The Distortion Project

***

We talk about “the scene” that we’re part of. The fact is, in Ireland, we wouldn’t be part of it at all unless a few key individuals and groups kept it together. For bands and fans up and down Ireland, one of those is The Distortion Project.

This year they celebrated their tenth anniversary. It’s a remarkable feat - they’re still putting on a regular saturday slot that has defined metal in Northern Ireland and helped to shape who’s hot and who’s not across the island.

Though they’ve been a trio, a duo, and had several longstanding helpers, James Loveday is the man holding the fort nowadays. So it’s only fit that Metalireland commemorates the DP’s own decade of decadence by having a chinwag with the man himself.

***

Ten years of the Distortion Project James – how does it feel? Huge sense of satisfaction?

It really does feel quite satisfying, when I think back over the last decade, given what we’ve achieved and some of the setbacks we’ve had, it feels good to have made it this far, but I still think there’s work to be done – I’ve still got a lot of things that I haven’t done with the Project yet, but I think it’s early days. The first ten years are always the toughest!

How difficult was the Decade Of Aggression to pull off?

Not as hard as you might think actually!

Three stages though…!

It was kinda cool, cos you work with good people and it becomes a lot easier. The real difficulty for me was picking the lineup and the running order. Beyond that, once everybody had their instructions prior to the show and what I needed from them and where they had to be, it sort of turned the pace quite easy, and it became quite a smooth running show all in all – no one was late, nothing went drastically wrong, everyone did what they had to do and knew where they had to be at the right time, and that was the main thing. After that it was fine and it went very well, considering the amount of work that went into it from various people.

Even the stage times went really well, there weren’t any bands that went even more than ten minutes late onstage that I saw.

Yeah, well everyone was pretty much on time as far as I could tell, I think they only over-ran once in Katy’s, but generally speaking they were well drilled as to where they had to be. The Limelight and the Spring were staggered to make sure that people saw the most of all the bands, and even the picking of bands for certain venues was important as well, as it was predominantly one style in the Limelight as it turned out, the Spring as well and even Katy’s you had a different sort of vibe going on, and that was very important to people – they didn’t miss stuff they wanted to see and could at least see half of one band if you were struggling to flit between the three venues. It was very much designed for the maximum amount of time for the public to see as many bands as they wanted and that was the important thing.

It worked out really well in the end, with the staggered times, you had the chance to see pretty much every band.

It was really good. I know they’ve done it here before with the Tsunami show and the Haiti benefit gig and I’ve always had it in my head that it would be a really good idea to do something like that metal-wise. You can take advantage of the three venues being connected and you’ve got two big stages.

RocKD was born in Katy’s anyway, and it was cool to see bands in here again after moving to the Limelight eighteen months ago. The ten year anniversary seemed like the best time to do it, and I always knew that at some point I’d be doing something like that.

Of the bands that you actually got to see, who were your main ones of the day?

I kinda managed to catch at least one song of each band and I managed to keep the alcohol content very low. Honey For Christ impressed me, they always do, I enjoyed Skypilot quite a lot, Two Tales Of Woe for the clown suit and the tunes as well – all new material which was good.

Howlin’ Widow, Overoth, Condemned, but I have to say, Gacy’s Threads did very well. I was kinda worried for them as they were the first band on and we opened doors a bit late – we thought there’d be nobody here. But somebody has to open it up, they never complained, and the fact it was so busy made me really pleased for them.

By the time I landed down, Howlin’ Widow had just finished. I caught the last half of Lesshelp and the place was rammed at 4 o’clock.

Given the way that the lineup was fixed towards the end we thought people would be coming down for Orange Goblin and Primordial, so to see it so busy so quickly was really surprising. I didn’t expect it to be as bunged as it was, there were nearly a hundred people in Katy’s when they hit the stage. I was really pleased as I didn’t want them to play in front of nobody, and it being filled so early was amazing.

Ten years is a good third of your life, I mean you’re 36 now – how does it feel to have spent that long doing metal gigs?

