Power Surge.

Power Trip Signs To Southern Lord.

At some point today, Dallas hardcore outfit Power Trip will be headed down Austin way to partake in the 2012 Chaos in Tejas event.

It should prove a good time for the area five-piece — but not just because they've once again been booked to play the event. No, the fellas will be celebrating some other just-announced news.

Minutes ago, the band revealed that they've signed to Southern Lord Records — the label home to such blaring acts as Boris, Earth, Pelican, Wolves in the Throne Room, Sunn O))) and, as of late February, Power Trip's local brethren in hardcore, the Fort Worth-based Wild//Tribe.

With the announcement now official after weeks of negotiation, we caught up with Power Trip's loquacious frontman, Riley Gale, to talk about the signing, what it means for his band's future and what it might mean for the area hardcore scene as a whole.

First off, congratulations! What appealed to you all most about Southern Lord?
Southern Lord was a pretty big epiphany for us. Since we like to think of ourselves as a “crossover” band, we knew we wanted to work with a label that would help us bridge the gap from hardcore/punk to a wider metal audience. But we had no idea who would have the experience to handle disorganized do-it-yourself knucklehead kids that want to riff out and who could actually help us get to that next level.

So when Greg Anderson [head of Southern Lord and guitarist for Goatsnake] hit us up, it made so much sense that we couldn't believe we didn't send him a demo sooner. Greg has played in bands for 20-plus years and has had his hands in putting out records in every “extreme” music genre imaginable, so he completely understands where we are coming from as a band.

I can't think of a better label for us.

What does this signing mean for you guys, immediately and in the long-term?
Basically, we'll be with Southern Lord for a while. And they've made sure to give us plenty of reason to stick around.

First thing's first, we want to get the LP recorded. Then we will be touring heavily from August through November, doing a couple U.S. tours, hitting Canada and throwing a European trip in the mix too.

How do you feel about being on the same label as your North Texas brethren, Wild//Tribe? Do you know those guys much?
I couldn't be any more excited for Wild//Tribe. While Power Trip and Wild//Tribe all know each other, played shows together and are brothers in the scene, we aren't out drinking every night and getting into trouble together.

I didn't know about their deal until it was announced. But I was ecstatic about it, knowing that Greg was planning on signing us, too.

It's great that Southern Lord is acknowledging that there is something in the water out here in North Texas. Definitely expect us to do some out-of-state touring together, eventually.

You guys have had appeared on some nice festival bills in recent years. You've played Fun Fun Fest a couple of times now, and now you're playing Chaos in Tejas for a second time this weekend? What's the plan down there in Austin these next couple of days?
Fun Fun Fun Fest is great, and I think I can make a somewhat informal announcement that we will be a part of some form of the festivities this year.

Power Trip should actually give some credit to Graham Williams and Fun Fun Fun for getting us on Southern Lord since one of Greg's good friends caught us at an after-show and forwarded our music along to Greg. That basically put the gears in motion to the signing.

Chaos in Tejas is just the greatest fest around. Timmy Hefner is the motherfucking man. The best plan for Chaos is no plan at all — expect anything and everything crazy that can happen at a music fest to go down and that you'll love every minute of it, except for maybe the smell. Crusties fucking stink. I've attended nearly every year, played last year and we have two shows lined up this year. Saturday at Beerland at 3 p.m. with Toxic Holocaust and Midnight, and then Sunday evening with Cold World, The Abused, Ringworm, Rival Mob and Boston Strangler. I think we go on at 6:30.

So when will the Southern Lord record be released? What can people expect from it?
We're aiming for a mid-October release for the full-length, but we'll be busting our asses to make it happen. It will be out before the end of the year, though. You can put money on that. Expect a whole slab of butt-kicking jams. Like most bands, we want to continue to grow. But if it ain't broke, don't fix it. So don't expect anything too shocking or different if you've heard our riffs before.

When can people next catch you here in the Dallas area?
Our next local show will be our only local show for a while. And it's actually the Southern Lord tour that comes on June 27th to Club DaDa, with Black Breath, Martyrdod, Burning Love, Enabler and Wild//Tribe. The lineup is stacked and the show is cheap, so I hope people will come out. We probably won't be playing locally after that until the full-length is recorded in July.