DANIE: POWERS COURT is the name of a castle in County Wicklow in Ireland.

HK: How did the band form, and how long have you and Steve been playing together?

DANIE: I formed the original group back in 1988, the group was then called, "Equinox." It was the same concept, three piece, melodic metal, but it was myself and two different players.

Steve joined me in 1989, we've been playing together for close to eight years. We changed the name of the band from Equinox to POWERS COURT in around 1993 because there were too many other bands going by that same name Equinox.

HK: How would you describe your music?

DANIE: Mystical, medieval, melodic, passionate, powerful, aggressive, progressive. Each song has it's own personality.

HK: What are some of the bands influences?

DANIE: KING DIAMOND, SAVATAGE, IRON MAIDEN, LED ZEPPELIN, TESTAMENT, RUSH, BLACK SABBATH, SLAYER, OLDER METALLICA, not "Load of Shit", ELP, DISSECTION. Influences are deceiving as far as I'm concerned because a lot of people think "influences" means "sounds like" and while there will be flavorings of each of these and more, we don't sound like any one thing. I listen to a lot of classical and middle eastern, RAVI SHANKAR type music as well as bagpipes and flamenco guitar and medieval madrigal tunes, so we don't sound like a clone of anyone.

HK: Your words seem to be on the spiritual side, is this spiritualism a large part of your life?

DANIE:The bulk of the songs are concerning spiritual "conflicts," yes. A lot of it is dealing with occult subjects. Some of the songs are about past life flash back type experiences, those are the most profound. Those are the ones that came bursting into my mind and demanded to be written and they came out very quickly and they're very powerful and moving, "Echoes of Silence" and "Conquistador" which will appear on the next CD are two such songs. Most of the songs are visions put to music. There is a lot of me and experiences I've had in each of the songs if that's what you're asking, songs like "Master Plan." I hope that answers your question without delving too deeply into my psyche. I would also hope that the people who listen to it and follow along with the lyrics can figure all this out for themselves and relate to it all. Obviously you picked up on it realizing these are not fairy tales I'm writing about. I'm reaching out to like minded others with my songs, sharing my experiences, possibly experiences that they too have experienced. There are songs like, "Lord of Winds and Breezes" which is based loosely on the Greek god, Bellerophon, but it's sung from his perspective, I'm not "telling" his tale, I'm "living" his tale through the song. Rather than being the observer, I'm the speaker in the song, the same with "Tragedy of Faust." They speak thru me.

HK: I don't mean this as a sexist question at all but do you find any discrimination since you (guitarist and vocalist) are a woman in a metal band?

DANIE: Of course. But it's not as often as some people would have you believe, I've only personally met about a dozen out of hundreds of men that were neanderthal idiots. Most men are very supportive. Only weak men are threatened by strong women. Both sexes were put here to compliment each other. It's too bad some people have missed that point, they're destined to a very shallow one dimensional existense.

HK: Danie from what I can hear on the tape you are a really good guitar player, does that make guy guitar players from some of the bands you play with uncomfortable?

DANIE: Oh yeah, not so much guys in other bands, I ignore them unless they seem open to me. I don't have time for people who are so insecure, they need to play sports if they're that concerned with competition.

I personally tried for quite some time to actually find an additional guitar player so that SOMETIMES I could put the guitar down and sing and walk around and grab people by the hair and that sort of thing, I love to be closer to the audience, but with a guitar strapped on, it's a difficult thing. We auditioned several players and the other members of my band were like, "Danie, why bother...you're carrying them anyway." I have this strange effect on other guitarists, either they want to arm wrestle and play volume wars or they're like, "Oh Danie'll do all the rhythms, I'll just slop some mediocre lead down wherever."

When we did copies, they always left it up to me to learn the songs and then show them!

