INTERVIEW: The Outrageous Story of OUTDrejas

By: Joe Brunker

  I first met David Drejas and his outfit OUTDrejas in 2018. My band, the short-lived, but mighty Dead Harvest. Up until that point, most of our bigger shows were out in the suburbs, but the show that we were slotted on was opening for the guitar legend, Michael Angelo Batio at Chicago's very own Beat Kitchen! I was stoked for the opportunity. When I initially read the flyer, I looked up the other band on the bill, OUTDrejas. I had never heard of them beforehand, but I liked their high energy riffs and tunes. 

  I walked up to David at the show, and he seemed like a really fun and hyper guy! I was excited to see them perform. We played a killer set, and then, David stepped up to bat. I knew they had energetic songs, but I was not expecting the onslaught of passionate performances from the band in front of me. I was blown away by their talent, and thoroughly impressed by David's inclusion and crowd work. Since then, I have watched David and his cohorts achieve more than many others out there. I wanted an interview. David agreed to a phone call! I usually have a large list of questions, but this one, I let him just tell me the overall story of OUTDrejas. Pen in hand, here is what I compiled from this energetic, passionate, and at times hysterical interview!

Joe: 
How long have you been OUTDrejas?
David:
  That’s a hell of a question. I have a spreadsheet with every show we've ever played. So, our first show was on June 21st, 2014. We are now eleven and a half years in! I'd started playing when I was 13, but I was 24 by the time 2014 came around. I had finally felt like I didn’t suck at playing.
   It takes a lot of commitment and gumption to be in a band! I couldn’t find anyone around me to start one. So, I went on Craigslist. I found a metal band that was looking for a bassist. I pretended that I knew how to pluck the bass, when my real skillset was guitar. The band was called Annoinnting of the Sick, because the drummer didn't know how to spell.  
   I really didn't look metal at all. I would wear a fedora, and a legit fucking cape! I cut my pants, and wore a pair of batman socks with small capes attached. I felt, I didn’t look good, but we weren’t really that good. We became known as the band with the goofy bass player. The bandmates were all really good in their own skillsets, but overall, we weren’t tight sonically.
  One day, we got the chance to play MoeJoe's in Joliet, then named the Tree, followed by The Forge. Our first major opener, was for Adelita's Way. I asked to talk with the promoter there. His name was David John. Well, it still is. I asked him if my other band could play for him sometime. He said, "Sure! What's the name?" Only problem, I didn’t actually have another band. So, I came up with a name on the spot! "We are OUTDrejas!" 
  So, I got my buddy, Stuart Graham to help out. I told his violinist self to learn the drums, and help write original parts. Stu's brother, Tristan Graham, who played "shitty punk rock," but I say that in a good way, because that is in a genre in itself. I listen to shitty punk rock. Like the old Green Day, not the new. 
  I was on acoustic guitar for the show, but I really wanted to shred. I would put down the acoustic and would walk across stage to pick up my ax. Our first show, was a battle of the bands. We played with a bunch of metal bands. We were not metal, but somehow managed to come in 2nd place overall! Our prize, being able to open for Puddle of Mudd. The openers of that show, invited us to play House of Blues soon after. That was where the ball started rolling. We don’t really know when we became a band, but it just... happened. 
  We have now had over 20 members. Ther was a time when we had 5 different drummers. We booked one show in Kalamazoo, MI at Papa Pete's. We didn't even have a drummer for that show, but we brought a kit I faith that we would find one. We found a random drummer out there, and asked them to learn our set. They did pretty well!! 

Joe: 
  I noticed you recently played with some bands that I know. How was that show? 
David:
  We actually just played a show with Embers Rise, Trash Pandas, and some father son duo called Power Takeoff! That duo had a really good Spotify presence. They were all pretty great and I loved the mix of different sounds. It’s a bill that you don't expect to mesh, but turned out to be awesome! 

Joe:
  Speaking of internet presence; I noticed that you guys have grown quite immensely on YouTube! How did you go about accomplishing that? 
David:
  The secret is Google ads, to be honest! What is cool, is when people see the advertisement, but keep returning to view more. I do like the "one off" views, but always love it more, when people return for more. How it all started? 
  We wanted a music video; so, I reached out to a guy named Peter Dousette. He came and filmed a music video, for a thousand bucks! We had him come down again, and there, I negotiated to see if he gave discounts for a bulk set of videos. I asked him what rate he would give me... for ten music videos.
  He offered a deal. We would pay $2500 up front, and another $2500 when he finished the bulk order. He ended up flaking on fully finishing call of the videos, but he only ended up charging us $2500, and gave us the rest of the raw footage to edit ourselves! He then pulled a "you!" He found a great girl, and moved to Georgia to work in the corporate world. 
  The cool part about getting the raw footage, was that it inspired our now permanent drummer, Jeremy Horvath, go get into video editing! He saw it as just a puzzle piece that needed to fit in with the rest of the pieces. He did the editing on his IPad, and he did it better than Peter. We actually still have two of those music videos left in the can for later! We are still getting mileage out of those videos. 
  Another idea that we have utilized, is recording our live performances. We play Summerfest every year with people who just love music, and set up their own stages. I hired out Mystery Street Recording to track our live performance at the fest. Somehow, a week before we were going to use the talents of Mystery Street, we got the opportunity to open for Counting Crows, in front of an audience of 15,000 people. 
  We decided to use Summerfest as our practice ground for the actual recording at the Counting Crows show! It was incredible being able to have that chance! We finished our set before Counting Crows jumped on, Mystery Street handed us the raw footage, and Jeremy went to work on the editing process!
  We released those videos, and it brought us from 2000 to 3000 followers, like nothing! Our song, "The Promise" came out the best in post production. That video in particular, really helped us to launched our page. We only had to pay pennies in Google ads for a major return! 
  It’s really hard, man! You want to just rock, but end up becoming a glorified advertiser! You have to wear a lot of hats; all while trying to fit shit into a van! We are all having kids, now. It just shows, of you want something enough, you try to make it work!

Joe:
  So, any new albums on the horizon?
David:
  We have a lot going on with that! We originally were going to put out an album, but now, we have this new manager in California. He told us, that we should come out with 3 eps instead. We are going to do an original ep, a cover ep, and an instrumental ep! 
 My guitarist and best friend, Cody LoMonaco drew a picture of a bear in a tuxedo, so we are utilizing the bear in each ep! After that, we may change routes on the bear. We don’t want to over inundate people. 
The first ep will be: 
OUTDrejas From the Start, which we drop on Black Friday.
The second ep to be released in February:
Cover Charge; Songs We Made Our Own with an instrumental version of "Day Man"
Our Third:
No Words Needed; Voice Free Versions
The compilation of all three eps will be out in April!
   We have a lot going on, and I am very excited to release the song "Here To Stay," that I started writing before my first date with my now wife. I finished writing the song on my wedding day! 

Joe:
  There is so much more that I can extract from this interview with David, but I figure I would let you discover the band for yourself. Fall down the rabbit hole that is their YouTube, and you won't be disappointed. They recently attained 40,000 followers. People are truly enjoying the outrageous journey of OUTDrejas!