Brace yourself for the coming destruction.
POWERNERD, an electronic musician from Austria, will release his newest album of original synthwave music on December 18, 2020. Titled, “Destroy To Create”, it is comprised of seven polished electronic compositions. As the title implies, there is a dark, seductive, vibe to the music.
The notion of ‘destroy to create’ is an interesting concept that has been pondered by mankind for eons. In essence, it suggests that if something new and (presumably) better is to take the place of something old (and toxic or broken), that the best way to achieve this is to demolish the established person, place or thing. Colloquially, “you have to break some eggs to make an omelet.”
Inherent in this quasi-anarchistic conviction, is that whatever is to replace the annihilated will be far superior in all ways to the vanquished. But where one cowboy may need to break an egg or two for a tasty breakfast, another will caution, “If it ain’t broke. Don’t fix it.” Which of these two credos (or mixture of them) an individual identifies with can drastically shape their own outlook on life, art, and relationships.
While no reflection on the actual music from the album, the concept of “Destroy to Create” seems appropriate for a year (2020) that has seen its fair share of trials. Yet, there is an understated sense that Powernerd leaves the listener short of the intrinsic promise of destruction followed by creation. Destroy to Create, while a notable entry into the synthwave family, is still firmly grounded in a style that could benefit from more deviations from the norm. Taking a few more musical risks and bending the listener’s ear slightly more would have elevated Destroy to Create to excellence above its peers.
If one would destroy, what would that exactly look like?
A romantic Hollywood interpretation of the Apocalypse? Five days without potable water, hot showers, and clean clothes may be acceptable when one is traveling by foot through rugged outdoor terrain. However, as the shelves cleared of consumer goods during the COVID-19 panic, we learned that reality is not as glamorous.
We caught up with Powernerd to drill much deeper into these subjects, pin point some specific tracks on his new album, and much more.
Powernerd Interview – 12/6/2020
Slickster – What does the phrase “destroy to create” mean to you?
Powernerd – Sometimes you have to destroy things to keep on going. Talking from a creative perspective: with Powernerd I felt kind of stuck after “Far from Human“. We were a full blown band with lots of stuff going on. Our focus was on playing live and delivering the best shows possible. We had a very good time and we met many dope people. but all the strings attached stressed me out more and more. I was responsible for the music, and also for all the technical aspects of the show, it was quite complex. This and the fact that we played the gigs in our costumes where you couldn’t breathe and see anything made playing live not enjoyable….
So, when Covid started I had time to rethink my values, and I decided to end the band and start fresh. That was the time I came up with the title as I also had the impression that I “destroyed“ the band, to be able to “create“ new music. It was a tough decision, but it was totally worth it.
Slickster – I think that’s why so many people used to enjoy the Terminator film franchise; Because they could watch the world get destroyed, but eventually it was rebuilt in a better way. However, 2020 has shown us that the destruction of society may look more like people fist fighting for toilet paper, while the uber-wealthy get even richer. Does this hypothetical, very realistic, destruction scare you?
Powernerd – To be honest, secretly I wish that this whole fucking capitalist system would break apart and humanity could have a fresh start. It was such a beautiful thing to see a sky without planes and everything slowed down.
But the fact that the super rich, like Jeff Bezos (Amazon), took advantage of the crisis to even get richer makes me both angry and sad. I mean, what has to happen that we finally stop exploiting this planet and rethink our values? Right now we live in crazy times and I fear we have not reached its peak.
Slickster – According to the First Law of Thermodynamics, energy can neither be created or destroyed. Does this contradict the “destroy to create” philosophy?
Powernerd – No, not at all….you can also understand it in a “LEGO“ way: As a child I loved playing with LEGOs. And one dope thing was that you could build two completely different things with one kit (Of course you can build way more than two things out of one kit, but on its instructions were always two things.) So, if you built one, you destroyed it and then built the other one. Destroy to Create hehe….
Destroying in fact just means to break something down and put it together new. No loss of energy here 🙂
Slickster – Your new album has seven tracks, including some collaborations with Dana Jean Phoenix and Baldocaster. Do you have a favorite track among the “magnificent seven”?
Powernerd – No, not really 🙂
Slickster – A triad in music is a cluster of three or more notes, commonly forming a chord. On your album you have a track titled, “Dark Triads”. Was this a play on words, or a musical joke in the title?
Powernerd – Thanks for the question!! Yeah, you can understand it as “dark chord“, but it also has a meaning. I will quote Wikipedia here: “In psychology the dark triad comprises the personality traits of narcissism, Macchiavellianism and psychopathy. They are called “dark“ because of their malevolent qualities.“
Slickster – Apeirophobia is the irrational fear of infinity or eternity. Why did you name track #4 on your album this? Are you afraid of eternity?
Powernerd – Yes! In fact, I have this fear since I am a child. I am not afraid of death, but of the eternity that waits behind it. I am pretty sure that there is nothing after death and my consciousness will be gone, but the fear keeps somehow present.
Slickster – Track #5, “Pushing Binaries”, seems to really stretch tonality to nearly the point of breaking. It is an excellent example of new-ish atonalism that is surfacing in modern electronic music. How did you conceive this track and ultimately compose it?
Powernerd – I tried to focus on one sound (the bassline) and resample and modulate it. So, instead of using more sounds, I manipulated the bass sound in many different ways!
Slickster – What direction do believe synthwave will be going in the next five years?
Powernerd – I guess it will split up in more and more subgenres. There will always be the classic synthwave/outrun stuff, but there is also cyberpunk, darksynth, the more midtempo stuff, shredwave, new wave-ish stuff….pop synthwave and many more styles.
Slickster – Which musicians are you currently listening to, and/or being inspired by?
Powernerd – I listen to a lot of electronic music, mainly heavy stuff. I really like the new Kloud album, F.o.o.l is dope, Power Glove are my heroes.
Slickster – Thanks for chatting with us about your new album, “Destroy to Create”. We wish you all the best of luck in your musical endeavors! Is there is anything else you would like to say or add to the interview that we didn’t mention or get to bring up?
Powernerd – Hey, thank you!! I really enjoyed the questions!