Bobbie Dickerson of Black Rose Metal Heart Promotions Interview Part 1

THE METAL PIT: How long have you worked in the Baltimore music scene promoting metal shows?

Bobbie Dickerson: I started promoting shows for friends about 6 or 7 years ago when I was in college. I got involved in promotion more seriously through my involvement with the Flight of the Valkyries festival when it started in 2007, but it wasn’t until early 2010 when I decided to bring FotV to Baltimore that I actually got my LLC and opened my own promotion company, Black Rose Metal Heart Promotions, with the intention of promoting more metal (and punk rock) shows here in the Baltimore area.

For those that aren’t familiar with Flight Of The Valkyries, can you give us a short history of the event and how it came to be? How did you get involved with Flight of the Valkyries?

Bobbie: Flight of the Valkyries is an annual festival dedicated to metal bands with female lead vocalists.
     In the spring of 2007, Nathan Block of SwordLord Productions announced on the ProgPower forum that he had secured the Doro tour for a Saturday in St. Paul, MN and was building a female fronted metal festival around it. Flight of the Valkyries was born and I felt I had to be a part of it. It had always been a dream of mine to have a festival like Metal Female Voices Fest here in the United States and I felt this was my chance to see something like that come to fruition. Immediately after seeing Nathan’s announcement, I contacted him and told him I wanted to do anything I could to help him make this festival a success and become an annual event.
       The festival debuted at Station 4 in St. Paul, MN in June of 2007, featuring 8 bands including Doro, Vainglory, The Ottoman Empire (later known as Luna Mortis), and Sirens of Titan. Chris Caffery of Savatage also performed at that show, since he was touring with Doro as her supporting act. There was no way Nathan or I was going to turn away the opportunity to see him play live, even to keep the theme of the festival. Chris was very gracious. He even cracked a few jokes from the stage and later posted a statement online about “playing my first show as a lesbian.” (http://www.bravewords.com/news/68350)
             We had 2 more great years in Minnesota in June of 2008 and 2009, featuring acts such as Unexpect, Shadowside, Benedictum, Luna Mortis, Todesbonden, Hydrogyn, and A.D.D. Having seen limited success in St. Paul, as well as due to other personal commitments in 2010, Nathan decided not to do another festival in Minnesota at that time. Not wanting to let a year lapse without another FotV festival to attend (and given that Nathan considered me a co-founder of the festival), I asked Nathan if he would mind if I put together an edition of the festival here in Baltimore using the Flight of the Valkyries name. Last year, in November of 2010, a new fall edition of Flight of the Valkyries took place in Baltimore, MD at The Ottobar. Since the festival needed a chance to re-establish itself in a new market, we kept the event that year as more of a regional festival, focusing on east coast bands including headliner Black Widow USA, Operatika, River Runs Scarlet, A Sound of Thunder, Suhgarim, and Cassandra Syndrome. Because of the success and positive response we saw at last year’s festival, I decided to continue Flight of the Valkyries annually in Baltimore.
        I have always thought of Flight of the Valkyries as the Premier Female Fronted Metal Fest for the US. Even before I was really a promoter, back when I was just more of a fan helping the scene she loved, I thought of it that way. Of course back then, we were the ONLY female fronted metal festival in the U.S. It wasn’t until a year or two later when you saw things like DameNation and Sirens of Metal popping up other places. We are still the longest running female fronted metal fest in the US, and I'd be willing to say the one with the most consistently strong and diverse line-ups year after year (although there have been some other good festivals with solid line-ups out there as well). I guess I am a little biased though. Hahaha!

Tell our readers a little about this year’s FotV festival line up.

This year’s Flight of the Valkyries line-up consists of headliner Benedictum, co-headliners DesDemon and Echoterra, and several strong regional supporting acts Brave, Cassandra Syndrome, Flames of Fury, and Serpent Witch.

