Interview: Dave Peterman (Ogrefest)

I have been waiting for this for some time.

Although I've mentioned it before, i will repeat: Ogrefest is the best local metal showcase i have ever been to, and improves with every passing year. I have seen almost every sort of metal someone could think of represented on the stage of Mac's Bar. Most of those bands wreck, hard. In a good way.

The following is my interview with lead singer/guitarist of Lansing Death Metal stalwarts Satyriasis, as well as the man behind Ogrefest, David Peterman. It is because of him that i discovered bands I love like Dagon, Maggot Twat, and Sauron.

What he has done for Michigan's metal scene is of paramount importance and cannot be undone.

Ogrefest 2011 will be held at Mac's Bar in Lansing, Michigan on April 16th, 2011. It will run from 12 p.m. to 2 a.m.

I will be covering Ogrefest and if you read this I encourage you to find me there. I will be performing Blitzkrieg interviews with as many bands as I possibly can there. Set times are under the interview.

See you in the pit.

How did Ogrefest begin?

D-The idea for Ogrefest really began in 2005. Satyrasis was struggling to keep a competent line-up together and hadn't played a show in nearly 2 years. Since myspace and facebook were in their infancy, inter-band networking wasn't at all what it was today...and it was tough for a band with no contacts whatsoever to get on a cool metal show in Detroit or Lansing. After laboring intensely to get on some shows in those cities with no result, I said fuck it...and decided to throw our own show. We had a shitty bar in Howell that only townies drank in, and the owner didn't much care WHO played there as long as people were drinking. So i got a hold of some of the bands we DID know...and I booked the date. The show needed a name, because there we no bands on it with any sort of public standing....so i had to come up with one. I knew it was going to be a ___Fest of some kind i just didn't know what that was going to be. One of our friends remarked..."just call it DAVEFEST".....and needless to say I wasn't exactly down with that. Naming your fest after a dude or calling your fest DUDEFEST is something you if you're an ironic metal hipster or if you happen to be in Downtown Brown. Back then there was a large amount of kids in pop-punk bands who were into metal as an ironic inside joke, and you got made fun of for REALLY being into metal. (ALL of these kids are now in metalcore bands) So I had to do whatever I could to differentiate this show from those kids of shows. I never had a "real" nickname that I was called on a daily basis, but there was a time, just after i moved to Howell, that two separate kids, who knew me only by sight, referred to me as "Ogre" to Matt (satyrasis' guitarist) when they asked him who was in his band. I always got a huge kick out of that, and while i was thinking of names...it popped in there. OGREFEST... it was perfect....kind of humorous....but still totally metal if i needed it to be. The 2005 show didn't happen, our drummer quit and a couple of bands dropped off and I put the idea on a shelf. In the Fall of 2006 while I was in Genocya, we were driving home from a show in Detroit and we drove by that same bar and I remarked,"I was gonna throw a show there once". To which their drummer Tim (Sever, certified Michigan Metal Legend) said "why don't you do another one?"
To which i replied...."I don't know". I started booking 2007 the next month...and we've been going ever since.

Ogrefest started small and intimate, and still is, but now has taken on sort of a local cult status as an annual event, a tradition, yes? How has Ogrefest grown from something small into what it is today?

D-I don't know if Ogrefest is quite a tradition, yet. Tradition is a pretty strong word, that carries a lot of weight and responsibility. But I definitely think we have the potential to be one if we can keep growing and evolving like we have. This being the fifth anniversary, a banner year...as it were, I guess some reflection is warranted. We did start out small, in a bum-fuck outer realm suburb that nobody cares about and were able to bring the show to Lansing, which I guess was a little bit more of a coup than I thought it was at the time. One of the bigger reasons we've been successful is we haven't got greedy. By 2009, we had drummed up enough interest that I could've made the festival 2 days, with 50 bands and quite easily charged 25 bucks a head and fucking cleaned up. But I have to stick to my guns...Ogrefest isn't about exploitation and mediocrity. To do shows like that, you have to cheat bands by asking them to jump through bogus hoops like playing at 9:00 am for no money and you are forced to book bands that quite frankly, nobody wants to sit through, which drives fans absolutely nuts. There's nothing worse than heading to a show at 6:00 pm and not seeing a band worth watching until midnight. It's so tiresome, and most shows are like that. So I decided that Ogrefest would be the antithesis of all that bullshit...a show filled with quality, not just quantity. It's a strategy that I'm happy to say has paid off in the fest's longevity. We may not be the biggest fest, with the largest crowd....but fans know that when they buy a ticket they're getting every dollar's worth. When you give people something of value, they have a tendency to keep coming back. I’d much rather say that i put on a a killer metalfest for years than say I made a killing on this one fest that I booked....

