David Bowie, Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson, Motley Crue, The Grapes of Wrath, Killing Joke, The Odds, Violent Femmes, Skinny Puppy, and the client list goes on…
Dave Ogilvie has seen a lot in his years as a record producer, mixing engineer and musician. Always leaning on the innovative, looking for what’s new, and not afraid to venture outside his boundaries, Dave’s journey has led him around the world and back to Vancouver.
Dave’s career began in the Rainy City as assistant engineer to Bruce Fairbairn. Soon, the 20-something began taking on projects of his own, usually in the wee hours of the night. His first producer credit was on 54-40’s critically acclaimed “Green Record”.
“I was Bruce's guy at Mushroom. I was assisting on a 54-40 session, and they got sick of the person they were working with and said, "What are the chances of you producing? Would you like to produce some tracks for us? I was like, Wow, I 'd love to.”
Right around this time, Dave began working with Industrial Rock pioneers Skinny Puppy. He eventually went on to produce, engineer and mix 9 albums and 10 12” singles for the band. Dave’s involvement helped the Puppy break new ground, and at the same time, he established himself as a pioneer of this new, exciting sound that mixed electronic, metal and goth music.
“With Skinny Puppy, I got to travel a lot, I met Al Jorgenson from Ministry, ended up working with him a lot, I met Trent with Nine Inch Nails, Severed Heads from Australia, and all of a sudden, I was able to leave the realm of Vancouver and get into the international market, which is a hard thing to do.”
Dave built a reputation early on for experimenting with new sounds, new mediums, and pioneering the use of computers.
“Back when computers first came along, I was like, Bring it on! Computers are a necessity for us now, and to use them in music is just a blessing.”
Industrial heavyweight Trent Reznor has been a staunch supporter of Dave’s work, bringing him in to work on some heavy-duty projects over the years. The two co-produced Marilyn Manson’s Platinum-selling record 'Anti-Christ Superstar'. Dave on working with Manson:
“Making that record was a lot of work, because we had to create everything from scratch. Basically all we did was work, and then once and a while we’d go out to a movie and I’d hate it, because we’d be ready to leave, but we’d have to wait for Manson to put his make-up on.”
Fast-forward to 1997 and none other than Motley Crue came to Dave to work on their album “Generation Swine”. The band decided they wanted to re-record their hit single “Shout at the Devil.” There’s an interesting story behind this song, and lead singer Vince Neil’s feelings might have been hurt a bit.
“We get down to doing vocals, and Vince Neil could not even come close to hitting it, and so finally, I just cut my losses and I went to Tommy & Nicki and said, “I gotta use the old vocals”. I fit the old vocals from the original song into this whole new recording. This was a fun thing. I re-recorded the whole song, everything, all the instruments, except for the vocals, which was all the original tracks. Ahh the fun things you get to do.”
Another fun thing Dave worked on was Nine Inch Nails song “The Perfect Drug”. The song was written for the David Lynch film Lost Highway with subsequent re-mixes released in an EP, “The Perfect Drug Versions", or Halo 11.
“I got to deal with David Lynch while we were doing this, and that was a whole other concept. Here’s a filmmaker that I love, and he’s turning to me going, “It’s really nice, Dave, but I think it should be a little more blue.” I looked at Trent, and he’d been dealing with this guy for like 3 weeks. Once again, it pushes your boundaries. What does he mean? What does blue mean? That’s how he dealt with things, was all in colors. It’s really cool.”
The song is the most successful single in Canada, sitting in the Canadian charts for 208 weeks.
Another Reznor-connection came with the re-mix of “I’m Afraid of Americans” by David Bowie. Ogilvie produced a re-mix of the track, featuring rapper Ice Cube. Dave says he narrowly averted disaster with this song. He sent the tracks to Ice Cube in L.A. where Cube would add his own vocals and send the track back for mixing.
“I put the tape on, and I see they’ve done 4 vocal tracks. So I put on the 1st track and it’s West Side Connection and Ice Cube going “Yeah. Yeah. Come On.” And you can hear them opening beers and smoking joints. Track 2, more of the same. I guess it’s gonna be on these last 2 tracks. Track 3, more of the same. Track 4, I got a 20-second part of rapping, that’s it. We just paid 25 Grand, and they gave us nothing."
Despite this disappointment, Dave still managed to turn the track into something interesting. Looping Ice Cube’s vocals with David Bowie’s is like something from another planet, which must have pleased the Bowie camp. The track was released as part of a CD/Vinyl Single which was released in the U.S. by Virgin.
With such massive success under his belt, Dave soon had record execs calling him:
“This record label approached me, and said, “Do you have any music that YOU want to do?” I said yes, but I never have time, I'm always working on other people's records. They said “Why don't you give us some of your demos” but I didn't have any at the time. I had pieces of songs. I didn't have a singer or anything, but I told them, “Yes I have a singer” and I thought of Katie B (now Katie Rox). I liked her, I liked the sound of her voice, so I approached her and said, “Do you want to sing on some songs? I think I have a record deal, but I don't have a band.“ We did some demos, it turned into Jakalope, and all of a sudden, I had a record deal, and this whole new world opened up for me, being in a band and labels and all that. The last four years, I've been seeing a whole different side of it. It's been a real learning process, and that brings me up to speed of where I am today.”
Jakalope lives on with new singer Chrystal Leigh, formerly of The Perfect Strangers and Kelowna band “Closing Iris”.
Next up for Dave “Rave” Ogilvie:
Tool front-man Maynard’s side project: PUSCIFER! Dave re-mixed a track called “Momma Sed” off the new album called “V is For Viagra”.
You can be sure of more boundary-smashing music coming from Dave Ogilvie. Here is a little insight on his recipe for success:
“You can’t be lazy. If you want to be lazy, nobody’s gonna notice you.” (Dave “Rave” Ogilvie)
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