This August 17th and 18th will mark the third edition of Barely Breathing, an underground music festival held at Mr. Beery's in Bethpage, New York. The event is the passion project of Long Island-based extreme music labels, Baby Chico Records and Syrup Head Recordings.
Barely Breathing includes bands from the extreme music spectrum, including grindcore, power violence, noise, death metal, and other harsh points in between. This year, the fest will include appearances from such groups as Archagathus (Canada), Sinister Feeling (Baltimore), Nyctophagia (Texas), and a one-off reunion set from Long Island death/grind hometown heroes, Buckshot Facelift (members of Afterbirth, ex-Artificial Brain, Reeking Aura, Thætas).
I spoke with Brian from Baby Chico Records to get the story behind Barely Breathing and how it all comes together.
Give me a bit of the history behind the festival and how it all initially came together.
The condensed version of Barely Breathing's origin is that myself and Jon/Syrup Head wanted to bring some of the more experimental stuff out to Long Island that we'd normally need to travel into Brooklyn to catch. LI has historically been pretty hardcore and death metal-oriented, which we both love, but this is our way of showing extreme music acts that it's worth their time to venture out here.
The initial fest was put together by just Jon back in 2020, but ended up getting canceled due to COVID. I got introduced to Jon through the Bowel Erosion guys right around the time that I started Baby Chico Records (Spring 2022) and the conversation quickly turned into how we could revamp Barely Breathing later that Summer.
I still have no idea how we were able to pull that first year off (laughs). I think we organized the entire thing in a little under two months? It was a total shitshow that we had to call in a ton of favors for, but it ended up being a massive success in the end.
Meeting a whole bunch of people who traveled from out of state (and even a few who came over the Canadian border!) to catch our fest at some dive bar in the middle of Long Island was surreal as hell, and definitely pushed us to make it a recurring thing.
The hype from that first year helped us sell out last year, which in turn inspired us to make this year's Barely Breathing a two-day event.
How far in advance do you start working on the booking and location-related stuff?
We begin planning the next year pretty much as soon as the current year's fest is done. Thankfully we're at a spot now where people are stoked to be asked, and pretty much everyone that we've asked who couldn't do this year is on board for next year.
Mr Beery's has been kind enough to open their doors to us yet again, and they'll most likely remain our home for a while. We turn their back parking lot into a mini flea market, which is a great way to take a breather in between sets (especially with the amount of bands that we tend to have).
Tell me about the bands playing this year and the thought process behind the booking aspect.
The past two years have unintentionally been very goregrind-heavy, which has caused some people to think that we're predominantly a gore festival. This was never our intent, and with that in mind we really tried to have a diverse yet thematically consistent lineup this year. We've got a nice blend of grindcore, power violence, noise, mince, death metal, hardcore, noisecore, and even some crusty punk this time around.
The choice to book power electronics act Niku Daruma for this year is probably the best example of what we're aiming to achieve as a fest — just pure sonic extremity and an insane live performance that blends well with all of the other acts, regardless of genre.
We're expecting a lot of people to come out for the Buckshot Facelift reunion that may or may not be keeping up with the current underground scene, so we'd like to think that this is kind of a "best-of" lineup.
It was also very intentional to have a mix of genres play each day, rather than having a "Grindcore Day" and a "Noise Day" or something along those lines that other fests sometimes do. This, combined with us not publicly announcing set orders, is our way of encouraging people to come check everyone out instead of just showing up for the headliners.
What are some newer bands playing you’re especially excited for people to check out this year?
I'm definitely biased since they're on my label, but I can't wait to see the debut live performance from Death Certificate. Mike D's resume speaks for itself so it's a huge honor that they're having this be their first gig.
Raid is one of my favorite current Long Island bands and have been crushing it here lately. Locals already know what's up, and I really can't wait to have out-of-towners who aren't familiar check them out.
Mental Genocide's set is gonna be paired up with some live stunts from The Rocker Show, which will either go really well or really poorly. Either way it'll be amazing.
This will be Noose Sweat's first-ever East Coast show as well. I've been bugging Tommy to come out here for a while and now my Powerviolence prayers finally have been answered.
What else do you have cooking at the moment?
We recently threw together a fundraiser raffle to help offset fest expenses, with a ton of donations from other sick labels. Barely Breathing has always been and always will be a non-profit event for myself and Jon, with 100% of ticket sales going directly to the bands, so this is our way of recouping some of the costs.
Check out the fundraiser raffle here.
Tickets for the fest are still available but flying fast! Beery's is right by the Bethpage train station — don't let the fact that this isn't in NYC or Brooklyn dissuade you from coming! We'd love to see you all here.
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Tagged: death certificate, sinister feeling
