expense point of view and they loved them. We spent two or three months knocking out the fine points and left no stone unturned and we’re bloody pleased. 

HRH: Looking at their roster, you’re not like the rest of their artists are you? 

SW: No, I think they wanted to branch out into another area and thought we could fly the flag. They were quite keen on the cheesy power metal thing but we didn’t want to stick to the same formula. Sometimes I look on MySpace and see that some people want Wings of Forever II and I can see their point but as an artist I want to grow. 

HRH: I notice that it’s fairly difficult to find many bad Power Quest reviews ... 

SW: I could show you some horrendous ones! 

HRH: How do generally good reviews translate into sales? 

SW: You know, you can’t really over estimate them, they really are a factor. Previously we never got into mags like Metal Hammer, they’ve never been interested. I’ve been laughed out of town by them, they wouldn’t review the album but now we’re on the cover CD and you can’t buy that kind of coverage. We’ve also been talking with the Euro metal magazines which we never did with our other albums really. Napalm seem to be getting the job done. 

HRH: You mentioned the Angra tour earlier and I note that you’re phoning from Southampton which is near Winchester where my elder son is studying, so selfishly I have to ask; are you likely to play Southampton soon? 

SW: Or indeed anywhere in the UK may be a better question! We’re working on either July or September but at the moment I don’t want to say any more than that? 

HRH: Headlining or support? 

SW: I think that a major support slot is the way forward. 

HRH: Yeah, look what it did for Dragonforce. 

SW: Yeah, ideally we’d like to play small venues to keep the connection with the real hard core fans especially as we haven’t played the UK for a couple of years. With the new CD coming out we’d love to see it on the shelves when we tour which is something we didn’t get with Majestic. When we were with Angra, people were coming up to us, telling us they loved our stuff but that they couldn’t find it on the shelves. I really struggled not to blow my top! 

HRH: Well, I picked up a copy of Midnattsol’s new CD in Blackburn HMV today and that must be kudos to Napalm Records – getting obscure Finnish folk metal into provincial HMV’s is excellent. It bodes well for you doesn’t it? 

SW: It’s another big tick for Napalm.   

HRH: You were slated to play ProgPower were you not? 

SW: We were really looking forward to it especially as it would have been almost exactly two years to the day since we played the UK. We were quite disappointed although having some inside knowledge of the business side of things I think it was the right decision. It’s a business thing and although it was a noble attempt to run that sort of festival and there may well have been a late run on tickets, without major corporate sponsorship it wouldn’t have worked. You can’t go on losing money every year and I think these things need five or six years to become fixed events in the calendar. We would have had a stand-in bass player which would have been fun especially as he was planning to wear a Spiderman costume! 

HRH: So there’s nothing sinister in Steve Scott’s absence then? 

SW: No, his brother was getting married in New Zealand in January – it’s not the sort of place you can visit for a couple of weeks. We just told him to take as much time as he needs as there won’t be any shows before summer and if there are Jon Hoare would stand in. He’s a good player and a good guy. 

HRH: OK, you also have quite a guest list on Master of Illusion. Who’s on it and how did they end up there? 

SW: Well, there’s Bob Katsionis from Firewind on Save the World. I love his playing, he has great technique and the there’s Jorn Viggo Lofstad from Pagan’s Mind. What these two have in common are that they are bands that we have toured with. There’s also Richard West from Threshold and Bill Hudson who you may have heard of from Celador who plays on The Vigil – I’ve known him for a couple of years. 

HRH: You said earlier that you didn’t want to repeat yourself artistically and I said when I reviewed Master if Illusion that there are some grown-up lyrical concerns. Was that a conscious decision? 

SW: Yes. As I grow older and I’m nearly thirty-seven now, I find that I’m becoming more interested in current affairs and Civilised? was influenced by the eleven year old boy who was shot. It’s a serious subject and it inspired me. Another real life song was I Don’t Believe in Friends Forever which is about somebody who I had known and worked with for ages who went blah, blah, blah that I didn’t do any work at work, spent all my time working on the Power Quest website. He really stabbed me in the back and I had to get a new job. It’s a very angry song but with melody. 

HRH: I thought the opening was really heavy when I first heard it. It was most un-Quest like. 

SW: A number of people have pointed out that it sounds influenced by Threshold. I like the pulsating keyboards – it bloody hurts your playing it though! The title track is again influenced by current affairs. I wanted the album cover to reflect it but the record company didn’t want it to be too political and they’re probably correct. 

HRH: On a personal level, you’re the new keyboard player for the David Shankel Group. How’d that happen? 

SW: I was on my MySpace site and I got a message from Shred Demon or something which said something like, “Dude, I love the way you shred.” I went to look DSG and one of their albums didn’t have any keyboards on it so I was a bit wary to get involved but I soon found that we were on the same wavelength. For one song both myself and David both came up with the exact same melody separately! It’s also quite good not to be the one calling all the shots. 

HRH: Will you be playing live with DSG as I believe they’re playing this year’s Magic Circle Festival. 

SW: Actually it’s next year’s. 

HRH: Their website is confusing.  

SW: Yes – he seems to prefer using MySpace but I’ve recommended the guy who has updated the Power Quest site as he does a great job at a very reasonable cost. 

HRH: As some one who is a tad middle-aged, I often can’t be arsed with MySpace, I just want the facts. 

SW: I know what you mean and it is very time consuming as well especially when you’ve got more than one site. I like to answer everybody who messages me which means I’m on there most days. 

HRH: Nearly finished. I notice that last time you spoke to us, Steve Cummings asked who you listened to when you were younger. What about now? I ask because I once ask one of the Helloween guitarists and he said Muse which surprised me. 

SW: Well I don’t like Muse. I suppose my most recent purchases were the new Avantasia, the new In Flames is excellent. Soilwork – I seem to be getting back to the heavier sort of stuff. These days I find it difficult to listen to demons and wizards type lyrics. I don’t know if it’s because I’m growing up. I also like traditional fare such as Dream Theater, Threshold Vanden Plas but ultimately there’s nothing better than some good old Van Halen. 

HRH: How are the interviews going for Master of Illusion? 

SW: Great, I seem to be doing one a day. I did one for a Russian magazine the other day via e-mail. It took me about three hours but we’ve never been in a Russian magazine before. I really like talking about the music or anything else for that matter. 

HRH: Yeah, that definitely comes across. 

SW: One guy was telling me that he’d interviewed one of the Symphony X guys and practically all he said for every answer was, “Yeah man that’s pretty cool.” He thought it was a disaster but the Symphony X guy said it was one of the best interviews he’d ever done. 

HRH: I saw Symphony X in Blackburn last November supporting Dream Theater and as it was the last night of the tour they were doing disco classics between songs, It sounded great and was hilarious. 

SW: He could sing anything that man and make it sound brilliant. He’s got a voice on him that guy. I was going to see them with Dream Theater but I’d been in Poland with Clive Nolan and couldn’t make it back 

HRH: I found Dream Theater a tad self-indulgent if you can believe that. 

SW: I really like their early melodic stuff but sometimes I think they can be heavy for heavy’s sake which I’m not a big fan of. 

HRH: Well, time’s against us. As usual I have to ask if there’s anything you’d like to say to our readers. 

SW: I’d just like to thank everyone for the support in the past and hope to see you all on tour soon – cheers and beers! 

HRH: Thanks, Steve. 

SW: Thanks Simon. I hope we can meet in the flesh in the future and have a drink together. Good luck.

Power Quest's new album Master Of Illusion is out now via Napalm Records. You can check out the HRH review via this link and to find out more about the band then visit their official website @ www.power-quest.co.uk

Simon Bray