Carving an identity: Heavy NFLD Fest expanding 'organized chaos' across the island

An unlikely pair of musicians is trying to grow Newfoundland's heavy music scene — by taking the shows on the road.

In St. John's, Greg Ravengrave — a Newfoundland expat who now lives in Montreal — and Ben Chapman-Smith, a Toronto-born musician and event organizer who now lives on the island, have taken an ambitious approach to their goal: 30 bands, some local and some not, over three days and six shows.

"Being from out of province, I was really trying to create connections between this scene and other Atlantic cities so we could get artists coming out here and going out there," said Chapman-Smith of Heavy NFLD Fest — a celebration of Newfoundland's alternative music scene that brings together local and Canadian bands in genres like metal, punk, and hardcore.

The festival is now in its third year.

Ravengrave handles the touring bands and social media. Chapman-Smith does the bulk of the organizational work. Together they believe it's the cross-pollination of their involvement in music scenes outside of Newfoundland and Labrador that is helping them along.

"We had some traction from our own touring, and we met a bunch of bands that wanted to come out," said Chapman-Smith.

This year, though, they're hoping to grow the scene by setting up a touring route across the province, hoping to make it more worthwhile for outside bands to make the expensive trip up to Newfoundland, and potentially drawing in more interest from the industry with possible funding opportunities.

But the plan isn't without roadblocks.

It can be tough finding a mainstay venue or two in central Newfoundland, and it's not always easy to attract bands who hold anti-establishment views and are content to play mostly for their friends.

Over the years, the alternative scene has taken hits from the COVID-19, seen the removal of a downtown space known as The Deck as a communal hub, and an evolving audience who've shifted away from genres like emo, doom metal, and stoner rock toward hardcore.

Thrash metal trio Paranoia of Lark Harbour — a favourite of both organizers, and one of the bands on this year's festival lineup — isn't one of them.

"We plan to try and get some shows in places like Montreal, Toronto and Halifax, as well as put a full length album out," said bassist Ryder Walters. "We really just want to try and take this thing as far as we can go."

Meanwhile, despite the evolution in genres and tastes, Chapman-Smith said one thing hasn't changed — what attracts people to the heavy music scene in the first place.

He works by day as a music educator and has seen people make the conversion, partly, he says, because of the power of live music, but also the community.

"There is a kind of organized chaos factor to the live shows that is really exciting," he said. "It's an opportunity where you can be loud, bounce off the walls, and go crazy, and it's actually accepted.… It gives you an identity. For a lot of young people, it's a chance to carve out who they are."

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