With help from Trent Reznor, Dave "Rave" Ogilvie has made the leap from producer/mixer for the likes of Nine Inch Nails, David Bowie, Marilyn Manson and Skinny Puppy to recording artist with It Dreams, the debut from his own project, Jakalope.
"Trent was my sounding board for the whole record," Ogilvie says of the NIN frontman, who co-wrote four songs during down time from recording the upcoming NIN album With Teeth. "For me to come from behind the scenes to actually make an album was a whole new thing. He would laugh and say, 'Now, you get to go through this.'"
It Dreams also features Babes in Toyland's Kat Bjelland, Monster Magnet's Phil Caivano, members of Sloan and more than a dozen other of Ogilvie's musical friends. "Every single person I contacted was willing," he says, somewhat surprised.
Though the music -- an intense, program-heavy pop sound -- was intact, Jakalope was missing a crucial piece: the vocals. Ogilvie was sick of "growly, out-of-tune" male voices and couldn't stand the "cute girl" approach, but he knew the material called for a female singer.
Enter Katie Biever, a.k.a. Katie B, who was working as the receptionist at Warehouse Studios in Vancouver, where most of the Jakalope tracks were recorded. Biever, who has previously provided backing vocals for pop star Mandy Moore, sang just two songs for Ogilvie before he was sold. The accomplished sound manipulator hardly tinkered with her vocals. "There's not a lot of trickery to make Katie what she is."
Ogilvie is currently looking for a U.S. deal for It Dreams, available now as an import, and hopes to have the album in stores by year's end.