It’s kinda weird! I was in my mid-20s when we started this, and thinking about everything that’s been achieved in that time, it’s definitely a third of my life that I have given to the Project; it comes to the point where I can’t remember anything before it.

My life is so dominated by the Distortion Project that it’s hard to think of anything prior to it. Obviously I have a lot of things going on outside it, but it’s such a prevalent factor in everything that I do and you get used to it over the years. It’s hard to draw a line between where I stop and the Project begins. It defines you; it’s who you are.

What were the early days like?

They were fun, because it was something new, something that hadn’t been done before, it was exciting even doing fly postering – a very liberating feeling doing something that really seemed to make a difference. When we first started out, there weren’t many opportunities for bands to play shows in Belfast.

Aside from The Venue, there weren’t any club options for those who liked it a little bit heavier, and that’s what we offered in the early days. It got so popular, so quickly, that it surprised us all because you never can tell how these things are going to go, but to get so much positive feedback in the early days was amazing; I felt we were breaking new ground with the RocKD shows and the Auntie Annies stuff, which wasn’t really being done, and to be part of something unique was a big thrill. I still think of those days fondly.

It all started out in Auntie Annies didn’t it?

Yeah, we did the metal nights in there on a Thursday. I had no experience at all with DJ equipment or with CD players, so it was a real learning curve as well to get to know how to use the gear and not to have it stop on you midway through a song – plenty of that in the old days! I do miss that aspect of it though; it was a lot more personal in those days. It felt like I was doing something positive with my life.

It was yourself, Colin and Jennifer at the start – what role did each person play in organising the events?

Well, it was a pretty fluid role. In the early days I was into booking the bands and doing the web stuff, Jennifer was more into the on-the-day sorting out of what bands were doing and things of that nature, and Colin handled all the promotional aspects of it. It worked – each person slipped into their role, but it was still quite fluid, no one definite role for each individual. It was better that way, as if one person wasn’t around, someone else could do something.

Were the three of you mates beforehand, or was it a business venture?

Colin and I went to school together, and he met Jennifer in the early 90s, they had a relationship, but we all kinda grew up together being into the rock. We decided one day that there wasn’t anything going on in the way of rock in Belfast and maybe we should try and do something about it.

These things always tend to be a drunken chat in the pub that turn into something a bit more serious, and that’s how we came up with the idea of doing the rock nights. We thought we could try and do something, try and make a difference.

At that time there was a lack of stuff that catered for people with heavier tastes than what was going around at the time, so we decided to see what we could do. It was just a case of having the balls to stand up and put a night on and see how it goes.

Who actually came up with the name for The Distortion Project?

That was Colin, and we were quite chuffed to find something that defined what we hoped to stand for, what we hoped to do. I liked it because the word “Project” signified that it was never going to be about one single thing, not just about the Auntie Annies nights; it gave us scope for other things, and we acted on it.

We’ve had a radio show, we’ve booked tours and various things, it just seemed to encompass everything we hoped to achieve, and didn’t mean we had to stick to one specific thing. I thought it was a metal name, but it was also vague enough to let us have a lot of different ideas.

I wanted us to be the Virgin of heavy metal, and because it was a Project, I wanted to try lots of different things under the one banner.

What about the Distortion Project sigil, what does it-

I can’t talk about that.

Because I asked you at the 5th anniversary show what it meant and you wouldn’t tell me then eith-

Shrouded in secrecy. Those that know, know.

Ten years James, come on!

Can’t do it. *laughs*

Ha ha, fair enough. What was the very first Distortion Project event?

It was the first night in Auntie Annies in January of 2000. Initially our focus wasn’t beyond that, we just wanted to put on a metal night, play a load of tunes and hope that some people came down.

So, we went to Auntie Annies and asked them - they had only been open about a year – with a view to try and put a rock night on, and they were actually very helpful, again because it was something that we’d never done before.

It was late November in 1999 when we approached them and there was a 3-month lead in to push it. It was amazing, I remember the three of us sat the week before thinking how many people are we going to get, even with all our mates coming down, if we get a hundred we’ll be happy. As it ended up, we got 250 in the building and 100 turned away.