2 days and 50 bands is pretty big! Why do you think Ogrefest has expanded and thrived so much (at least enough that you get to selectively make cuts to keep the size down)?

D-There's really no trick to getting a lot of bands to ask to be on a show. It's the old Field of Dreams adage, "If you build it...they will come" All you have to have is a show, and they will come out of the woodwork, from ends of the spectrum you didn't even know existed. The real trick is finding the right bands in the pile.

If Ogrefest, or ‘an Ogrefest band’ is defined, in a sense as in opposition to that pop/metalcore aesthetic and scene, what is the Ogrefest aesthetic/scene in and of itself? By this I mean what makes a band ‘an Ogrefest band?’

D-I wouldn't ever define us or our aesthetic as an opposition to certain genres....An Ogrefest band has to be real and bring something to the table musically. And there's no one "scene" of bands that plays the show. When you're talking "scenes" , Battlecross & Sauron (for example) have nothing in common....the same with Dagon & Acid Witch, Theocracide & Cavalcade...but they've all done Ogrefest because they do something well and deserve to be heard. It doesn't matter if it's trendy that week, or how many facebook likes they have....

The metalcore/deathcore scene that is largely absent from Ogrefest (perhaps we might call this the Dirtfest Crowd)—it is also very powerful in Michigan/the Midwest in general? Shouldn’t the two sides of the family re-unite? What is stopping such a union?

D-I've tried this very thing you've suggested, for at least three years....and I'm done with it. It was a dumb idea. It's like trying to get a monkey to fuck a platypus....it just isn't gonna work.

Why? Every one of these bands that I've tried to work with has been greedy, unappreciative and self-aggrandizing. They insist that they deserve more than bands who have been around twice as long and worked twice as hard and it's just so damn depressing.

Touching a bit on your last question, There IS a difference between an Ogrefest band and these bands; that difference is music. For the bands that play Ogrefest, music isn't treated as just the byproduct of being in a band. For them, the small inconvenience of music is overcome by buying the right guitars, getting the right haircut and knowing the right graphic designer. For us music is what we love and why we do what we do. All the posturing and posing is a distant second.

To be honest, how would Ogrefest benefit by having half a day of malformed, under-thought, bandwagon jumpers on it's roster? It wouldn't.

You get bands from other states—how do you find these bands and decide to have them play?

D-They're just bands that come across my desk one way or another....somebody might've played a show with them on tour or they came through town once before. Sometimes they're label mates of a band that's playing or just a band that we dig a whole bunch.

How many bands, and what sort of bands, apply to get booked on Ogrefest?

D-Well, as far as an exact number, you'll have to ask my accounting & auditing department. As far as the sort of bands, pretty much any kind of metal band that's around. Use your imagination and you won't be very far off.

By extension, how do you set the bill up?

D-It's probably not as calculated as most would imagine, but it's certainly not just thrown together in a haphazard jumble either. There is a method to the madness, which I would be remiss in divulging to media outlets without promises of cold, hard cash.

This specific year there seems to be a bit of a ‘retro’ theme—Acid Witch and High Spirits are both pretty openly throwback acts, and they’re at top billing. By contrast, last year seemed to be a bit more melodic death themed, and the year before much more gore-y. Are these trends real and pre-meditated, or do they come out of chance…or maybe I’m just imagining things?

D-That's an interesting take on things. Interesting enough that I'm certainly not going to trample on it pontifically.....I'm glad that people appreciate the bill enough to look into it like that.

What is the worst part about organizing and putting on Ogrefest?

