Powerflo’s Sen Dog Names His Dream Collaborators

Who would be on Powerflo frontman Sen Dog‘s dream collaborator list? The musician has triumphed in the rap world with Cypress Hill and is exploring his heavier side with Powerflo and during his appearance on Full Metal Jackie’s weekend radio show the musician shot his shot with multiple artists he’d like to work with from both the rap and metal worlds.

He named off two rappers that have dabbled in the rock and metal world in Chuck D of Public Enemy and Prophets of Rage and Ice-T of Body Count. His dream collab list also features several notable rockers including an iconic metal drummer, one of nu-metal’s most respected bassists, a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame guitarist and one of the more chameleonic and prolific vocalists in heavy music. He reveals his full list in the chat below.

Sen Dog also stresses the importance of his brotherhood, citing the support and backing of Powerflo bandmates Billy Graziadei and Christian Olde Wolbers in giving him the encouragement to release the inner beast. Plus, he tells us how he’s able to tap into the inner aggression on the band’s new Gorilla Warfare album.

He also reflects on the evolution of the rock and rap crossover and where his heavier influences were initially developed growing up.

Check out more of the chat below.

It’s Full Metal Jackie and I’m so excited to welcome to the show this week Sen Dog of Powerflo. The band is back with their latest album, Gorilla Warfare, a stellar set of songs filled with attitude and heaviness. We obviously know you from Cypress Hill as well, but with Powerflo coming back, how great has it been to find this outlet to show off more of your heavy influences?

It’s been really, really good. It’s been a great thing to have happened because not only do I get to do my thing with Powerflo, but they also encouraged me and challenged me to get heavier at times. I found that to be a challenge worth taking on.

Billy [Graziadei] and Christian [Olde Wolbers] said, “We heard you rap and this and that. You’re good and everything, but know we want to unleash the inner animal that you have in you. Because when we’re on the tour bus hanging out or whatever and Metallica is playing or Slayer and I’m singing along, I guess somewhere along the way, Billy thought that I could do it.” So I was just like, “Okay, well, let’s see what we could come up with.” And the more we did it, the more comfortable I got.

I’m thankful for those guys to have the confidence to tell me certain things and me receive it well enough to go on ahead and try different things.

Powerflo, “War Machine”

Sen, Powerflo is such a unique blend of influence from the individual members. You’ve got Billy Graziadei, who comes from the hardcore and punk world, and Christian Old Wolbers with one of the great industrial metal bands, Fear Factory. Where did the common bond come from in finding the sound for this band? And is there anything off limits from your backgrounds as to what would constitute a Powerflo song?

Well, it all comes from being bros and hanging around and knowing each other from the touring scene. I met Christian I think back in the 90s and Fear Factory, every now and then we’d be on the same bill. He was a lot like us, man. He lived to partake in the 420 and things like that. And the brotherhood just became stronger and stronger to where we just don’t always hang out just to do music, since we just hang out as bros.

The more we hung out with him, the more we liked him and he eventually played on our Skull and Bones record for Cypress. We also had him in the “Rock Superstar” video. And from then on, it’s just been a constant brotherhood of hanging around and doing music.

When I started, I had the first couple songs for Powerflo, and I knew that I was going to need a band. I went to Christian, and at that time he was just rehabbing from his motorcycle accident that he had. I don’t think he had an interest in doing music at the time. But then I let him hear the songs and he was like, “Who’s singing on that?” I go, “Man, that’s me, man.” He was like, “Okay.” So I think that got his interest going. And then he had the idea of going after Billy.

Billy is interesting because he said yes right away, and then a couple days later he said no, and then came back a couple days after that and said yes, and then no again, and then finally yes. So we got Billy in and Billy’s very, very musical and a very intelligent guy. When he got into the group, our production stepped up as far as how many songs we were doing a week. We became something that we worked on hard. And his band, Biohazard, was the first band ever, I think in 1993 or 94, that had me guest appear on a hardcore record. Our relationship started from there.

So we kept it moving. I don’t think there’s anything out of bounds as far as what we would record or cover from any of our pasts or whatever. But because we’re doing Powerflo now and it’s music for the future, we haven’t really gone in that direction. We were more concerned with coming up with our own original music and getting that point across as opposed to trying to cover a song that one of our bands might have did that had some success back in the days. We want to be successful with this band.

Sen, the title track brings in another metal vet, Ernie C. oi Body Count fame. It’s a hard hitter for sure. And Ernie’s guitar work definitely rocks. What is the process when you welcome a special guest and what made Ernie the right choice here? Did you have any directives or did you just let him do his thing?

I didn’t have any directives for him. I’d known Ernie for a long time and I know that he’s a very good guitar player. And just the fact that he agreed to be on the record was big. I knew that whatever he did was going to be incredible. So I didn’t have to give him any direction or anything like that.