We could never have dreamed it would have been so good. At the start it was all about that one night, and it was shocking, it was beyond awesome.

What then prompted the move to Katy Daly’s?

Well, we did the Annies nights for a year, and in April of that year a chap called Liam approached us. He was in a blues band called Chancer and he was also a sound engineer and he had the idea of doing some rock and metal bands in Katy’s on a Saturday and asked us to be a part of it.

We were very new to this and very young at the time and thought it would be a good idea.

So after four weeks, Liam had to leave the country and go to Poland with his girlfriend and basically handed us his list of contacts and said “Here you are, work away with that!” We then took it over after the first four weeks. It wasn’t something we had been thinking about until we were approached with the idea of doing it.

The first few weeks were pretty good, I always had an idea of the bands I wanted and we had a vision of the direction we wanted it to take RocKD, as the heavier bands tended to bring the better audiences and the bigger crowds as they didn’t have many places to play, aside from the Rosetta, and there were no city centre alternatives. Once people got used to the early starts it became the staple of the scene.

It was a great chance for young bands to get started.

That’s still definitely the way I look at it now. It’s great for young bands to cut their teeth in a big place like The Limelight and play with the more established bands. I always had that in my head, but now there’s far more opportunities for young bands to play in Belfast.

It’s a much more open scene, but the ethos is still the same – bringing younger bands in and trying to get them to play good shows in front of good crowds. I don’t think RocKD will ever change in that respect. As much as it’s for the more established local and international bands, it’s still the younger bands that are the scene’s future and getting them those opportunities is what RocKD’s about.

In the early days, was it a case of bands contacting you, or did you have to proactively chase bands down?

In the early days it was difficult because there weren’t that many bands around compared to the way it is now. We used to struggle week-to-week filling schedules and used to make a lot of effort in seeking out all the bands.

But as the scene grew in Northern Ireland we discovered more and more bands coming out of the woodwork and it became easier to book acts, and we became more established and people knew who we were and what we were doing and it became major. Even now there’s still a waiting list a couple of months in advance for RocKD.

How do you think the scene has changed since ten years ago?

I think it’s pretty healthy from my perspective. People are much more clued in and a lot more aware than they used to be. I think the internet, and Metal Ireland in particular has played a big part in making people aware that there are a lot of good bands in the north.

Even things like it being cheaper to record things now, and the use of MySpace and Facebook has changed the way the industry works now. It’s a more connected scene and that has definitely helped us as it’s easier to find talent and get them shows. It’s like night and day really. Ten years is a long time when it comes to that sort of thing.

Whatever happened to the gigs in the Hard Rock Café?

We did a couple of all ages shows, I think it was three, but the Hard Rock Café had an issue with the all ages thing as they weren’t comfortable with it. They just had a restaurant license and I don’t think they were happy with all the youngsters running around, so those gigs had to be knocked on the head. It was a shame because it was a good spot.

It was the logical place for a rock gig.

Yeah, the few gigs we did were really good, but they were really hard to work with and it became problematic doing shows there. We had the last one in 2003, they got cold feet and we had to knock it on the head.

Looking back to the five year anniversary, it was a much smaller event. Only four bands played it, but it was a free gig and you literally couldn’t move. How do you think that compared to the ten year extravaganza?

Well, as with the ten year thing, all the bands that played were very personal. I had a lot of history with those boys, and that included Firebird as well. There were bands that I had done a lot of work with and that were friends as well, and it wasn’t really an event at the time, but it suited us doing a free show and investing the money that we did was unusual.

It was certainly a lot of fun to do and pretty much for the same reasons – there were cool bands that we liked, doing their thing and enjoying it. Again with the ten year thing, it was the same idea, a big day out.

You done it for free too, what was the reasoning behind that?

Well we had decided to give it a bit of an edge and do something a bit different, do it for free and just take the hit on it. We had the money at the time to do that, so we just decided to pay they expenses on it and give the punters something for their support over the years.

Even today a lot of people will come to RocKD gigs without even knowing who’s playing, or even liking the bands, but they’ll come and support us, so it was a way of giving something back to the people that had been faithful.

