Todd Ögren

Photo Credit: Sloane Morrison

Keyboardist

Rival Sons

CHANGEOVER: Tell us a little bit about who you are, what you do and how you got into the music industry. 

Todd Ögren: My name's Todd Ögren. I’m a musician and have been for many, many years. I played in a bunch of bands throughout the years in different genres and, currently, my main gig is the keyboard player for Rival Sons. I’ve been with band for almost seven years now. I’ve been all over the world touring, either doing headlining shows or opening up for larger acts, a lot of heritage acts, and I’ve been on three recordings with Rival Sons so far. We're currently writing the new record, but have no idea when we're going to go into the studio and track or release it. That's still up in the air. 

I started playing music when I was about eight years old and I’ve been playing different instruments ever since. I've always been a person that needed to have a backup plan, because being a professional musician, at the level that I'm at, can be pretty difficult. I went to school for recording engineering when I was 23 and wanted to have that background so I could have a backup plan if performing didn't work out, but I always knew it was going to work out.

I had a studio right outside of Philadelphia, where I'm from, for a bunch of years and basically made demos for all the local bands. I helped out up and coming bands, teenagers and people of all ages. I did that for a couple of years. In 2004, I moved to L.A. and was in a band out there for a little bit and worked odd jobs to supplement my income. After a few years being out there and touring, I decided to move to New York City. I worked in production for a bunch of clubs and venues there for about eight years. During that time, I was also a session musician and wrote songs for different artists. In 2014 the opportunity to get with Rival Sons came along and I've been doing that ever since.

How did COVID-19 affect your job in the industry?

Oh my God, it destroyed it. Absolutely destroyed it. The last show we played was in March down in Tampa, Florida at the Gasparilla Music Festival. We were off tour from the end of November, beginning of December. We were on tour with Stone Temple Pilots and then we were going to take some time off. During that time, we were up for a GRAMMY so in January, we all flew out to L.A. We went to the GRAMMYs and were up for two categories: Best Rock Album for Feral Roots and Best Rock Performance for our single “Too Bad.” We didn't win but it was a great experience and to just be in that conversation is a freakin’ feat.

Photo Credit: Rick Horn

After that, we had February off and then had the one festival in March. Then everything shut down. The quarantine happened and we were supposed to have a tour in the spring in the States and then we were supposed to go overseas to do the festival season. We had a six week tour opening up for Aerosmith and that got postponed and then we were supposed to have another tour in the fall. I'm supposed to be on tour right now, but everything just got shut down. Being a live performer when you can't really do anything, you have to hustle via the Internet just to get any sort of income, so it's been rough. It's been very, very rough. 

What was it like going to the GRAMMYs? 

It's a lot of waiting. It's just the hurry up and wait game. It's kind of like getting ready for a show, but you don't perform. Live music is pretty much not on the forefront at this time, because everything is pop music and DJs and stuff like that. Our category was in the middle of the day so we were there super early. They didn't have any food. It was great to do the walk and repeat and do the press corral.

From 2016 and into the first couple of months of 2017, we were on tour with Black Sabbath. It was for their The End Tour and we went all over the world with that camp. It was really great. When we got onto the red carpet, I saw Sharon Osborne. I'm pretty recognizable because I have a humongous beard. She saw me, I saw her and I was waving to her and she was blowing me kisses, and I was giving her high fives and stuff. That was a really nice thing to do.

What have you been doing while everything is on hold?

I've been doing the best I can and trying to get work composing for indie films and commercials and trying to keep up my chops on that. I’m doing a bunch of practicing and remote studio sessions. I have a little studio set up here. We can do everything off a computer and if you have a good interface you can make a quality sound for records. I've been doing that and just trying to keep my spirits up.

I've also been taking a non-accredited course. I've always wanted to learn so I’m taking a course to get certified for electrical engineering. I've been studying with that and just trying to learn. I'm not really going to do anything with it but it's just something that I was interested in. You have time to do the things that you really never had time to do because you're always on the road. I pretty much filled up that cup. I just want to get back to my life. 

I hear that you're doing a podcast. Is that true?  

I was doing a podcast for a little bit when the pandemic first started. I started doing it, but then I just lost interest because there's so much noise on social media and the Internet that I didn't feel as if I had anything positive to say. Not that I'm a curmudgeon by any means but there's really nothing going on and you can only talk to yourself for so long. I decided to let it go for a little bit but once we start getting back to playing shows and everything, I'll definitely start it up again so I have something to talk about. 

Photo Credit: Nicko Guihal

Everyone's going through their own struggles with everything. I just I never paid attention to how much we're all social creatures. Having that interaction with people on the regular is something that I just love to do. I love people and meeting them and talking it up and just joking around. It's a huge part of me that I took for granted. The one thing that I'm like really not looking forward to when we start getting back up again is hearing “I had such a hard time during the pandemic.” I don't want to hear anyone's story about their struggles or anything because it's all going to be the same story. You're not special. I'm not special. We're all in this together and it all sucked. 

What do you feel is the future of the industry?

I think we're going to go through a shift. There's going to be more safety procedures with everyone getting their temperature taken and wearing a mask. There's going to be mandatory testing before you go out on the road. If you're going into a different state or country we may possibly have to quarantine before going out.

I also think this is going to be a better community. I love to be an optimist. I think of how everyone in the industry, from the artists to the crew to everyone, is going to be way more thankful and more appreciative of what we do because we know what it's like to have it snatched away from us. I think the community is going to be a little bit more friendly. Shows are going to happen. I’m hoping it's all going to go back to normal by the summer of 2021. 

Do you think travel and transportation for the band and crew will have to change? 

I don't think it's going to change. I think we are all going to have to be careful. When the pandemic first hit, I was talking with our production manager, Neil McDonald, and I was like, “dude, we all had COVID way before COVID even happened.” A tour bus is basically a petri dish of disease and you get through it. You get sick, you get through it, and then you just take care of yourself. That's it.

What do you feel is some of the best advice you've ever received?

Be kind to yourself. Always try to be kind to yourself in any situation and trust that the universe is unfolding exactly as it should so try not to control it too much. They say life is short, right? Life is the longest thing that we do, so take your time.