The only thing that I ask is that you listen to the music first and if you like it and are serious and you vibe with it and you could be honest with me because I know not everybody’s going to like what you do all the time and that’s okay. You know what I mean? You’re going to have people that like you, people that don’t like you, and that’s fine. But if you like it and if you think you’d be on a song, then we’d love to have you. That’s how we got Ernie.

We were on tour with Body Count, I think, back in 2019 or something like that, or 2020, and Power Flow had the honor of opening up for Body Count and I watched their show every night. I’ve always known Ernie to be a really good guitar player. But when I saw him every night play live and see what he did then I’m realizing wow, he’s a real badass. Body Count is lucky to have him. He’s a great guitar player.

I decided to invite him to be on the record. He said yes. And it was a great thing. Him and Phil Demmel, both of them, they heard the record and they were down to be on it.

So when we asked Ernie to be in the video, he said, “Yeah, man.” So I was like, “All right, cool.” Ernie, you could actually get good advice from. Not just on being in a band or a song, but just overall life advice. He’s one of those guys.

He’s done a lot, witnessed a lot and has learned a lot. He’s not shy on passing that advice along. We had a lot of good conversation. He put me up in a lot of good games. So I feel blessed to have him on the record and have him on a video. it’s a heavy record. So it’ perfect that one of the heaviest guitar players, Ernie C., could join us.

Powerflo, “Gorilla Warfare”

We were talking about collabs here with Powerflo’s Sen Dog.  Do you have a dream collaborator you’d like to get on a Powerflo record? Just giving you the chance to shoot your shot.

Oh, wow. I wouldn’t mind recording with maybe Chuck D, something like that. I’ve always been a fan of what Public Enemy does, especially them being on one of the first to have a Slayer sample on there. That really caught my attention. So to be able to one day do something with him.

You know what? David Lombardo and I have always talked about doing something together. There’s a lot of people in the industry that you look up to. The Cavalera brothers are also a great duo to listen to and consider maybe one day, hopefully, hopefully, we do something with them.

I’m a fan of music, so when you tell me a dream collaboration, I could think of a lot of different people. But for the most part I wanted to do something with Ernie and we got that done and hopefully one day Ice-T and myself could get together and do some get down on a song on the heavy tip.

I’ve always respected what he’s done with Body Count. I’ve been a fan of his all his career, really, but when he did Body Count, then that really got my attention. So there’s definitely a lot of people that I would, that I would love to work with as far as collaborations and whatnot.

Chino [Moreno] from the Deftones is another one. Just love what he does vocally and how his approach to songs is really interesting. I think they’re different than everybody else. And Shavo [Odadjian] from System of a Down. Love his bass work on everything that he does. He’s just an incredible musician and a really, really, really good homeboy to hang around with.

The beautiful thing about collaborations is you never know who you’re going to get teamed up with and the fact that something beautiful is going to come out of it, even though it might be somebody that you never thought your styles would ever match or they would never want to do something together. When you get two creative people in a room, and you start working on something and then you just start hammering it out and getting it done and then you impress yourself. I think that’s the best thing.

I would definitely put Slash from Guns N Roses in that list too. His guitar work is incredible. And again, another really good human being. That’s what I like to surround myself with. Just overall good humans that do things from their heart because they want to and they, they aspire to do things like that.

That’s a good list.

Yeah.

We’re back with Sen Dog of Powerflo. Listening to Gorilla Warfare, there’s a fair share of aggression on here. The album pulls no punches. There’s no shortages of wrongs in the world today. What was inspiring through this process. And do you need any hyping up to get in that aggressive mindset on these songs?

I don’t need any hyping up to get on it. I think the only hyping up that I needed was from Billy and Christian. They said, “We’ve heard you rap on these rock tracks, and we know that you could do it. But we want you to step it up now and let that inner animal inside of you out. Let it out, let it yell and scream, let it be mad.”

I just found myself thinking about things before I would go to the studio. I would just listen to a lot of Metallica, Slayer as well. I love those guys approach vocally and then just start thinking about things that have gone wrong in my life and wish I had more of a control over. There’s a frustration residue that builds up and stays there. Even though every day becomes less and less, you could easily tap into it. So I get to the studio and Billy, knowing me, he’d have a bunch of beer there and we roll some joints and whatnot and just get to writing.

Every time I wrote something, I kind of felt like I was letting something out of me. I was releasing something that I was holding back that was in my subconscious. I found it to be therapeutic to be able to do that thing. So just go on ahead and be aggressive. It’s like who I used to be when I was younger. I kind of let that go the older I got. So to tap that reservoir was not a hard thing at this age. I’ve been through a lot of things, some good, some bad, but I was able to pull from those kind of energies just to put myself in that.

I want to destroy this microphone right now type of thing. I was able to pull from those resources and get into that mode. Once I did it, I want to do that again. So the album Gorilla Warfare has a overall aggression on it, because I loved what I had found and I wanted to do more of it. There’s a couple songs that aren’t really that way on there, but they still carry that kind of energy.