A lot of those faces are still around and still come down to support the shows, so it was just a nice way to say thank you to everybody, cheers for five years of sticking with us through thick and thin – people like yourself that I’ve known for ten years and who have come to shows that you’ve had no interest in, and we’re grateful for that because it’s helped us survive all these years.

What actually prompted the move from Katy’s to The Limelight? I remember Katy’s wasn’t exactly being packed out at the time, and the move to a bigger venue seemed like a gamble.

It was kind of by accident. I was planning my schedules for that month of May last year, there were five Saturdays in that month, but three of the shows wanted to be in The Limelight as they were all doing album launches.

It was Interrogate, Sinocence and A Little Bitter, and they were all thinking of ways to make it a bigger and better show, so when I asked the guys from CDC if I could do it, they said I could ship in there on a temporary basis and see how it goes, and if you’re happy enough in there then you can move in there forever.

And I felt it was a good idea because I’ve always liked the idea of giving the bands a proper gig, and by proper I mean a big stage and a big PA and the lights and the facilities The Limelight has. You make it a better gig for the bands and a better experience for the punters. They offered us a later timeslot as well, kicking off at 5 o’clock as opposed to half 3, which was better for everyone else involved. I’ve enjoyed being in The Limelight these late 13 months and it’s worked for us.

Sometimes the crowds are the same, and when it’s quiet in Katy’s it’s a lot quieter in The Limelight, but overall the atmosphere is quite good and it’s a much better gig for the bands in question. That was the main reasons for doing it.

Who all is involved with the DP these days? I know Colin moved away…

Jennifer had a couple of kids so she takes a bit of a back seat, Colin lives in Serbia now. Pete from Condemned helps out an awful lot, Andy from No Grace Given gives me a hand with certain things, and a few other folks as well. It’s pretty cool.

With DP gigs, you don’t seem to show a preference for genre. What’s the ideal James Loveday gig?

My preference is for the doom and death metal stuff, and a bit of black metal, so locally I’m into Condemned, Overoth, Honey For Christ, but I do love my classic rock; I’m a big Deep Purple fan and bands of that ilk, like Hunger’s Mother, Arcane, Dead Zebra, but live music generally really does it for me irrespective of genre, but if I had to pick it would definitely be the heavier end of things I’d be into myself. It’s a very good question. I like stuff like Manowar, I’m a big Judas Priest fan, I love my trad metal as well. Basically if it’s heavy it tends to be my bag.

Attendance-wise, who have been the big hitters and damp squibs? I’m thinking of the Cannibal Corpse / Kreator shows…

Well certainly first time round Cannibal Corpse didn’t really hit the mark considering they’re a bigger band, which in those days was a real problem. It was only around 130 which was nowhere near what we needed and that was disappointing.

But that’s something we learn from, it was an experience we’ve never forgotten. I think the worst turn out we’ve had ever was for Warning / The River / Against Nature which was a shame because the gig was amazing, but unfortunately 15 people turned up on a Sunday night.

Big hitters, certainly Amon Amarth last year really was amazing, the biggest thing we’ve ever been involved in turnout-wise. Other big hitters were Clutch in 2005, Bolt Thrower this year, the Decade as well.

Smaller shows, I’m thinking of when they moved us into Auntie Annies for the 2002 world cup, a band called Tank 24, a punky kinda band from here, unfortunately pulled 17 or 18 people. Oliver/Dawson Saxon got like 30 people, My Ruin was poorly attended with 35 people in the Spring, Amen in 2007 pulled like 65 heads which was very poor for them. We seem to get these bands on the way down! When those bands played Belfast previously they did really well. Amen did 300 first time around.

Do you ever become disheartened when you put so much into a gig and not a lot of people turn up?

Sometimes you get a bit disheartened, but I tend to stay positive, because people in bands, and people like myself, tend to play for those who DO come rather than for those who don’t. Everyone who doesn’t go to a show has a reason, and I think that’s fair enough.

