Could you introduce yourself to anyone who doesn’t already know you?

Well for starters I’m Chip. I’m 28, originally from Charlotte, North Carolina. For my day job I’m a video editor at Los York mostly working on commercial work. Shoutout Los York. I don’t think I’d be able to book and manage so much if it weren’t for their flexibility. As for hobbies, I like guns. I try to go out shooting at least once every two weeks. I still shoot photos and video but not as much lately, same with editing on personal projects. I spend a lot of time with my cat, Kilo. I go to 12 step meetings on a regular basis. I’m in a band called No Enemies. 

What was your introduction to punk and hardcore?

I always leaned towards heavier music. I remember as a little kid my dad had the linkin park album meteora and would play it in the car all the time. I still love that album. He had a few Pearl Jam and Evanesance albums too and I remember ripping them to put on my MP3 player when I was probably like 7 years old or something. The first time I discovered actual hardcore I was either 12 or 13. The youth pastor at my youth group was an old punk/raver from Baltimore I think, and he started letting kids throw hardcore shows in the sanctuary of the church. I was a homeschooled pastor’s kid and pretty sheltered, but my parents did let me go there because it was in a church. First show I went too was a halloween show. The two bands that I remember playing were Towards Alaska and Upon My Faithful Sword. They started having shows regularly and I fell in love with it off the jump. Around that time this girl invited me to this DIY spot called The Bonu5 room. If you were a scene kid in the Charlotte area at the time (2008ish-2012ish) you definitely went to the Bonu5 room. It was a special place. It was an old movie theater this dude from California had rented a couple of the theaters in and turned it into a venue. I started going there basically every weekend. My dad along with being a pastor also owned a skatepark when I was in Highschool and since I didn’t skate (my brother did) he let me throw shows there because that's what I was into.

As for the bands I was into outside of local bands, I was super into Have Heart, Touche Amore, The Chariot, Ceremony, TUI, Defeater, Title Fight, Tigers Jaw, Rotting Out, etc. But honestly 75% of the hardcore music I listened to back then was stuff from my local scene. Bear Attack, Towards Alaska, Leaderless, XhonorX, Towards Olympus, Glass Giant, Upon my Faithful Sword to name a few.

You moved to Portland from the east coast a few years back. What brought you out this way? What is the hardcore scene like on the east coast and how would you say it compares to the NW/portland?

So I actually moved here from Southern California. I’m originally from North Carolina but I lived in Orange County for 3.5 years before moving to Portland. As to why, I never really planned to live in California, it just kind of happened. I spent a lot of time in Oregon in my early 20s while living in Idaho/Wyoming and fell in love with Portland. Once Covid happened and I started working remotely, I decided it was time to move. 

Before booking, i know you were documenting and filming shows. What gave you interest in starting to do that?

I’ve always loved cameras and shooting/filming stuff, especially events. I spent most of 2015-2021 focusing solely on photography. But I remember showing up to one of my first Portland Hardcore shows at Casa Weon with the intention of taking pictures, but there were so many damn photographers and no one taking video, I was like imma just film instead. It seemed like there was more of a need for video. I can be kind of obsessive, so I started going to every single show and filming all the bands and honestly kind of overwhelming myself with stuff to edit. I have a tendency to pile my plate so high with shit til I can’t see over. Stepping back from filming to focus more on booking has definitely been a lesson in acceptance and time management.

You book under 777 Booking. From your interview with Trevor (Dead Air), i know you started booking in Portland about 2-3 years ago. How has that gone for you and how has the transition from attending/filming shows to booking them gone?

Honestly it was a pretty seamless transition, albeit a learning process for sure. Filming every single show for a year, I got to know a lot of the local/DIY venues really well. I didn’t even mean to start booking, but all the Portland promoters at the time got canceled and suddenly locals were asking me to get them in at a venue because I knew the people running the spaces. Plus I had already built up a pretty good platform from doing video. I promoted under Chip_nooo at first, but after things started taking off I was like ok i’m taking my name off this shit lol. I was also getting super overwhelmed between the fest and shows, filming and scene politics and just life in general. That’s when Kieran and I linked up and decided to start 777 together. It’s 100% a team effort and I couldn’t do it by myself.

You've done 3 Northwest Hardcore fest to date. The first was in 2023, then you had both a winter and summer fest in 2024. What made you want to do a fest? What made you want to book basically 3 fest in one year's time? That is WILD haha.

I went to go film Snake Eyes at this spot called Hoan Kiem (shout out Phi and Bob) and noticed they had two stages that backed up to each other. I thought to myself, you could do a sick local fest here and have bands play one after another and crank through like 15 of them in a day. Then I asked a bunch of locals if they’d be down and before I knew it I had like 30 bands on the lineup. This was early May of 2023 and the first fest happened in August, so I had 3 months to make this thing a reality.  At this point I had booked like 3 shows in Portland. I didn’t even know what a guarantee was. But like I said, I’m kind of obsessive and when I start something I usually see it through. Plus I told a bunch of people I was gonna do this thing and posted the flyer without hardly anything figured out but the bands and so I sorta backed myself into a corner. I  knew I’d look like a jackass if I backed out. I figured things out as I went along and asked people I knew with experience questions when I didn’t know the answer.  I honestly expected it to be a fucking trainwreck. But by some miracle it was a huge success. Major shout outs to Connor (pdx style king), Eddie, Joe, Hollie, Kes, all the bands that agreed to play that first year and anyone that helped in any way (there are too many names to list). They all played a huge part in making sure that day ran smoothly. But anyways,  I was feeling really good afterwards and was like shit I wanna do that again. So I did. I also realized I needed to continue the hype from the first one so I would be able to get the bands I wanted for the next summer’s fest and so doing a winter fest seemed like the right call. That will most certainly be the last winter fest I ever do. It was also incredibly successful, however the stress of doing 3 fests in the span of a year probably took a couple years off my life. 