D-Dealing with egos. For all the hollering and posturing, guys in metal bands can act like drag queens at a wig clearance. Everybody thinks they deserve to go on in the headline spot, nobody wants to play first OR last, set's too short, can't show up on time...yada, yada, yada. It's definitely not the standard, but every year i get one or two that have to pitch a bitch. Must be some sort of cosmic law when throwing a metal fest....

What is the best part?

D-The Chicks.

Why isn’t Maggot Twat playing again!?!?!

D-I think they've been staying close to home because of personal issues and that they're working on a new record. If it's in my power to get them back, they'll be back. That band is criminally underrated and their set in 2008 is still one of the highlights of Ogrefest for me.

You mentioned Maggot Twat as a fond Ogrefest memory (one of my fondest concert memories EVER, actually) What is your fondest Ogrefest memory?

D-Well there's two. The first is a personal favorite, which probably seems pretty meaningless to everyone else, The second I think defines the very essence of what Ogrefest is all about.

2008: Maggot Twat's Popcorn shenanigans during the Satyrasis set.

2009: Sauron concludes the night with Breakin' the Law and incites an impromptu sing-along featuring members of the bands from that night and the weary spectators. It was a cool moment and may have been a high water mark for metal in Lansing. I know it seemed that way.

As director/curator/organizer of Ogrefest, you qualify as some sort of authority on ‘the local scene’ how would your characterize the scene? What are its unique aspects/big influences/strengths/weaknesses?

D-Comments on the scene, eh? Just when I think it's dying, it surprises the hell out of me.

Michigan Metal and it's scenes are by and large just geographical, which I like to analogize as the spokes of a wheel with Lansing as a hub. Lansing has all the creativity, Detroit has all the people. Flint is a ghost town and Grand Rapids can't figure out who they want to be. West Michigan is too far away to affect anything, but has some diamonds in the rough and Toledo has yet to realize it's not 1998 anymore.

Our unique aspects are the bands who are fighting the good fight to keep the "scene" alive and well. The only central influence we have might have in common is each other. Our strength is our individuality. Our weakness is competition with each other.

How would you characterize the Lansing scene specifically?

D-The Lansing Scene's characters are what make it difficult to characterize. But if I had to use a single word it would be: Original. Nowhere else in the state and dare I say, the Midwest, resides such a cache of independently-minded metal bands. Lansing has talent and ingenuity in spades and what they lack in glamor and sophistication is made up with drive and a willingness to tell the masses to get fucked. I couldn't think of a better place to have a metal fest.

If Lansing is the Michigan Metal hub, and Mac’s Bar (with maybe the Blackened Moon as competition) is the epicenter of Lansing’s scene (as it seems to be), what is it about Mac’s Bar that makes it such sacred or fertile ground for metal? How did your relationship with Mac’s Bar begin?

D-I think you're giving Blackened Moon credit it has yet to earn.

Mac's is successful because Chuck allows the bands to participate in their own success. If you ask to put on a show and have a roster of bands that will bring some people to the bar...he'll probably let you book it. In fact, we deal with Mac's so much in Lansing....we forget how shitty it is in other cities, where club owners are only concerned with how much dough they can squeeze out of everybody. Sometimes it feels a little like the kids running the school, but ultimately it works out to everyone's advantage. When the artists and promoters who are genuinely interested in perpetuating a scene are allowed to work unfettered...it builds a solid reputation with the fans...a reputation that much harder to build as a club owner who has to make decisions based on a bottom line. Mac's before Chuck was a little bit more of a hipster spot, and was very selective in the metal it brought in...and when Chuck took over and allowed the scene to do its thing...it really took off.

My relationship with Mac's began when I was looking for a new venue for Ogrefest in 2008. Scotty from Bermuda Mohawk had been booking there since Chuck took over and he pointed me in his direction. It has worked out quite well.

What about Michigan as a state colors the native music, do you think?

D-This is a good question. And I can simply answer with another question...What about it doesn't?