Powerflo

Sen, looking back at history, we can draw a line between Billy and Biohazard and yourself in Cypress Hill both making appearances on the groundbreaking Judgment Night soundtrack. Back in 1993, it knocked down some of the barriers between rap and heavy music. 

You’ve spent some time in the rock world on festivals, touring and guest appearances. Would you say that the rock and metal audiences were more welcoming and accepting back in the 90s of that crossover? Or from what you’ve seen, is it more embraced now coming from the rap world into a metal band?

I’ve seen the fans from rock and metal accepting hip hop and rap in the early 90s when we came out, and I remember when we first started touring we’d see a lot of Public Enemy shirts and Beastie Boy shirts in the audience. Then people started coming in wearing these rock and roll shirts like Metallica and Primus and all this, and I was like, “What’s going on here?”

I kind of found that that audience back then was willing to receive us as they would receive a metal band, a hard band and it’s because I believe that the two musics share a lot of the same beginnings as each other.

When people are saying back in the day that rock and roll wouldn’t last and whatnot, that’s the same thing that people were saying about hip hop, that it’ll never last. Hip hop now is over 50 years old. And I think the audience could feel that we knew our history as far as rock and roll and metal went. And we did. It came out in our music. And the fans love that.

Then I think it’s evolved with the Judgment Night soundtrack. Well, first of all, I gotta give props to Run DMC and Aerosmith. Cause they’re the ones that went out there and did it first and were like, oh, it can be done. Another one that made an impression on me. Public Enemy and Anthrax, the same thing. So it’s always been like an evolvement of the style, right? And then it got down to the Judgment Night soundtrack.

I think we had two songs on there. But if you look at the list of artists that are on there, I’m like, “Oh, man, this is crazy.” But it really solidified the fact that it’s no longer just a gimmick thing. This is an actual musical style, right? And later on, bands came in that prove that. You know what I mean? I’m talking about Rage against the Machine and Limp Bizkit and those kind of guys that came in and took that style to get to new levels.

Now it’s an actual genre. People call it rap metal, but I just call it music. So I think I’ve seen an evolvement of that style that’s happened for many years. I think all those bands contributed in a big way. But it had its birth and now it’s continuing to grow and get wider and bigger. And that’s where we are with that particular style. I also feel that those two musics have always blended well together. They just go good together.

READ MORE: 12 Rappers Who Are Inspired By Rock Music

Back in the days on MTV, they had a show called Yo! MTV Raps. I forget what time it came out. It was a half hour show. And then right after that, Headbanger’s Ball would come on. Now a lot of my friends would watch Yo! MTV Raps and split. But I would stick around and watch Headbangers Ball too.

That’s awesome.

It just did something for me and I think that that was just part of it. It grabbed me and I knew that around the world there had to be more people like me that really liked both kinds of musics and dreamed about one day possibly doing a mashup is the common terminology that it’s called

In the mid-90s I started a band called SX10, which meant surfers hang 10. And that’s where I learned how to write those rap-metal songs. That’s what led me to Powerflo. When I started doing the Powerflo songs I felt completely like this is actually my style of music, this is where I excel at, is on tracks like “Gorilla Warfare” and things like that. This is what gets me off is that hardcore, guitar driven music.

Biohazard & Cypress Hill, “How It Is”

Sen, the year is winding down. Tell us what’s on the horizon for yourself in the coming months.

In the coming months we have a handful of Cypress Hill dates still left on the calendar and dates are starting to pick up now as you know, as we speak. Of course getting out there and doing Powerflo and at some point I wouldn’t mind giving acting another shot. Trying to get out there in front of the camera and appear to be natural and not nervous, which is a game in itself. But I wouldn’t mind trying that again. Hopefully I get an opportunity to do that.

Along with having the music and aspirations of doing more acting, there’s also  being a dad to 11 and a nine year old. So my calendar, it’s pretty full.

I’m not trying to complicate myself too much but at this point, but according to how old I am, I don’t want to say there’s an emergency button I’m pushing, but I definitely feel like I got to do things now as opposed to waiting.

Christian and Billy, myself, we really believe in the project and Powerflow. And we wanted to do another album, and we got it done. And now we’re talking about doing a third album. So I think we’re on the right pace. There’s a perfect time for everything. When God says, “It’s your time to shine, go do it now,” hopefully people will dig what they hear.

Also, just all the fans around the world who have supported my career and our career in the band Cypress Hill and everything else that we do. I am grateful for your support and the fact that you have many choices on who you choose to listen to and go watch live and all that, I feel honestly blessed for that. I just gotta say thank you very much. It means the world to me to have fans around the world that know my lyrics and know who I am and what I do. It’s just wild to think about. Thank you anyways. We appreciate it. It means the world to us.

Thanks to Sen Dog of Powerflo. The Gorilla Warfare album is out now and available through the band’s website. You can keep up with the band through Facebook, X, Instagram and Spotify. Find out where you can hear Full Metal Jackie’s weekend radio show here.