By Morgan James
Rogue Ogre is a band with a lot of heart. The trio plays live with a passion. Although they are a fairly new band (just one year old), these guys have racked up their show count by playing with many other popular local bands at venues such as The Hood, Club 5, and Plan B. I spoke with Donny Browne (Lead Guitar), Xan “Abyss” Raymond (Vocals and Bass), and Patrick Toft (Drums and Percussion) to hear more about what this energetic band is up to and the direction they are headed.
MJ: How does Rogue Ogre write songs? What inspires your music?
XR: “A lot of our process is just jamming and occasionally finding those great riffs or themes or rhythms or melodies and just vamping on those. Don and I also write riffs in our spare time, practice them with each other when we jam, and eventually bring Pat on to finalize it, which doesn’t just mean putting drums down, but also adding sections on, or modifying riffs so that they don’t get too repetitive. As for consistent themes, I’d say magic, sex, violence, drugs, exile and darkness, and humor; those all probably show up in our music as well as our lyrics. So do comic books and stuff like that though. I think our songs are just us being our everyday weird selves in musical form. Whatever drives us in life drives us in art, too.”
PT: “We do all have a share in the scaffolding of the songs, but mostly so far it’s been Xan that writes most of the starting riffs and lyrics, usually we flow from a 20-30 minute improv at the beginning of each practice that helps us warm up. Our genre is a whole different story because were all into similar music but differ in style. We love it because it brings originality into the mix and that’s where the psych-thrash songs we have now are born, some punk more than others but we know how to go chill real quick. We play because we love it.”
MJ: Share with our readers what it feels like to attend a Rogue Ogre show.
XR: “Oh, I know this one: our opening song is never the same song twice. Also, our opening songs might never get played again. Also our opening songs are usually jokes. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a band make whole songs out of stupid jokes as often as we do. Also, in that way, you never fully know what to expect with our set. We like punk and thrash and all that good stuff we typically represent ourselves as a psychedelic band. Also, sometimes we jam with our audience. We do our best to keep things interesting and fresh.”
DB: “I’d like to believe that each of us have our own style and stage presence. When you look at most bands, a lot of them dress alike, act alike, have the same sort of personality, and what sets us apart is that we are just different from each other, yet alike in so many ways….like the A-Team! For those reading, you can expect our shows to be loud, trippy, and quite bluesy with a drop of an adrenaline rush. We’re loud, we’re high octane speed, and we can get rally into the low down dirty of rock as well, so expect a great time!”
MJ: Do you have a couple great or funny memories to share?
XR: “Honestly, there’s some incredible talent in this valley, I think some of the artists out here could become international, if discovered. But I might be biased. Some of the best bands we’ve played with, in my opinion, are Atala, Fight Like a Girl, The Kathys, Scarlet Lady, Panzram, Kill the Radio and Spankshaft. It feels like I didn’t give enough bands props, but I’ve probably played with more bands I like than bands I don’t like.”
DB: “Well, our first gigs we have had starting out just over a year ago, we would go play at the open mic nights in Palm Springs. We were told not to play because we looked like a band that would play ‘too loud.’ I still remember the nervous look on some of them folks’ faces when I was walking in lugging this big Marshall half stack. My top two favorite shows to date are the two recent ones we had at Club 5 & The Hood. The places were packed, so we turned way up and just rocked as hard as we could. Patrick laid out nasty and thunderous drum solos, Xan was grooving harder than ever, I was on the floor soloing feeling the power. It’s the best feeling when everyone is perfectly in sync together as if we’re are all in the same mind almost.”
MJ: Where can our readers find your music?
XR: “I know there are also clips of us live on YouTube and Facebook, but no music videos yet. However, once we get decent recordings, we plan on making every one into a music video. We are currently in the process of writing new songs, and have 3 in the cue, though we have a lot more than that on the way. We also are planning on making a serious demo recording sometime this fall, an actual serious release we can make videos and DIY packages with. Then eventually we’ll record in a studio. As for touring, that’s definitely something we, as a trio, have always wanted to do, but I just lost my car, we’re all broke millennials and a road trip with all of our most prized possessions is just not in the cards right now. If anyone wants to help us out, we’ll probably take it, but we never really expected any doors to open up right away.”
MJ: What are your goals as a band and what is next for you?
DB: “Our goal is to keep up what we got going on and to stick together. We might be band mates but we’re family now. We want to hit the studio, go on tour, go places we’ve never been, and just express ourselves musically. We have upcoming shows at:
8/19 – Blythe, CA @ Patty’s Bar & Grill
9/1 – Thousand Palms, CA @ Plan B Live Entertainment & Cocktails
9/15 – Thousand Palms, CA @ Plan B Entertainment & Cocktails
PT: “I’ll fly high if the wind takes me there. Parasailing.”
MJ: Any other information that you would like to share?
XR: Info- I guess all I can say is we might be looking for a bassist or keyboardist. So, if anyone reading this plays keyboard like Ray Manzarek and wants to basically join a metal band, they should hit us up. Also, I’m not married to playing bass, so if someone wants to play some Rogue Ogre-style bass, they should also hit us up.”
PT: “I just care about this band and the people in it. We never fight. We always get along and we do things on the side. We’re friends and even if we weren’t together musically there’s no doubt in my mind that we would stay friends.”
