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Three Decades Of Metal With PETER KOTEVSKI From BATTLEGOD PRODUCTIONS · HEAVY Music Interviews

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Go from bad Products that is the longest laughing heavy metal level since nineteen nineties,
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specialized in all genres of heavy metal and rock music worldwide. Yeah,
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man, go for a man, ask you whatever you want to ask me.
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Thanks for joining us today. Are you're welcome? Man? Thank you
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for having me? All right? Pleasure broth. So first year, I
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suppose you get the nuts and bolts of it, Mate, tell us a
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bit more about Battleguard productions and what you actually do gotta good productions. I
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actually sign up bands internationally worldwide, and I do a lot of primo and
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distribution and marketing with them on our international scale. I do with people like
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rock Hard Magazine, big Head Distribution, and few other people that I do
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with around Europe as well. That. Yeah, So I've been doing it
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for many years now and it's you know, it's moments, it has its
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ups and downs, but it's cool, you know. So I suppose basic
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question is, Mate, like, so, what does the band have to
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do actually before looking to join your roster? Well, I like a band
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to be pretty much on the ball when I set our interviews or am I
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expect them to be done by a particular date or by a certain date.
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I would like the band to have a good production when they offer me something.
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Now it's if it's someone that's well known or a known artists or a
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band. I accept hearing their demo material just to get an idea of what
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the stuff is like. So I like a band to being more real liable
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as well at the same time, so I'm more just. I'm not just
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like for business. I like to get to name my band's person on a
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personal level as well, and that's what I've done with all my bands.
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We've all become friends along the way as well, so we're just pretty cool.
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So you know, they say have a mixed business pleasure, but I
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do it all the time and it's simps to work fine for me, so
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I'll continue doing that. Yeah, it's good. Good that way. Do
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you get that sort of more personal nature to you, like, if you
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actually care about the people you're working with, it makes it a lot easier,
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Yes, and certainly it does. And to be on the same page
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with everyone with what's going on at the time, it's very important for both
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parties, for myself and for them to know where we're at now. Even
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if it's like regarding album sales or advertisements or interviews and whatever. I like
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for them to know exactly what I'm actually doing for their product. These days,
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we've got it a lot of with social media went off. Started off,
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we didn't have all these social medias otherways, basically no no Internet when
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up first started. Battle Guy Productors is all a fax machine, you know,
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and postage. So things are a lot easier now where you know,
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if I've got an advertisement out in a magazine, in a foreign magazine,
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I'll take a photo of it and post it and tag everyone on it so
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they get the seed that have actually done work on it. So in the
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past, what I used to do is I used to actually get extra copies
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of the magazine, used to shoot them off to the band. That ended
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up costing a lot of money running with all these keeping all these magazines off
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overseas. And yeah, so dive into it a bit deeper me Like a
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lot of bands these days, especially these days, because there's so much more
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music out there and so many bands. But a lot of bands will start
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off, they'll have a few gigs, you know, like a few people
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say to them like, oh geez, you guys are all right, and
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then all of a sudden they start calling people like yourself or sending them emails.
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But there's there's a lot that a band's got to do before they get
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to the stage and going to someone like yourself. So what's what sorts of
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things would you tell a band to make sure they've got in order before they
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actually start looking for representation. Well, I guess imagery in a lot of
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ways, it means a lot for a band, the way they present themselves.
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It's you know, you get a lot of bands that actually look like
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fans from the from the crowd, from the audience, they actually are on
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stage and playing. Oh that's all good at all. But I think,
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as you said all the time now when you look at bands like just to
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mention, a couple of Pegases, you know, with all the leather and
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tempts, and a couple of others like that, like they actually have imagery,
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you know, which should actually you know, it's sort of theatrical in
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our way. I guess when you're actually watching a band, you are watching
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a band. You're not watching some people wearing Slayer shirts or Eye Maiden or
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whatever. You're actually watching a proper band that have a concept behind their music
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behind what they do, which I think I think it's very very important because
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that's also where I believe professionality lies within a band as well, just an
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originality. I know it's a bit hard to be original these days because it's
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all been done and overdone and rehashed and all of the above, but you
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know there is still something there where a band it can actually still get their
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true identity of who and what they are then being you know, a clone
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of someone, if you know what I mean. So so to just say
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right, we'll say this in steps and very like just say, a band's
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approach you there, you're either signed them or you're potentially going to assign them.