What are some of your favorite memories from Northwest Hardcore fest so far?

My absolute favorite memory will always be Slime’s set during the very first fest. They played last.  We were 30 minutes ahead of schedule on a 10 hour day with 29 bands on the bill. I had been awake for like 48 hours. Everything had gone off without a hitch. No cops showed up. The attendance was more than double what I had expected. I was gonna be able to pay everyone what I owed them and then some. The energy was Unmatched. Everyone was having a great time. It was a feeling of euphoria and accomplishment I can’t compare to anything else. The end of every fest has felt similar, but nothing beats the first one and I’m sure I’ll always be chasing it in some regard. The chair moment from the Summer ‘25 fest was also badass. Definitely won’t be forgetting that one. 

What are your plans going forward for the fest? Anything you want to focus on doing or have goals with it as far as growth?

Yeah I mean I’m definitely looking to grow it as much as I can within reason. Each fest thus far has been a stepping stone to the next one. With each event we gain a little bit more credibility which means bigger bands are willing to play. Those bands go home, tell other bands in their scene how sick it was, and the word spreads. The ease with which we’ve been able to secure larger acts this year in comparison to years past has been night and day. However with that being said, bigger bands means more money which means a higher ticket price and that's something I’m trying to avoid at all costs. I always want to keep it accessible, especially to the kids. This year tickets are gonna be $80 for a two day pass and $55 for a one day pass. That's as expensive as I ever want to make it which will ultimately limit the size of the bands we can get. We don’t really have one this year, but next year I’d like to start trying to get at least one legacy band on the bill. That being said, the general structure of the lineup I want to stay the same. 1-3 big bands with the rest being about 50% NWHC (Idaho, Oregon, Moshington and the Couv) and 50% smaller-mid sized out of state bands. I’m planning on keeping it a dry fest for as long as possible. Not having the extra revenue from liquor sales is tough, but as someone that’s sober and with Portland having such a younger age demographic, it's important to me. I never wanna take any sponsorship money from larger corporations, although I would accept an Adidas sponsorship if they ever offered.

Who are some of your all time favorite hardcore bands? Since you’re originally from the east coast, hit us with whoever, then hit us with some NWHC specific ones.

I mean my tried and true bands that I will never stop listening to are Have Heart, Rotting Out, Title Fight and Touche Amore. Also a huge Never Ending Game fan. Lately I’ve been listening a lot to Miracle, Drain, Incendiary, Mindforce, Gridiron, Suburban Scum, Dry Socket, Haywire, Slime, End of Dayz, Invocation & Apex Predator, to name a few.

What does the NWHC scene mean to you? You obviously have a different perspective than most being apart of scenes on two opposite sides of the country.

For me the scene here is home. I’ve watched the Portland scene specifically really grow up the last 2-3 years that I’ve been a part of it and it makes me proud. Being a part of a community as strong as this one is as much as one can ask for. 

Who are your favorite current locals or bands you think people are sleeping on?

Man there are quite a few. I feel like Portland especially is slept on in general. The first ones that come to mind are Breakneck Flow, Mad Choice, Words of Scathatch and Shellshock.

What would you like to see from the scene currently?

More straight edge bands. I’m not personally straight edge but that's one of the things I love about the hardcore scene as someone in recovery. There isn’t a ton of drugs or drinking and for me it feels very safe in comparison to a lot of other music genres. Right now there’s a ton of kids in Portland stoked on hardcore and that's something I love and always wanna see more of. More people booking would definitely be sick. There’s a few (shoutout sutton) that have started booking shows and that’s huge. 777 has grown to the point where its really difficult for us to do all local shows or take bands on their first tour, simply because we have so many bands hitting us up on a daily basis. However I’m a big believer that all those bands (well most of them) deserve a place to perform and grow. 

Is there anything you’d like to leave people with?

If you’re young, go straight edge. If you’re struggling with drugs and/or alcohol, there is a solution. My inbox is always open to anyone that is looking for help in that regard. One of the greatest blessings of being sober is helping others find it themselves. Sobriety is the best decision I ever made and I wouldn’t be able to do any of the shit I love today if it weren’t for those that helped me along the way. Also shoutout Kieran, Slime, Misery Whip, Bleakhouse, Boltcutter, Dry Socket, 3rd eye booking, any band that’s ever played the fest, Coral aka Mallbrawlreds booking, Akio, Murph, Canon, Ivan, the list could go on.