Kieffer Norton: ‘I was definitely taken aback by the amount the community was able to give.’

Kieffer Norton, 25, is the vocalist of post-hardcore band Dear Heretic, guitarist of emo-rock band Tournament and owner of the Goblin Zone, a DIY music venue in Lansing that was founded to provide a space for local bands to play and members of the punk and emo scenes to commune after another DIY space, the Church of Elvis Presley, closed its doors. Norton grew up in DeWitt and lived in Grand Haven for about four and a half years before settling in Lansing in 2021. When they’re not playing music or hosting shows, they enjoy hanging out with their cat and trying new vegan food around the area. 

How did the Goblin Zone come to be? 

I only did it because I found out the Church was going to shut down. They only had about six months left on their lease and weren’t sure they were going to renew it. I was like, “Man, that really sucks.” Because after the church is gone, there's nothing left. There's nowhere in Lansing for the community to go. We're all going to fizzle out and lose connection with each other. I really didn’t want that to happen and figured I could start doing shows in my house. Initially, it was going to be a temporary thing. That kind of morphed into its own thing after that. 

Do you have any goals for the future of the Goblin Zone? 

There are specific types of events I want to pull off, like I really want to do a poetry night. I want to look at doing some comedy stuff and then hopefully organize some larger-scale community events. I was talking to my friend Noah, who makes these candles that will burn with any fuel. They’re really easy to make, and we talked about doing a workshop teaching people how to make them. Things like that. The goal is definitely to just expand what I'm doing here. There are more than 100 people at a lot of the shows. That’s such a broad audience to teach something meaningful or useful to. 

Tell me about some of the fundraisers you've been able to do through the Goblin Zone. 

I think the first one was for the Fledge. That was my band’s EP release show. We raised around $170. The next one I did was for a house venue called Nudieland in Minneapolis that was the site of a shooting. We donated all the proceeds from that night to the recovery fund. I did another food and clothing drive for the Fledge in September. And then the big one was the Halloween cover show, which was my biggest show ever — the most bands I've ever done and the most people that have ever come out. We did a fundraiser for the Palestine Children's Relief Fund, and we raised $950, which was crazy. I think our highest donation total up to that point was like $500. I was definitely taken aback by the amount the community was able to give.  

When and how did you get into music?  

Definitely really early in my life because my parents are both musically inclined. My mom is more dance and performance inclined. She instructs color guard and stuff like that. My dad was a jazz trumpet player and played guitar. I got involved in band in school and played trumpet all through my school years, but I didn't start playing guitar until I was around 19.  

Tell me about your bands. What kinds of music do you play? 

I sing in a gay screamo band Dear Heretic. We're like mid-2000s post-hardcore. I write most of the songs. Especially being the vocalist, I feel like I have an idea in mind of how I want the song to go. So that's kind of my passion project when it comes to music. And then I play guitar in Tournament, which is a ‘country band.’ We're really an emo band. Emo rock, I guess. We wrote a song called ‘Rock and Roll Jesus Christ,’ and I think that's all that matters. 

When you’re writing music for Dear Heretic, what do you take influence from? What inspires you? 

The first EP was written a lot about things I'm afraid of. The first song is about a recurring dream I would have about dying in a nuclear explosion. I definitely draw a lot from my own personal experience as a nonbinary/trans person, and also just living in culture and seeing what I see wrong with culture. I draw a lot from seeing the destruction of our environment. I’m vegan and love animals a lot, so parts of songs are about that. I definitely draw a lot from my own experiences and my own belief systems. Also, at times, I’ve just drawn influence directly from bands or the writing of the music itself. Most of the time, it’s a Say Anything song. That’s my favorite band of all time, and I just tend to rip off Say Anything a lot.  

  — NICOLE NOECHEL