I don’t go to as many shows that I would like to, I have other commitments going on, and I think generally that’s how most people are in their lives. I’m okay with that. I don’t believe in apathy as such, people have their valid reasons, and you have to believe that. I’m happy that bands playing and folk who attend are being entertained.

People don’t tend to grasp the sheer amount of work that goes on behind the scenes, I remember reading Iron Hearse’s 2007 tour diary and they had so much stuff about their RocKD gig that I’d never have thought of.

I think it’s important that bands get looked after to a decent standard, get a few beers and something to eat. It goes a long way to making someone feel welcome, and especially when coming to Northern Ireland, it’s hard – you can’t just jump in your car, drive and do a show like you would if you were living in London. You have to get a ferry, get a flight, and it’s a bit of an effort. It hasn’t taken them an hour and £20 in petrol, it’s taken them 6 hours an £300 on flights and you have to give them something, even if you can’t guarantee a big crowd.

How does a married man like yourself not get endless spousal abuse for spending every weekend in the pub?

Ha ha! Good question! Well Sarah is generally pretty good with what I have to do and she realizes that to make this thing work takes a lot of effort, and as long as I can guarantee our time together at some point, that’s kinda the trade-off.

Do you ever consider packing it in and sticking your feet up on a Saturday instead?

I would get bored! I mean when I take breaks in summer and in January, for the first two weeks I’m like “This is great, a bit of peace” and after two weeks it’s like “Right, I’m bored now” and I’m looking for the next thing to do. I like to have something going on, whether it’s press for the gigs to sort out, posters for the gig to do, there’s always something that has to be done and plenty of motivation to keep it going. I mean the breaks are nice, but doing the rock is nicer.

Any funny backstage stories or mad antics that you can tell?

Hmm, that’s quite a good question. Not really, as most bands are pretty well behaved when they’re here and no-one’s really behaved badly or given me any kind of grief at all, they’re just happy to be here and enjoy the show. Nothing’s really coming to mind here, which is strange, because at some point they have to happen, but everyone’s generally kind of cool.

You’ve done hundreds of gigs over the years, what have been the highlights between the local and international bands?

Excellent question! Anathema were a highlight, that was the best show I ever did, amazing. Amazing. They were just brilliant.

Two hours of the BEST tunes, the atmosphere was awesome, they were on fire, very cool to deal with. The pindrop hush between tunes was amazing, it was a really, really good experience. I really enjoyed it. Locally, I would have to say one of the very early Honey For Christ performances in Katy Daly’s in 2000, the first time they played ‘Orion Dust.’

Was that the EP launch? That was my first ever RocKD.

Yeah, it was actually the EP launch, for ‘Soul Erosion,’ I’ll never forget the first time I ever heard ‘Orion Dust’ and I’ll always remember the bottles on the shelves behind the drumkit shaking during the heavy breakdown – I just thought “This is something a bit special.” It was summertime and it was bunged, the atmosphere was intense, and it sticks out as one of my favourite local performances. They were absolutely brilliant.

From a decade of hitting DP shows, I’ve never once seen you flustered or lose your temper. Ever went mad at a band?

I’ve had one or two moments of RAGE with some bands but it’s not really my style or my nature to get overly oppressive with people. I take a more velvet glove approach to things and the more laid back you are, the easier it is to handle certain situations. I try to keep it on an even keel.

How do you get on with the other Irish promoters?

I have a good history with H, we get on very well and a lot of good stuff we’ve done over the years has come from him, we have a good relationship. A lot of cool shows in Belfast wouldn’t have happened without him, he’s a cool guy and I have a lot of time for him. I’ve been grateful for his support and advice.

Are there any split-up bands from ten years ago that you’d like to see playing again?

I’d like to see Zerotonin back together, I thought they were a great band and they’re the ones I’d most like to see resurrected. They were grafters too.

When you were growing up, did you ever see yourself as the promoter instead of the punter?

No, not really. I’ve always led a metal life since the age of 14 and in all the years prior to the Project, I’ve always had the notion of doing something. I knew I wasn’t going to be in a band, but I always wanted to do something.

