Texas thrashers Power Trip have given their first interview since their frontman Riley Gale passed away on August 24, 2020. He was 34 years old and the cause of death has not been publicly released.
The remaining band members, guitarists Blake Ibanez and Nick Stewart, bassist Chris Whetzel and drummer Chris Ulsh, spoke to the Los Angeles Times ahead of this weekend's Grammy Awards, where the band have been nominated for the Best Metal Performance for their live version of Executioner’s Tax (Swing Of The Axe). Speaking on Gale's passing, Ulsh said:
“Losing Riley was the saddest thing that ever happened to me. But I’m so proud of everything we accomplished together. One of the coolest things from the start was that there was no ceiling to this band, and this Grammy nomination is a perfect example of that.”
He later added: “It still feels very fresh. It’s hard to talk about. We were close. I spent a lot of my downtime on tour with him. It’s still hard to fathom.”
Ibanez said: “We’ve never been through anything like this. But it’s definitely brought us closer. You’re together all the time, then in the blink of an eye, you know you’ll never see each other again.”
Ibanez added later in the interview that the band hope to keep playing together: “We do want to continue to play music together; we just are not sure what that looks like at this time.”
You can read the full interview at the Los Angeles Times.