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What services do you provide from there? What services will provide? Yeah,
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well all right, Well the services I'll provide is well, basically we
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have to manufacture albums anyway, so I deal with my distributor, Code seven
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in the UK. They'll make an order. Don't receiving my sales in place
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steet on the band. Now. Of course it helps in the band has
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got multiple album releases, or even the fan base, because at the end
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of the day, it's the fan base has got to help the band to
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sell albums, no matter riff, it's here or overseas. But yeah,
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I do with multiple media agencies that I do with our metal ruts from here
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and sure Shot Works from Germany, which sure Shot Works I mainly use for
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more of the bigger artists like Tony Tony Mills and Tony Martin for my Black
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Sabbath vocals, but you know, for more of their underground, more up
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and coming bands, I go through Metal Rus from Australia. So which is
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I'm actually quite happy with their work. They're very, very good. They've
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got a long way. I've known Michael for many many years that he has
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come a long long way since the first day I met him. But yeah,
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so they get their albums out there in foreign magazines, interviews, reviews,
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rock hard, metal, hammer and all that stuff. Classic rock,
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Sweden, Rock Legacy made from Germany. It's just a mention of keep but
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this heaps out there, so they get they get the promotion that they rightfully
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deserved, which is far more important than just having an album out. They're
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available, we know, without any media coverage, so makes it harder for
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the band to actually be able to move product as well. So and also
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the band would have to produce an album once every twelve months to eighteen months.
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That's the only way a band's going to get themselves known on an international
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level. When people keeps continues seeing the band's name, continue reading the reviews,
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album after album, interviews, album after album, you know, being
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available multiple multiple countries through my distributors and whatever, and so you know,
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I would all had the domino effect, you know, like the band's got
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two or three albums, and I had belies all three albums at the same
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time, and you're literally seeing the previous album start picking up sales as well
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with the new album when they're out. So well, the primo media marketing.
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I've been told by many people that I do a pretty decent job,
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you know, even being told that by Tony Mills and Turning Martin and even
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if you remember the old Australian record label Modern Invasion Music. Yes, yes,
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me and Daniel Jeneka we go away back. We've done each other for
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a very very long time. And and he's always told me in the past
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when people talk to him about promo and media always sells them to come to
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me, so that I that I'm the master of it, or so I
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don't know. I just do what I do just to sell my product,
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really to promote it there As at the end of the day, you know,
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when you're spending so much money and on financing stuff and releasing stuff,
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you know you'd want to be able to recoop if possible, So it's really
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hard. I would rather a band beyond I have a few albums out and
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actually have their own fan base because it makes it a lot easier to be
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able to move units of it. So yeah, I think another important thing
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to throw in there too, brow Like a lot of bands that I work
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would I tell them the same thing. But to too many bands these days,
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think getting representation like yourself or like myself, that once they've got that,
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they can just sit back and things are going to happen for him.
