I recently had an opportunity to talk with Chris Sexxx from The Man Power. He’s a lovely fellow with quite a bit of insight about his band, life, girls, and other interesting things.
Andrew: How did you come up with the name The Man Power? Do you hate the ladies?
Chris: The Man Power is fueled by the ladies! Without the women you have no way to get power! So I guess we should call ourselves the woman power in some ways. The name comes from a JPop group called Morning Musume. They have about a million cute girls singing about whatever they sing about. Anyway, they had a song called The Man Power! I though it was an awesome title so that’s how we got it. Very few know where it’s sourced from without us telling them, but those that do are super otaku!
Andrew: You seem to play primarily at conventions, would you like to expand on this? Perhaps a national tour some day?
Chris: We play anime conventions, anime events, Japanese culture events, and anything related to the medium because those shows are so fun! We got on the Middle Tennessee Anime Convention a couple years ago because a close friend was running their music department. It was one of the best shows we had played, and it was the biggest at that point. So we looked into playing more conventions. Two dozen conventions later it is a prime source of income. We would love to do a big national tour if the time and climate was right.
Andrew: What band would you most like to open for?
Chris: I want to open for everyone! My number one choice would be KISS, but I might vomit on stage if we did. KISS is the source of everything so it would be full circle! I also would love to open for Girls Generation or the Wu-Tang Clan! Some acts I feel we would work well opening for would be Cheap Trick, Weezer, Alkaline Trio, Danko Jones, The Dirtbombs, or The Ramones if they were still around. We’ve already played with Peelander-Z a couple times so we can mark that off the list!
Andrew: What brand of instruments do you prefer to play with the most?
Chris: Gibson are the best for guitars, and Vox are the best for amps. That’s what a majority of the record was recorded with. On stage, I use Schecter Ultra 3 guitar, and a half stack Line 6 amp. We also use lots of balloons and dancers on stage! The balloons are cheap, but the dancers are Man Power Girl brand!
Andrew: What inspirations do you musically draw from?
Chris: We listen to a lot. Personally I draw from KISS, Ramones, Cheap Trick, Alice Cooper, Shiina Ringo, Butch Walker, Prince, and Tom Petty the most, probably. We are also inspired by our friends’ bands like The Slants, Peelander-Z, The Aeronauts, and everyone we have ever played with. They all help us get better!
Andrew: What was the best performance you’ve ever had?
Chris: EXPCon 2009 in St.Augustine, FL still stands up as a great show! MTAC 2011 in Nashville, TN was great, as was the court yard, acoustic show at MTAC 2009. Our first time at the legendary Exit/In in 2010 was also awesome! We have too many good ones to choose from!
Andrew: I know your band seems to have a few affiliate bands like Blue Grade, could you tell me about that?
Chris: Blue Grade is my acoustic geek pop side thing. We haven’t done much, and the future is uncertain. It is fun though. Kurai Kuma is Cody’s electronic thing with his girlfriend that has yet to really start. The Man Power Girls are an affiliate group that don’t play music, but people love them more than us usually!
Andrew: Why are you so goofy? When I want to go to a face-melting rock show, I don’t expect to put on a mask of Michael Jackson.
Chris: Why are you so serious? Rock ‘n’ roll is escapism! Grunge was boring, and rap rock was too angry. Let’s have a party on stage! If it takes me writing a song about Jackie Chan, dressing up audience members as Michael Jackson, bringing a man in a large demon suit on stage, throwing out 100s of balloons, or running outside without ever missing a note I will do it to have fun. The audience will only have as much fun as the musician. You can have Radiohead. I’ll take GWAR any day!
Andrew: How would you define, “having a good time?”
Chris: Come to a Man Power show, and I’ll show you!
Andrew: If for some reason, you had to drop everything and switch to a totally different genre of music, what would it be?
Chris: Hip hop, if I could be taken seriously. In the real world, I would probably like to join the next Katy Perry’s back up band. I would make so much money!
Andrew: Has living in Nashville helped your music at all? All that country music probably doesn’t get along with rock ‘n’ roll.
Chris: Other kinds of music make you strong! On the other hand, Nashville has never been our best city to play. We have friends here, but we have better crowds in other places like Ohio or Florida or Atlanta. Besides, with people like Taylor Swift, country music isn’t very country anymore. It’s just pop with a twang. I’m okay with that.
You can find The Man Power on Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace.