Six years ago, before Oblivion Access promoters/bookers Dusty Brooks and Dorian Domi added the title “festival co-founder” to their LinkedIn profiles, they treasured their experimental-music records like animal lovers treat their dozens of adopted pets. To most, the records and the “weird” music they contained were at best esoteric and at worst nerdy and gross.
Cut to today when, in a textbook case of poetic justice, Brooks and Domi are about to stage their biggest experimental music festival at a time when boundary busting bands are blowing up big time. Experimental music isn’t mocked anymore; it’s embraced, particularly by music lovers burned out on EDM, sickened by pop music, and/or tired of conventional rock and hip-hop artists.
Whatever the case, it turns out music listeners under 33—the average age when a fan stops seeking out new artists—are hungry for obscure and left-field bands that embrace the hardcore-punk spirit, even if the music they play doesn’t match that description.
Come Thursday, the most ambitious, adventurous and cutting-edge experimental-music festival will get under way with a bill featuring Chat Pile (playing a second Oblivion gig after Street Sects dropped off), Have a Nice Life, Thou, Drain, Pallbearer, Yob, Elizabeth Colour Wheel, and Succumb.
Over the course of the ensuing three days, avant-schitzos Bosse-de-Nage, instrumental hip-hop artists Clipping, kraut rock kings Faust, Cloud Rat, Drab Majesty and virtually the entire roster of the Flenser will also show off the directions in which they’ve been flinging themselves the farthest as of late.
On May 30, Brooks and Domi checked in with New Noise to share their enthusiasm about this year’s Oblivion Access festival—and also to share a few secrets on what “spontaneous” collaborations might come about.
First of all, congratulations on pulling together such a stimulating lineup. What are you most proud of, as far as the whole festival is concerned?
Domi: The lineup as a whole is, at least in my opinion, the most interesting thing that we’ve done so far since working together. We have some really rare performances that I didn’t think would ever be possible. Having Faust do their 50th anniversary celebration at the festival is huge for me. And also having Yellow Swans do their first show in 15 years.
Yes, how did you lock down those special performances in particular?
Domi: They’re both represented by the same agent, and we worked with her last year. We had some (other) stuff lined up for different shows that fell apart pretty last-minute. So just started kind of building something else special.
Did Faust and Yellow Swans, two artists who rarely perform live, tell you why they chose Oblivion, or why they had such interest in it?
∫They never reached out wanting to play our fest. It was mostly a matter of us just having interest in them and them looking and seeing what we’re about and being like, “Yeah, that’s cool.”
How far back does your professional relationship go, and how many shows do you put together?
Domi: We started together in 2017. It started with wanting to do our old festival, Austin Terror Fest. We did two years of that together. But the festival lasted for three years; Dusty handled the first year of Austin Terror Fest, and then I came on.
This is year six of working together, and this is the biggest deal for us so far. Last year’s festival was kind of a conglomeration of two festivals because we had 2020 booked and then we started booking for 2021, before lockdown even happened. So we had to combine two lineups. That was really tricky. And then having to wait for two years and also going through a rebrand and keeping ticket holders happy and also just staying afloat financially as a business. It was really challenging.
This year is the first year where it feels normal for us as this festival. Even in 2022, it still didn’t feel real that the festival was going to happen ‘cuz we had already had to postpone twice, rebook, deal with cancellations, all this shit. This year, everything has been really smooth.
What is your vision for Oblivion Access compared with Austin Terror Fest?
Brooks: With Terror Fest, we were just cutting our teeth. And we were known for booking heavy metal. When that festival ended, we switched gears, and we even had booking outside the metal genre in 2019. In 2020, our main thing was wanting to bring more extreme performance art and build on that. This year, we’re still doing that but also having more (features, like) film screenings.
The main thing is that we want our festival to be more of an experience. Lineup curation is one thing, but the environment—not only for the audience but behind the scenes—is crucial.
Domi: Austin’s known for “Keep Austin Weird.” Well, we’re trying to bring something weird to the table that’s obscure and unique and something that Austin could really enjoy. Every year that we’ve done it, we foster a collaborative environment for the artists. I don’t think that you can see that at other festivals in the U.S. more than at our festival.
Roadburn obviously jumps to mind. Did you model Oblivion Access after that extremely selective European festival to any extent?
Domi: We know some of the collaborations that are gonna be happening this year. For example, Jarboe Thor & Friends. Jarboe may be coming out for the Faust set as well. Also, for the Earth 2 30th anniversary show, Justin Broadrick is gonna come out and perform a song with them. Earth is doing a really special performance where they’re gonna bring out different artists to do an almost collaborative reimagining of the album. It’s gonna be the shit. And it’s gonna be loud. They’re gonna have three guitarists!
Is that the show you’re most excited to see at Oblivion Access, Dorian?
Domi: I’m really excited to see Faust play their 50th anniversary show. It’s a redo from the COVID times ‘cuz that show was canceled. I’m really excited to see Earth play in the Central Presbyterian Church. We’ve been trying to book Earth forever, and for some reason it’s just never worked out. If the Justin Broderick collaboration does come to fruition, your chances of seeing that again are slim to none.
Brooks: Ludicra are doing direct support for Godflesh, and that’s exciting to me. That’s, like, probably the biggest metal get this year. I don’t know if people are sleeping on this or what, but this is (Ludicra’s) second-to-last show and their only Texas appearance. I think it’s their first time in Texas in around 20 years or something. There’s some really good stuff as far as metal goes. It’s just (mostly) not death metal or doom metal or anything like that. It’s obscure black metal.
Domi: What sets us apart is not booking what a lot of other people have a stronghold on. Here in Austin, we always create our own niche. And then we create our own market.
For more on Oblivion Access, check out our brand-new interviews with participants Cloud Rat, Pallbearer and Bosse-de-Nage.
Photo courtesy of Oblivion Access
