Nivek Ogre

Kevin Graham Ogilvie (born December 5, 1962), known professionally as Nivek Ogre, is a Canadian musician, performance artist and actor, best known for his work with the industrial music group Skinny Puppy, which he co-founded with CEvin Key.

Ogre was born on December 5, 1962, in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

From a young age, he had imagined working in a studio as a singer, believing it was his own "manifest destiny".

He was also interested in magic and had attempted to become a magician, joining the International Brotherhood of Magicians.

He entertained his parents with magic shows, during which his tricks would often fail humorously.

He described his childhood as "introverted", and that he would take refuge in watching monster movies; he also enjoyed the horror fantasy writings of H. P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe.

As a child, he was fascinated with words and would spend time in his basement writing poetry.

He would write several pages at a time and then play around with what he had written.

"From that, I developed a keen sense of how words sound, how they can phonetically sound and be changed. How words obviously have different meanings and with a slight displacement can take on almost a surreal meaning".

This interest in language and vocabulary stemmed from his love of music and lyrics.

His subsequent musical stylings were informed by the likes of The Archies, Brian Eno, Pink Floyd, and Kraftwerk.

He said listening to the Cure album Pornography was a "transformative" moment for him, and that Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures introduced him to "the dark side of music".

He soon found himself gravitating towards musicians such as Throbbing Gristle, Portion Control, and Front 242.

Ogre left Calgary for Vancouver, British Columbia at the age of twenty.

"Vancouver has an edge to it; an attitude; an arrogance when it comes to music. I came there as a young 20-year-old from Calgary and entered into a world I’d never seen before".

Since 1982, he has served as Skinny Puppy's primary lyricist and vocalist, occasionally providing instrumentation and samples.

Ogre's charismatic personality, guttural vocals and use of costumes, props, and fake blood on stage helped widen Skinny Puppy's fanbase and has inspired numerous other musicians.

In 1982, he attempted to start a record distribution company using borrowed money, a venture that ultimately failed.

He was further troubled by the death of his father and a divorce from his wife.

Ogre was roommates with Images in Vogue member Gary Blair Smith when he met CEvin Key (Kevin Crompton), the drummer for Smith's band, at a party.

He also met future collaborator Steven Gilmore, whom he learned had also attended Ernest Manning High School in Calgary.

Key asked Ogre to join his project, Skinny Puppy, an invitation he accepted.

Images in Vogue recording engineer Dave Ogilvie also signed up.

The pair adopted stage names to avoid the confusion brought by having two people named Kevin in one group.

(CEvin Key and Nivek (Kevin spelled backwards) Ogre)

Ogre's work with Skinny Puppy has primarily been as the lead singer, though he would occasionally contribute work with percussion and synthesizers.

The first song he wrote for the group was titled "Canine" and helped establish the philosophy of writing songs about the world as seen through a dog's eyes.

"It was about a dog watching his master beat his wife and then questioning himself - should he be loyal to the man or rip his head off?"

Along with Bill Leeb (Wilhelm Shroeder), Ogre and Key produced the EP Remission in 1984 and released it through the newly established Nettwerk label.

Next to follow were two full-length albums, Bites in 1985 and Mind: The Perpetual Intercourse in 1986, the latter of which spawned their first single, "Dig It".

Many of Ogre's early songs, specifically from the album Bites, were about his ex-wife.

Following Bites, Ogre began to construct more politically and socially minded lyrics such as those for the song "Dig It", which he says describes "a fight to rise above in the work force/ which can turn into your early grave".

Ogre's writing would gradually become more "worldly" and "ecology-minded".

In 2001, he formed the electronic music group ohGr along with longtime collaborator Mark Walk.

Originally named W.E.L.T., ohGr has released five studio albums since 2001, three of which have placed on Billboard's Dance/Electronic Albums chart.

Ogre has also been involved with several other musicians including the Al Jourgensen bands Ministry and Revolting Cocks, Pigface and Rx with Martin Atkins, and KMFDM.

Ogre has on several occasions worked as an actor in low-budget horror films.

He appeared as Pavi Largo in the rock opera film Repo! The Genetic Opera, as well as Harper Alexander in the comedy-horror film entitled 2001 Maniacs: Field of Screams.

Ogre was reunited with Repo! director Darren Lynn Bousman for the 2012 musical short film The Devil's Carnival and its sequel Alleluia! The Devil's Carnival.

In 2014, he starred in the Canadian film Queen of Blood.