People don't often look to Michigan as one of the Great States of the Union, both geographically and culturally. And while I'm totally biased, I've never saw it as anything but. To lump Michigan in with the Midwest is convenient, but doesn't quite paint the whole picture of us. We're much more Northern in attitude than some of our neighboring states, which comes from more winter and a touch more isolation. While we're not cut off from culture in any way, we're also not on the I-80 corridor that cuts the country in two and virtually guarantees that bands are passing by you. And while Detroit continues to have the highest drawing concert venue in the Nation (DTE,) it means that bands that are lower on the totem pole don't always have the resources to make it up here. Roughly translated, Michiganders live for music, but have trouble attracting ALL the awesome tours that Cleveland and Chicago get, because we're 3 hours north. This annoyance has a two pronged effect. We take our locals more seriously and we work harder to bring in bands that we really like. This kind of environment has a big effect on Michigan bands and fosters an underdog mentality that hard to shake. Unlike a place like Brooklyn or Chicago, where thousands of certified hacks move every year to be part of the "scene"....we build our own fucking scene. There's a distinct difference.

If logistical anomalies and geographic location are what shape our brains, it's Michigan herself that shapes our hearts. Even those among us who truly hate the fact that they have to make music here...maybe even more so. So much has been made of the collapse of the Auto Industry and you really can't understate it's significance on the populace. Michigan to a very large extent was Ford, GM and Chrysler...for a lot of years, before that it was Mining before that, Logging...so we've made these sort of industrial transitions before and we'll make them again. While the collapse has shaped the narrative of this generation it certainly isn't all that we are. The auto industry is collapsing in Ohio and Illinois too, but their bands don't sound like ours. I think what balances out all the industrial malaise and rust belt ennui is the fact that nobody in this state is ever more than 80 miles the largest bodies of freshwater in the world. We have all this industry and all this blight and can hop in the car for an hour and be surrounded by some seriously unmatched natural glory. Does this erase the fact that we live in Redford or Flint or the south side of Lansing, not at all, but i think it does instill an air of possibility that doesn't exist in Chillicothe, Ohio or that town that Jack and Diane are from. It provides Michiganders with the distinct sense that their crappy farming town or burnt out city isn't the only reality available and that perspective is invaluable when it comes to creating music that moves people in some way.

Something else that people often overlook as a factor in the kind of music that we make is our education. Michigan has one of the best university systems in the country and most of the people that are making our music have went to college at one of them, or have a guy in their band that did. Does that mean going to college makes your music better.... clearly, no. It does mean, however, that our musicians are capable of creatively critical thinking...which is vital to the creation of interesting music.

“Major” (I use the term SO loosely…) metal labels tend to overlook the Midwest, including Michigan. This is absurd to me as IMHO the Michigan scene’s best can hang with national and international big-name metal bands. To what do you attribute this blind eye to our area of the country?

D-I don't think they overlook us. They just sign the bands that can sell their records the quickest. If you're from Tibet and can sell 20,000 records.....you'll get signed. Money Talks.

Do you have any goals for Ogrefest’s future, pipe dreams or not, either specific or general?

D-This year's fest will have a lot to to with what the future will entail for Ogrefest. I think if we keep having the kind of success we've been having some kind of expansion might be in order. I have some ideas, but nothing concrete yet. We'll see how things progress.
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Ogrefest is a week from today.

The lineup is as follows:

2:00 - 12:30 The Virally Enthroned
12:45 – 1:15 Flood the Desert
1:30 – 2:00 Dozic
2:15 – 2:45 Burn the Hearse
3:00 - 3:30 Teratoma
3:45 – 4:15 Infinite Design
4:30 – 5:00 Fable of Deceit
5:15 – 5:45 Ultrathrash
6:00 – 6:30 Sworn Secrecy
6:45 – 7:15 The Devastator
7:30 – 8:00 Bullpig
8:15 – 8:45 Heavy Lies the Crown
9:00 - 9:30 Wastelander
9:45 – 10:15 High Spirits
10:30 – 11:00 Satyrasis
11:15 – 11:45 Acid Witch
12:00 - 12:30 Genocya
12:45 – 1:15 Dagon
1:30 – 2:00 Araphat

$12 at the door. ALL AGES until 10pm! Show starts at Noon sharp!

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