I could sit here for hours and tell you how amazing, talented and hard-working each of these bands are, but I think most folks already know that I would never put a band on our bill who I didn’t think was amazing, talented and hard-working. Instead I’ll just give you a brief description of each of their sounds and a link to where your readers can check out more of each of these great bands for themselves:

Benedictum - Traditional heavy metal from the west coast (https://www.Benedictum.net/)

DesDemon - Symphonic power metal from New York (http://www.desdemon.com/)

Echoterra - Symphonic metal with intricate keys, powerful guitars & soaring vocals from Minneapolis, Minnesota (featuring members of Avian, Pyramaze, ex–Visions of Atlantis, and ex–Into Eternity) (https://www.facebook.com/Echoterra)

Brave - Progressive melodic metal with heavy guitars & violin from Dale City, Virginia (featuring members of While Heaven Wept) (http://www.bravemusic.com/)

Cassandra Syndrome - Axe-heavy melodic metal with operatic vocals from Maryland (http://www.cassandrasyndrome.com/)

Flames of Fury – Epic melodic metal blending power, thrash, black & symphonic styles from New York (http://www.flamesoffury.com/)

Serpent Witch – Doom-influenced traditional metal from Maryland (http://www.serpentwitch.com/)

If you could form your dream line up for FotV, what bands would you choose?

Bobbie: Wow! What a question! I’d definitely like to grow the festival to be two days at some point. That means more time for more bands. (Not to mention trying to squeeze 7 or 8 bands onto one day is getting most folks exhausted.)

      I’m almost afraid to say what bands are in my dream line-up for fear of jinxing myself out of ever getting them. There are so many incredible female fronted bands out there on every level and of every metal style that I want to give the opportunity to play this festival. There are many bands that have not yet made it to this country or don’t get the recognition they deserve, which I would love to get in front of metal fans. While there are too many fabulous bands to name them all, a few of the bands I would love to someday have the opportunity to book for FotV would be Girlschool, Holy Moses, Xandria, Crystal Viper, Lana Lane, Amanda Somerville, The Sledge/Leather Project (or a Chastain reunion w/ Leather Leone), Triosphere and Sister Sin. I think that list of bands is a little unbalanced for an actual festival line-up, but damn, would that be a killer show!

Where do you see the FotV festival 5 years from now? Do you see expanding beyond the Baltimore area?

Bobbie: To be honest, I’d be perfectly happy to have a thriving successful festival in one location. We struggled for 3 years to make that happen in Minnesota and that’s part of the reason I opted to try something here on the east coast, where the markets and the metal scene are a little stronger and more closely connected. I know a lot of people have asked when we are going to bring the festival to their city or when are we going to do a tour. To be honest, the logistics of doing this one day and doing it WELL on one day is enough of an undertaking for me right now. Not to mention the financial support that has to go into planning and building a tour like that. I’d really just like to build an amazing annual metal festival that people find worthwhile enough to want to travel there. I’d like it to become a community of people who love and support the same thing – the women of metal - and in many ways it has already become that.

How would you compare FotV to other metal festivals such as New England Hardcore & Metal fest or ProgPower USA?

Bobbie: Small. Hahaha! No seriously, we would love to be at the level of those kinds of festivals someday. ProgPower in particular truly inspires me to make FotV bigger and better every year. (Hell, ProgPower is how Nathan and I met in the first place.) Glenn Harveston does such an amazing job down there in Atlanta every year and he is truly an inspiration to any promoter who really wants to bring underground metal music to a broader range of fans in the US.

For anyone interested in attending this years FotV festival, how can fans purchase tickets? Where can fans go to get more information on FotV?

Bobbie: Tickets for this year’s festival can be purchased through any of our regional bands on the bill (Brave, Cassandra Syndrome, Flames of Fury or Serpent Witch), at Sonar’s box office, or through Sonar’s website.

Here’s the link where you can purchase tickets online: http://sonar.thundertix.com/events/4363/performances

Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule. Is there anything you would like to say to the readers of The Metal Pit?

Bobbie: Thanks to The Metal Pit for inviting me to do this interview! To your readers of The Metal Pit I say: Support the music you love! Share it with others! Our music scene is only as strong as the fans and bands that support it. If you love metal with female vocals, I encourage you to check out the bands on the FotV festival past and present and give them your support. The only way the artists we love can continue to thrive is if we continue to share their greatness with others.