While some cities are branded for their one specific genre or style of music, the local scene of Austin, Texas is one that blends and blurs convention. Austin is a haven for those who like to get weird, and this comes to no surprise to anyone has the chance of going to see their favorite band perform there. But amongst the rarities and oddities, a presentation that has the likes of Earth, Tim Hecker, Lil Ugly Mane, BEAK>, Godflesh, and Faust, is simply a spectacle that defines this city for it’s open minded and artistic ethic. That presentation is Oblivion Access Festival. Beyond the phenomenal talent is a story of two phenomenal bookers, Dusty Brooks and Dorian Domi. From competing against each other in the local punk and metal scene in Austin, to organizing Oblivion Access Fest through its infancy, weathering the lockdown, and emerging out the other end victorious, Brooks and Domi’s is a story of how two  entities with a common goal and a love of metal now find themselves curating the most important underground and experimental music showcase of 2023.

For most of us, turning onto new genres is something typically shared by friends in high school in the back of a hotboxed Nissan Altima, but rather, for festival organizer Dorian Domi, he was born into it. “My parents, growing up, listened to a lot of different types of music, and showed me a lot. My dad was also a dj when i was growing up, so he would play a lot of electronic music, he would play a lot of music across the board, but a lot of hip hop, electronic and experimental music my parents showed me and just kinda went forward from there. When i was a kid, i liked Prodigy and Wu Tang Clan. just a bunch of different stuff”, exclaims Domi. Having established his reputation early on as one of Austin’s premier music bookers in 2016, his roots as a youth reflect his taste today. With a budding name within the fledgling Austin scene, came notoriety and attention, which caught the ear of fellow booker and current partner, Dusty Brooks. In contrast to Domi, however, Brooks’ childhood experiences with music were admittedly more humble, yet despite that, remain a huge influence til this day. “My story is not as cool,” says Brooks, “I was a nineties kid and lived in the middle of nowhere, Texas. I grew up listening to top 40 radio and also listened to a lot of country and oldies with my dad. I guess in the mid to late nineties, when Napster came around and we finally got the internet, I would download stuff I saw in guitar magazines, and oddly enough, in ‘97 or ‘98, I stumbled across Godflesh, and i was like ‘oh, this is what this band sounds like!” after seeing the Streetcleaner album cover in my guitar magazines, in the back where you would find the pages to order CDs from. So when Napster came around I downloaded it and have been a fan ever since.”

While today, Domi and Brooks maintain a stellar partnership, the likes of which sees the festival enter its 6th year, it was not always this way. In fact, their origin is one of almost adversarial roots, with Dorian even snaking one of Dusty’s bookings before their eventual pairing. “We met in passing at a Sleep show in 2016, but we met for the first time professionally in 2017. We had a mutual friend, Dusty's partner at the time, Jackie, and I was booking similar shows, and we were competitive, I guess. I mean I stole a show of his once! But yeah, I wanted to meet with him, hearing a lot from him from Jackie, and being a fan of what he was doing, and then when we met, we both wanted to do a festival at the same time, it just kind of made sense to talk about wanting to work together.” Despite having the rug pulled from beneath, Dusty chose to pursue the bigger picture, rather than chase the trivialities of a pissing contest.  “He definitely got my attention when he stole that show from me,” says Brooks, “I had the doom band Conan booked at the bar I used to bartend at, and their agent contacted me saying ‘unfortunately we have to cancel this, were moving the show to a larger venue, and not only did he steal the show, but he added Eyehategod, just as a one-up. And so he had my attention, and after that, my girlfriend at the time, she was very smart and a very wise person, while I was sitting around my house fuming, thinking about how i could get back at this kid for stealing the show from me, suggested, ‘Why don't you partner up with him instead of trying to be his competitor? He is clearly interested in what you're doing.’ And to this day, I still credit her for being that initial glue that kept us together.”

With the early successes, the pair knew they could do more and go bigger. Then, in spring of 2020, the nation was blindsided by the pandemic. Despite it all, the festival continued to take shape. Domi explains, “When we went on lockdown, we were working on a rebrand and going the biggest that we could, but at the same time we were already booking for 2021. When we were finally able to do the festival after two years of postponement, we basically had two festivals merged together as this giant thing. We had 110 bands last year, and the biggest festival we had done before that was about 35, maybe 40 bands.” Brooks further elaborated the need to imbue not just himself with confidence, but also bands, agents, and fans, who all patiently awaited the final decision. “Going through Covid, we went silent for several months, because we had no idea what was going on or what to expect. We never cancelled the festival, we just postponed it, and so basically, the hardest part for me personally was trying to steer a ship in total darkness. Like, I don't where to take this, I don't know, should we cancel it and refund everyone, or should we just kinda hang tight and hopefully on the other end of this, come out of the gates strong,” says Brooks. “Ultimately, thats what we did, and I guess the tricky part of this was keeping all the bands on we’ve booked since 2019, and also convincing these new bands, that yes this is worth you confirming. Another thing was keeping all the ticket holders happy, and somehow we came out the other end okay.”

With no shortage of exciting bands gracing the city across a host of different venues, Oblivion Access Festival’s lineup is certainly out of left field. From groups like Drain, to Tim Hecker and everything in between, Domi details how the process took place, stating, “We usually always talked about metal, and after 2018 happened I remember asking ‘so, what other music do you like?’ And we started talking about Three Six Mafia, Boy Harsher, Drab Majesty, just all this shit.” Brooks adds, “The hip hop, goth, industrial stuff, stuff that we like, but we never had the outlet to book, or so we thought. Then one day, its like, were promoters, we can book whatever we want.” From downloading Godflesh on Napster in 1998, to booking them as headliners years for this year’s festival, things certainly seem to have come full circle for Dusty Brooks. “I’m glad that our passion, and the music that we like, other people are this excited about…having Godflesh on our lineup and finally making this booking happen, having been a fan for 25 years, its kinda surreal. Its always surreal when you book a band that you're a fan of, but I'm really excited to see Godflesh, I’ve never seen them before. For some of these bands that I’m personally a huge fan of, theres always a tinge of selfishness, I wanna these this band play with these bands, lets try to make it happen. Whats kinda crazy, is at the end of the day, people think, ‘yeah, thats a really good lineup, lets go see that’, and when it’s all said and done we’re just two music fans as well, we just book stuff.” Dorian also felt his just rewards, echoing a similar sentiment. “For me, the main full circle moment for me is the band BEAK>, I’m a huge fan of them, and Geoff Barrow, the drummer of BEAK>, he’s also in Portishead, and that was a huge full circle moment for me because I’ve always loved Portishead and grew up on them as well. Them playing with the festival with Faust, they’re amazing, and everyone on the festival is kinda like a dream come true, with such a showcase on experimental music from the 60s. Beyond that, the reunion of Yellow Swans is a big one for me as well, they haven’t played in 15 years and having that reunion take place at the festival was something i didn't think would ever really be possible, but we tried for it and we did it.”

Oblivion Access Festival is June 15th - 18th in Austin, Texas. For fans of industrial, lo-fi, soundscape, metal, hardcore experimental, and generally heavy music, this is the place to be. Tickets are still available for certain shows, so be sure to check which venues are hosting particular performances. Either way, its guaranteed to be a blast, with a massive host of groups especially curated by Dusty and Dorian, you are bound to find something that will captivate or surprise you. “As weird as Austin claims to be, I really strive for us personally to be a proper representation of keeping Austin weird, and I’d like to think we try to stay 1/2 to a full step ahead of the curve,” says Brooks.