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But that every stage of your career, you've still got to be out there
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pushing. You've got to be doing the ground work, you've got to be
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getting in people's faces, and you've still got to contribute just as much,
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if not more, even though you've got representation. I totally agree. I'll
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give you I'll give you a little funny example, maybe because I'm I'm throughout
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Europe and everywhere. In two thousand and sixteen, I had done a Norwegian,
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a little miny Norwegian tour. It was five or six dates in we
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saw my Norwegian band's harm and Virus, which actually was pretty good attempt from
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my inconsidering the fact I actually organized the shows from here from Sydney, you
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know, we did. I was low Trondheim, Bergen, krishtandsund Mandal just
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I think might be one more in there somewhere. But but the thing is
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I when I approached the tour, I approached the originally starting in the Norwegian
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metal Hammer magazine. I had two half page ads in there, and from
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what I've noticed from the second advert I did in there, the whole Norwegian
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medias jumped on board and they all started promoting the tour, so which was
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really really cool. You know, I was thought, wow, this is
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awesome, this is excellent. I never expected that. So we did that,
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and being there in person, you know, it was quite surprisingly enough.
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You know, you could say in a lot of ways that every second
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person knew who got my productions was. And I'll still meet people here in
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Australia that do not know who bad a guid is, So I don't know
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why why it's like that. I guess maybe because I've got lack of media
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or lack of coverage in Australia. I'm I guess more European based. I
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really don't know, but I'm just that's that's what i've that's what I've noticed.
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So I don't know what the missing link is there. So hopefully a
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few people listen, listen and raise your profile touch well, let's hope.
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So you know, like, man, you know, I've been doing it
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for nearly thirty years, so you know about thirty years now, so you
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know, I'm still in the game, not quite a few bands. I
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don't release as much albums as I normally did in the past. I still
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sort of stayed more focused on I'm more of a handful. You've got one,
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maybe three albums, and just focus on those evenly in the media,
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like having a full page all three albums in there as an example, so
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and getting reviewed and interviewed and makes it a lot easier to market it as
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well, having less considering the fact I do it all by myself. So
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it's a it's not a very it's not an easy past. It's not indeed
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you mentioned that you've been doing it for nearly thirty years, but in fact,
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next year is your thirtieth anniversary brain so if you got anything special plan.
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Yes, So I'm actually planning a thirtieth anniversary festival. If all goes
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to plan, I should have a few of my overseas bands coming down.
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Oh I'm happing, you know. Well, I've got a few of them
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are interested now, depending on their schedule back and make it or not,
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that's another story. But I have sparked a bit of interest in it with
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my overseas bands. Like you know, I've got like about ten bands from
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Norway or something that I do with, so hopefully some of them can make
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it down, you know, and hopefully Tony Martin for my Black Sabbath vocals
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from the UK can make it down. And so you know, I'm planning
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it to be a really big to be a really big event. That's my
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plan. Very good and speaking and speaking about events, I've actually got something
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happening now on the ninth of December at at the rock Eland and Sports Center,
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which is a two of our medal and rock event from midnight i'ming sorry,
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from midday to midnight I'm looking at ten bands already, so that's going
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to be huge. And we're also we're also talking about negotiating with a bus
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company on having a shuttle bus to be able to pick up the people from
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the station to the venue and back again. So just a cantter for everyone.
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Just that people can make it and so there's no problems with anyone.
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So people that want to people that want to make it, they've got no
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excuse this time that zero zero link or somewhere with people and going to find
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out more information on that. Yes, well, I'm actually at the main
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and I'm finalizing all the bands. I think it's about I've already I've already
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announced four bands, I'll be I'm announcing another two or three more over the
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weekend. Once you've got the whole band lineup, then I'm gonna have the
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link for pre sal pickets online and then I'll be slowly putting that all the
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information for that as well. So there's still about five months away, so
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there's still a bit of time to go. So I'm want to make it,
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you know, make it really really good. So what was that data
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again, bro? So people can save the data. Ninth of December,
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the kiddies checking new Diary. There's something big happening. Yeah, yeah,
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man, you can find there. You can find the event page that's actually
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there at the moment on the about a guid Productions Facebook pages, So that's
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there, so you just go and have a look. And as I said
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at the Mamma, there's only four bands finalize. There'll be another two or
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three that I'll be announcing over the weekend. Very very so go back in
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tip a little bit, bro Like, you've founded Battle Guy Productions back in
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May of nineteen ninety four, So what was your early vision for the company
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back then and how has it changed since well, back back in the old
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days. Well particularly the honest truth, I never really expected it to last
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this longer. I guess it just as one thing led to another. I
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was doing my own little project back in those days, my demo tapes back
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in like ninety two ninety three, and that it was a project called Gorgoff,
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which later on I found out that there was a Norwegian band called Gorgoroth.