One guy with an attitude showed up and supposedly was a teacher and was sneering at me the whole time trying to intimidate me or something (pfft...sorry!), I'm not sure what his problem was, but the drummer was asking him to play some Metallica tunes and he was so far off, I just told him, "Look dude, you're not playing that right...it goes like this..." Made him feel three inches tall, which in reality is all he was anyway...I believe in TEAM, I don't believe in, "I'm the lord high god of guitar and all others shall bow before me" crap. Again, you want competition, take up some contact sport and leave the music to the real musicians whose concern is for the music itself and the audience. And if ya can't handle a real woman I guess that just means you ain't a real man!

Then there's the sound men who think that a penis is a requirement for playing guitar, I've played with guitarists that were pretty bad and they'd blast their volume and subdue mine, THEY were the guitarist, I'm just a Barbie doll with a chunk of wood hanging around my neck.

Some people can only see me as a singer because of my sex. There are still a lot of really ignorant people out there, but again, don't think this happens to me ALL the time because it doesn't, I'm surrounded by wonderful strong men, men I admire and they in return admire me, that's how it's supposed to work. Guys with this kind of mentality I really do feel sorry for because while they "think" they're so macho and superior are the same ones that let some little cutie be the "Master of their Puppet" and the chick leads them around by the nose, is THAT a strong man? I think not.

Let me reiterate that these guys are the exception to the rule and not the normal course of events. Ninety nine percent of the men I meet are simply wonderful. I love men. PERIOD.

HK: How is the scene in St. Louis? Do you play a lot?

DANIE: What scene? The only metal is "Death" metal and a lot of it is pretty poor. Then there is that national plague called "flavor of the week" where you zoom in on what's trendy and look, sound and act like the current most popular. "Phil" is the most imitated guy in the nation right now. I wish bands would realize that Pantera is very original and that is the point of all of this, not to clone yourselves after your heroes. But getting back to the STL scene question. There were a few places to play, now they're either closed down or they've decided to cater to the alternative crowd. The bands are not supportive of each other which I think is slow suicide, if we don't back each other up, who will? To me we're of the same culture and that culture is being threatened with extinction unless we pull together and show we are one. But the dedicated fans here are superb, you couldn't ask for better, they'll call us and keep contact, we hang out at shows together, they're very supportive. They spread the word to everyone they can and we really appreciate that and love them.

HK: What bands have you played with?

DANIE: The most "known" band I've played with was C.O.C. (Corrosion Of Conformity), Steve has opened for Riot, Black Oak, Accept.

HK: What releases do you have out? How many of them has Steve recorded and produced in your studio?

DANIE: The original three song demo recorded under the name "Equinox," which we no longer have available, but we'll dub for fans, and the current self-titled CD. Both were recorded by Steve and he and I produced them. He is THEE main producer, I'll have an idea or say yeah or nay, that sort of thing. But he's really good and I trust his judgement, he's very particular.

HK: Are you working on any future releases?

DANIE: We're working on the 2nd CD. Tentatively titled, "Nine Kinds Of Hell." It features the three songs that appeared on the original demo because the fans have requested that over and over and the rest are all new tunes.

HK: Are you on a label or do you have any distribution?

DANIE: No label, we're not sure we even want to be on a label. At least we're not pursuing it at present. We have distributors in Jersey, Switzerland, Austria and Italy at present.

HK: What are your bands future goals?
DANIE: Finish this disc, that's what we're focusing on at present. That seems far enough in the future to me to worry about. We'd like to do some touring, but obviously it has to be worth our while. In a lot of ways it's just more profitable to just record.

HK: Any words you want to say in closing?

DANIE: If you're into metal, don't let ANYONE try to dissuade you, don't let your trendy friends try to belittle you for it, be proud that you listen to something that has a strong heritage and tradition, the crap they're pumping out now for the sake of selling albums to the MTV crowd will be buried like the supposed "father" of that alternative genre that spawned it. Only if you stand up for what you believe in will metal reach it's full potential and rightful position in the hierarchy of music. Metal is a genre deserving of much more respect than it gets so let's DEMAND it!!!

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