I never saw it as being a promoter as such, but I wanted to make an impact and get involved with heavy metal in some way. If you said to me at 15 that I’d be a promoter at 36, I wouldn’t have even known what that meant. It’s a different universe when you’re a kid.

What about Distortion Project Records?

Yeah, that was something we did with Stand-Up Guy, Interrogate as well. We dabbled in it with the compilation album that we released in 2002, and Spindrift as well, we put their stuff out. Again, it was part of that whole idea of a Project, having lots of different things going on.

We really sharpened the focus on Stand-Up Guy because we were involved in managing them, and they were frustrated as they believed they had the talent to be better than they were, but they seemed to lack the missing link of being able to get their stuff released, so we decided that we would try and do that for them, so we set it up as a proper label, and the idea was to make the label as big as the gig stuff.

We got involved with Shell Shock, who helped us put out the Stand-Up Guy CDs and the Black Sun album into HMV, and the online sales. CD Baby helped us with that as well.

But as time went by, I sort of realized that the live stuff was more rewarding, and it got to the point that, given the money involved in bankrolling releases like that, I had to make a choice where to focus my energies and my time, and I felt that I got more out of the gigs.

Is the label defunct now?

Yeah, it is. I mean still had a deal with Shell Shock for the Interrogate CD, but they didn’t bite on that one, so that was the death knell for it really.

Did you get much support from the local scene for the releases?

It was generally very supportive, we did the Stand-Up CD launches and a lot of people came down at the time. There weren’t a lot of bands doing album launches at that time in 2004, so people were into it, and most of the sales came locally, which we were grateful for. I felt we were breaking new ground with ‘In Fixation, Conspire’ and it was something I was proud of.

Have you any tips for budding promoters who think they see a gap in the market?

Don’t do it! *laughs*

Naah, I would say DO do it, but be prepared for some hard times, it’s not easy, and the financial side of things can put people off, but just realize and understand that if you are going to do it, and the show goes wrong, it’s not necessarily the end, it’s a real peaks and troughs thing.

If you think you have an angle, then I say go for it. I think a healthy, creative pool of individuals promoting shows makes a better experience for the bands and the punters. It’s a positive thing, but be prepared for setbacks.

What are your plans for the next decade of aggression?

More of the same! There’s still a lot of stuff that needs to be done, loads of bands I haven’t had the pleasure of working with yet that I’d like to get my hands on, still a lot of touring to be done, lots of shows to do and things to be achieved.

I don’t see it as being finite; I don’t think at this stage in my life I can say that everything I’ve wanted to do has been done. You never know what’s around the corner and I’m looking at that in a positive way, Belfast has a good metal scene and I want to keep the bands coming, more rock!

Ever considered an outdoor festival, or a Day Of Darkness style two day event?

I don’t think I would actually, because of the money involved. I’ve seen others do it and not end up well financially. It’s not something I plan to commit to, you can win big or you can lose big, and I might not rule it out for the future, but certainly in terms of the next few years it’s not something I plan to do.

Lastly, and this is something people always ask – after ten years of the Project, have you actually made any money out of it?

*laughs* NO! No, the Project pays for itself pretty much, but in terms of any financial gain for me, I’ve never taken a penny out of it. I don’t need to, I have a day job and that pays the mortgage, the bills and everything else. Anything that we make goes back into it, and there are still times I’ve had to pay for things myself. There’s no money in metal! *laughs* It’s a labour of love.

James, that’s it. Any final thoughts or remarks?

I enjoyed that immensely! I suppose I should really say that everything that’s good about my life in the last ten years has come from the Project, every friend I’ve made and every cool thing that’s happened to me has been because of this.

All my pals that I’ve met now I’d never have met if not for the Project, and it’s been a thrill as much as sometimes stressful. It’s been so good so much of the time and I don’t think I’d change any of it. Earlier on you said it had been a big, big part of my life, and I don’t think without that I’d be the person I am now, so it has shaped my outlook and all the people I know and love are because of this. It’s been a great journey.

Interview by Donal McBrien. Pictures by Jane Oliver ::: 30/06/10