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So they actually beat me up to a vinyl or an album release.
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They beat me to that, unfortunately, but anyway, it is what it
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is. So and then I decided, you know, my background, my
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hair is just Macedonian. So I thought, you know, since black metal
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is becoming really popular and really famous with all their Nordic stuff and Scandinavia and
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whatever not, I thought, I'll just do my own tige and just come
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out with my own project or league a bultap and it's all sugning in Macedonian,
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which you know, had four albums out. None of the albums are
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actually available at the moment or solved up throughout the nineties and the early two
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thousands, but you know, from from doing that I started them. That
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was in another band called buy Omega, which has got members from the Italian
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band Mortified, and they arrived from southern Italy. So we've got three albums
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out with them, and from them I released, you know, sax Aory
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from Germany. A Borders, who are now known as Heritage were actually the
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first buzzy band on the Battle Gout Productions label Rosta, and that was like
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we released their first album, Judge Judge Me Night in nineteen ninety nine.
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So yeah, so from from there then tapes of things happen. You know,
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I started getting all these Norwegian bands. And American bands hark on from
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the US. Third In signed with the first UK band that I had backing
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like two thousand and seven. I think I might have been so yeah,
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I said, one thing led to another, and here I am still doing
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which I really can't believe I'm still doing it. I thought I'm just being
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a phase. But there's a long time in this industry made like a lot
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of people spend a couple of years in it and then they're old before the
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time. But what what sort of major things have you learned about the music
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industry your time I'm working in it. The major things is it's not an
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easy industry to be involved. In some very cutthright industry, you'll always have
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people working against you. No matter what, you can never make everyone happy.
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I've realized that as well, And no matter how hard you work as
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well. At the same time, things sometimes don't work out as planned,
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so you've got to really know how to handle that and what to do and
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what avenue to take. So, you know, I've been doing it for
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so long, I've learned a lot of things. You know, I've met
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up a lot, I've met up with a lot of overseas record labels in
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the past, from going back and forth back in the late eighty nineties and
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the early two thousands and stuff where you need to market an album to be
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able to sell it. You can't just release an album the best because it
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just does not work. And you know, when you've got you've got all
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these people. You know, modern days makes things so much easier with social
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media, but also at the same time, it's hard because it's so much
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more of it where you know where people Okay, yeah, you know you
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can. You can have a Facebook page and sponsor stuff on your Facebook page.
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That's all great. You know, it does stop the band, don't
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get me wrong. But it's different when people see a band featured in a
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Metal Hammer magazine or a rock card, because that gives it that extra level,
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that extra push, and it makes the band seem more for on our
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professional level being involved with the big major media, which not everyone can be
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on. So and that's what I have realized even in the modern day with
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the social media. Like back in the old days, I couldn't really post
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advertisements up from what I've done in magazines, but today I can so and
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posting them today from what I've done in a magazine actually spreads it out a
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little bit more through the digital market, through the social media, which normally
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you would you wouldn't have had that, So just that's. Yeah, it's
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a bit of a tricky industry and you're all really be wise with the choices
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you make as well. And yeah, so you just got to make sure
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you know what you're doing and the bands you're releasing as well. I'm making
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sure that they you know that they're basically you know, got the head screwed
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on right, you know. So which is the most important thing. Last
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thing I need is you know, bands just not pulling their weight around when
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you've done so much for them, but you know they're late with the interviews
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and all that. You just want everything to be done spot on the way
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it should be done, and then there'll be that problem, there'll be no
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dramas. I suppose I've done another big thing in the modern age too,
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Like I've come across a few changes bands I've worked with that they've got to
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understand that they're representing themselves in their brand at all times now, Like I've
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worked with so many bands to get on social media and start wars with other
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bands and just get involved in bullshit stuff, but you've got to if you
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really want to take it seriously and make something from it, you've got to
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realize that eyes are on you all the time, and you've got to product
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yourself in a professional manner much as possible. Yes, I totally agree.
