By now I hope you're all resting well after a days full of egg nog, presents, family, friends, lights and all other things related to your holiday of choice! I'm writing to you from a cold basement in NJ and enjoying every minute of it......both the cold NJ and the basement bliss. (basements are unheard of in TX)
Every year when I return to the east coast to visit with family and old friends I always get the same question "How's the band doing?". Each year I'm proud that I can honestly answer and say that things are going great and continue to get better and better each year.
We started off 2005 by winning "Best Group", "Best Metal Band", "Best Male Singer" and "Best Bassist" in the Edge Magazine's annual readers poll. At the 2005 Austin Music Awards we walked away with the "Best Metal Band" award for the 3rd year in a row! We were invited to play on the Spring Jagermeister Music Tour opening for Alter Bridge. (Believe it or not, they were some of the most down to earth guys we've ever met in this business)
In July we were invited up to Des Moines to play the Iowa Metal Fest along side tons of great bands like God Forbid and Full Blown Chaos, it was quite a fun road trip and show that we'll never forget. A few months later we were 1 of 80 bands in the country to make it to Round 3 of the Zippo Hot Tour, all thanks to the never ending support from the fans. (If the whole contest had been geared a bit more towards heavy music, I believe our fan support would have been enough to take us to the top.)
"A Bloodstained Memory" was the song that was chosen to be part of a two disc compilation cd put out by the Edge Magazine this year. This was the first official Powderburn recording to ever feature the drumming of Patrick Swift. (Yes, that's his real name....no it didn't come from a romance novel)
However one of the things I'm really proud of that we did in 2005 were the things that no one saw. We spent a lot of time really talking to each other about music and life in general and in turn we wrote more songs in 2005 then we have in the history of this band. (In the not so distance future i plan to elaborate more on this and give you all the juicy details)
The support from the local TX scene was definitely at it's best in 2005. There were lots of great TV coverage supporting the Powderburn cause, including Robbs Metal Works, Pure Metal Sickness, The Scene and One Nation Underground. On the radio front, 101.5 in Austin grew some balls and started a 2 hour radio show dedicated to all things heavy; "No Control" is it's name and it's hosted by Chuck, the most bad ass local scene supporter DJ the Austin metal scene has encountered in quite awhile. San Antonio radio certainly wasn't lacking in the support area either. Both KISS 99.5 and K-ROCK 102.7 spun the hell out of Powderburn throughout the year! Of course no one can forget the Edge Magazine based out of San Antonio. These guys have been covering the heavy scene and doing it right for many years now. Find me another magazine in the country that does a free compilation cd like they do!
Speaking of support, this past year we landed a sponsorship by a little company based in St. Louis called Budweiser. 
I could go on and on all night thanking various people for their help this year, but all i really wanna say is THANK YOU to everyone who's been by our side, stood up for us, gave us a hand, introduced us to their friends, came out to show, bought stuff, voted for us, kept us out of jail, drank with us, and jammed Powderburn at maximum volume while doing whatever it is you do! You know who you are and we certainly do as well!!
I, Josh, Greg and Patrick wish you the best in 2006!!!
Until next time,
Ken
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