“It was not a fine river at all, but it was the only one we had.”
— John Steinbeck, “East of Eden”
Growing up on the Maumee River was a formative experience for the three members of local indie-folk band Oliver Hazard. Before becoming musicians and garnering nearly 1 million monthly Spotify listeners, Mike Belazis, Devin East and Nate Miner were just three boys from Northwest Ohio.
“I think we’re just gonna forever be building outward from Waterville, Ohio,” Belazis said.
While their indie-folk music occasionally namedrops the Buckeye State directly, the theme of home overwhelmingly seeps through their discography, both lyrically and in bittersweet melody — poignantly demonstrated in the tracks “Take me Back,” “Bloodhound Blues” and “Saratoga.”
Belazis recalled Steinbeck’s quote from memory as he described how his childhood in Waterville impacted his later music career.
“Where we grew up is very pretty,” Belazis said. “It’s a place that if you really dig for the beauty and search around a little bit, it’s really remarkable. And we all grew up on the Maumee River, and this river that runs through all of our towns, and it’s just like this anchor of an ecosystem that just exists in Northwest Ohio and dumps into this beautiful shallow lake, Lake Erie.”
Although Belazis now lives between Ohio and California, Northwest Ohio remains his muse. He said most of his writing and creativity sparks when he touches ground in the homeland.
Their most recent 2026 EP release, lovingly titled “Waterville,” was recorded in the town itself.
“What we write about and all the music has fully been impacted by where we grew up,” Belazis said. “It’s not just the places, but also the people that live in that place, too. And that whole symbiotic ecosystem between [them]. It’s a beautiful, natural place that we live in, and all these really funny people that live in that place.”
The band’s name also reflects their regional upbringing. “Oliver Hazard” refers to the historical figure Oliver Hazard Perry, a local hero and naval commander who led the U.S. to victory against the British in the Battle of Lake Erie.
“His name was plastered in the infrastructure of where we grew up,” Belazis said. “There’s streets named after him, towns named after him … It was very in line with our goals of community building in the beginning — of being this Ohio band, this Waterville band, this band that’s from Northwest Ohio. And we wanted to kind of have a name that reflected that.”
“Come back home, back home
The Ohio me
Oh it’s been so long”
— Oliver Hazard, “Take Me Back”
Oliver Hazard’s humble beginnings in Northwest Ohio may have been an unlikely recipe for success, but the cards fell in their favor when they started.
According to Belazis, their first performance came together in 2016 when a 20-minute performance slot opened up at The Village Idiot, “the greatest dive bar in Northwest Ohio.” As a self-proclaimed closet musician at the time, Belazis’ interest was piqued. He pulled together a band and a set, and the show was a hit.
Next came a phone call out of the blue: Belazis had won a Facebook contest to book a free session in a recording studio. Within three weeks of their first performance, Oliver Hazard had studio-recorded their 10-song set. They sent the tape out to record labels, and are now signed with international publishing company Nettwerk Music Group.
“In the beginning, we knew that this band was going to start in a different type of way than most bands start,” Belazis said. “A lot of folks will move to bigger cities and try to build their audience there. But for us, we were like, ‘I think this is like our spot, this is where our biggest audience is going to be’ — and to this day, that still holds true.”
Oliver Hazard has grown fast, and now sells out tour venues across the country and even the world. But for Belazis, their local audience of attendees is remarkably supportive. He said the band has even joked about starting a punch-card system for their dedicated fans.
It would hardly be surprising if they did go with a punch-card system — the band has always done things a little differently. Their first tour in 2019 was held in fans’ living rooms across the country, and during the pandemic they hosted a concert in the Fifth Third Field stadium, spray-painting squares for audience members to sit safely apart.
“I think we’re a band that really challenges ourselves,” Belazis said.
One of the chief ways they challenge themselves is by consistently striving to give back to their community.
According to Belazis, Oliver Hazard’s second performance post-launch was a charity drive, where they encouraged attendees to bring feminine products to donate to a local homeless shelter. Around 200 people attended the event in a DIY venue space (a sub shop turned one-night concert hall), almost all bearing donations.
The goodwill trend continued into their next few concerts, which almost all involved smaller community locations and charity donations from their audiences.
“We were just like, ‘Let’s figure out how to build this community and make this project for good.’” Belazis said. “Rather than [be] this band that’s just trying to grow, but doesn’t know why they’re growing … Being in a band can be more than just the playing shows and rock ‘n’ roll.”
“Step in my shoes
For a moment
Find your way home”
— Oliver Hazard, “Saratoga”
Despite the band’s ascent to a national and even global stage in recent years, its members return to Waterville each year for the annual Oliver Hazard Day — a music festival that simultaneously features emerging indie artists and raises money for the Arts Commission.
Now in its eighth year, the anticipated community event closes off Waterville’s Main Street and brings together local vendors, food trucks and breweries for hundreds of attendees.
As for the line-up, Belazis said that they hire bands they meet on tour, or personal favorite bands from all over the country. The festival has even seen international bands — from Canada and the U.K. — perform in Waterville.
“We just are building it from the ground up with artists that are very similar to us in our size, but bringing them to a place they would never visit otherwise,” Belazis said. “We’ve almost put Waterville on the map, and Northwest Ohio as one of the places that you can see indie bands, which is really cool. It’s like a little gift back to the town.”
Oliver Hazard continues to find alternative ways to stay close to home. In October 2023, they organized a special concert with the Toledo Symphony Orchestra, where the band performed a tracklist of their original songs with new arrangement and backing from the orchestra — colorful rugs underfoot and softly lit floor lamps punctuating the stage as a nod to their indie roots.
“I just grew up listening to Mozart and Beethoven — music that was more in the classical realm,” Belazis said. “So, yeah, it was a pretty dreamy collaboration to perform with a bunch of violins and violas, cellos and basses.”
The band worked alongside the orchestra for 10 months to prepare the show, setting a hopeful precedent for future musical partnerships in Toledo.
But there’s more to come from Oliver Hazard, in Northwest Ohio and beyond. 2026 marks the start of their debut international tour to Europe, including the U.K. and Denmark.
“There’s a lot of balls in the air right now, so we’re just taking things in stride,” Belazis said.
“I’ll wait for you here
Till you get home”
— Oliver Hazard, “Bloodhound Blues”