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When you're starting to post online on social media in public, you've really you
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know, you've really got to be careful how how what you post because everyone
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is looking, everybody is watching. So even if you put something up and
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then you end up deleting it, there is people that that that would have
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seen that post or screenshot and shared it around everybody. Yeah, yeah,
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that's that's a that's a normal that's a normal thing that happens. But you
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can't help that. That's why. But by myself, I'm not one to
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post negative things online, which I've seen some people do being negative. I
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don't think it's a good thing. I've always wanted to post positive things online,
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like, you know, anything positive, something that's good, something that
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you know, people go oh wow, you know, not something like oh
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no, not that drama again. You know, Like I don't know,
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man, I just I just you know, I just want to beat myself
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just do my own thing and and just post positiveness, spread positivity. Vibe
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Arian, I've actually given myself a new mansion made like I've started. If
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I'm going to post something, whether it be a meme, whether it be
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a comment or anything on social media, if my brain goes, should I
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or shouldn't I, the answers, no, you shouldn't. Yeah, well
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that's that's true too. So well, you know social media man today,
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you know, social media can make people and it can also destroy people,
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and it can you know, it's also been a known fact of social media
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and being able to destroy relationships and destroying bands and destroying people's reputations with stuff
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that's irrelevant, you know. And sometimes when one person says something, then
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it carries on and then that that truth becomes twisted and it gets changed in
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many forms. So you just at the end of the day, you don't
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know what to think and what to believe. Because one person said this is
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the next person is saying that. I think, wait a second, what's
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going on here? But as I said, I'm not really into that negative.
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I think I love to post a good thing for that for young up
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and coming bands to realize to you though, is like you, like I
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say, you're there are rides on you at all times. So like even
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if you get home drunk and you want to want to view somebody on there,
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like that could be seen and that that could could come between you and
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getting the geets somewhere one day, well it could. It could totally jeopardize
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your whole your whole future. You know, he can, he can destroy
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you. And why why let's something like that do that to you? While
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you can just take it in a different approach, you know, it gets
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sobered up if you've had a few drinks, yes, and rethink the situation
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on how you're going to handle that. I must, well, I wouldn't
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post anything that's you know, that's damaging people's credibilities or damaging people's businesses or
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their livelihoods or their families or whatever. Maybe you know, I would never
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do that because I would never want to do any harm to anyone because in
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the day, you know, we all want what we want. We all
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want to be good, we all want to be happy. We don't want
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to deal with unnecessary drama that just shouldn't be there, but it is.
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You know, it's wrong, It's I don't. I don't agree with it
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at all. Right, good, all right, and Pa, well thanks
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very much for your time that it most have been a pleasure speaking with your.
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Battleguard Productions is a name and where can people people want to get holder
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or they want to check out the business. What's your what's your web?
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Drice www dot battlegoud Productions dot com. So that's the website, or you
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can just search me on on Facebook. There's three battlegod Productions Facebook pages.
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There's one just Battlegud Productions. There's Battlegut Productions UK and Battlegud Productions in Norway,
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so there's three there, so you can go and check some stuff out.
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I'm keeping get active as much as possible, so yes, and I've
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got new releases coming up very as soon as well, so keep an eye
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out for them and the big thirtieth bash next year and something in December,
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so there's a lot happening. So basically, just keep an eye steadily checking
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on the on the Facebook page, on the website every now and then because
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there's lots coming up.