Kuumba Artist Feature: Denz McFarlane
Harbourfront Centre’s Kuumba festival is spotlighting a different Black artist each day of February. Today we’re sharing the story of Denz McFarlane.
Kaboom! Guitar riffs and drums blare out. Brain bashing, head banging, screamy: it’s the kind of music that transports you to a dimly lit dive bar, sweaty and boozy, where people crash against the walls to the sound of melting rebellion. Combative, ferocious and blistering, the OBGMs (an acronym for The Ooh Baby Gimme Mores) are punk rock at its best. In a recent interview with NOW Magazine, Denz McFarlane, the band’s singer/guitarist, put it succinctly: “We don’t believe in playing by the rules. We want you to like us because we’re fucking Nirvana, The Beatles and the Rolling Stones. We’re out here doing different shit that you haven’t heard before. And you should love it.”
Taking up that kind of space hasn’t always been easy. The OBGMs were founded in 2007 as a rebellion against Black stereotypes in music. “As Black people, we were expected to be rappers or R&B singers, and I wanted to do something impactful and different. Every year was a grind, tackling stereotypes in the loudest and most aggressive way.” The grind paid off, though, as The OBGMs have shared the stage with some of the top names in alternative rock, such as Saul Williams, Arkells, July Talk and Bad Brains. Denz stresses the importance of hard work and perseverance, of overcoming the doubts that percolate when things don’t go the way you want. “Hard work is necessary to success. Hard work does not mean working hard. It may just mean you have to put slightly more time in. Time doesn’t cost you anything but time. Put in the time to achieve your goals then put in more.”
Though he’s powered through barriers, Denz feels rage towards the invisibility of Black artists in alternative rock, so much so that the band’s most recent album, The Ends, is about that. He’s observed a shocking lack of recognition for Black artists in alternative music, not just in Canadian arts foundations but in general, and finds it demeaning. “Black artists are most often recognized for being pioneers within hip hop and R&B. However, Black people invented rock music as well,” he adds. He feels that organizations aiming to uplift and fund Black artists typically aren’t looking at alternative music, and he believes that artists pushing creative barriers in this genre, or any genre, should be given due recognition.
As with so much in his career, Denz took things into his own hands and made his own path. During the pandemic, he started an organization, Burn Industry, to uplift BIPOC artists. He obtained $60,000 in grant money to assist artists with their projects, and learned how to shoot and edit videos so he could create music videos for artists who lack access to the granting system. His goal is to create an ecosystem for BIPOC artists to share knowledge and resources, and to access and navigate the music industry, regardless of what genre of music speaks to them.
Denz McFarlane is a guitarist and lead singer for The OBGMs. The OBGMs’ new album The Ends was released in late 2020. Through Kuumba and Wavelength Music, they will be performing a livestream show on February 26, 9–10pm. You can register for the event here. You can find their work on Instagram (@theobgms) and website (www.theobgms.com). You can follow Denz McFarlane and Burn Industry, his new charity, on Instagram (@lifebydenz + @burn.industry).
