Gene Hoglan of STRAPPING YOUNG LAD Comments on Forthcoming DVD

Gene Hoglan, master drummer of SYL, ex-DARK ANGEL, DEATH, TESTAMENT, commented on his upcoming, instructional DVD via his myspace page. Here is wha he had to say:

Hiya folks,

Well, as I said a couple of days ago, I finally finished filming that damned thing. We started on Tuesday, and I ended up needing a bit of Wednesday, cuz we couldn't get to everything as planned in one day. And of course, since I basically had no script and I just winged everything, now that shooting's over I remember a million things that I forgot to touch upon. Figures, isn't that always the way? Ah well, hopefully I can get to alot of them in 'post'.

I must admit, I'm not a real watcher of instructional DVD's/tapes. I've seen my share, in fact my favorite is PULSE, by Akira Jimbo, but even back in the day, I never watched them religiously. They all sorta seemed the same. Killer drumming, boring guy. Deen Castronovo injected a bit of life into his, which was very cool, and that's what I tried to do with mine. I don't envision mine to be one of those 'talking head/explaining wing-wang-flam-a-doodles', cuz I'm not very good at that. What I do envision for this to become is more of an 'instructo-doc'. Alot of me playing, as a matter-of-fact, I play about 8-9 songs on here, including a bunch from my brand new band, MECHANISM. I even get off the 'beaten metal track' a bit and play a couple of tunes from some of the non-metal projects I've done, plus a couple of 'solos'. That was trippy. Any of you out there ever seen me do a solo? Unless you lived in LA and were at that Dark Angel show at Fender's in Long Beach circa 1989, or at that 'power-outage' show in Regina, Saskatchewan in 2003, chances are you haven't seen me do a solo. I think there's a reason for that. I always figured, “Isn't the whole SET pretty much like a drum solo?” Hee hee. So, I took a shot, and fired a couple of 'solos' on there. Which is basically just me playing a couple of wacked-out beats that I've been working on. Anyway, I'm hoping after editing that it turns out to be more of a cool little documentary, more akin to that “Making of 'ALIEN'”, than a stodgy old 'instructional vid'. One thing I've been fortunate to say over the years is that I've always heard, “Hey Gene, I'm not even a drummer, yet you're the only drummer I pay attention to”, so I've tried to make something that everyone can enjoy, not just drummers (and chubby-chasin' women, of course!).

I decided to concentrate on showcasing my new band, MECHANISM, mainly cuz this is my DVD, funded by me and no companies, and I'll do what I want. MECHANISM DEFINITELY shows off tons of what I can do on the tubs. I've been explaining this band as an example of what is probably the craziest drumming I've done in my career, so why not introduce ourselves to people in a rather unorthodox way? My playing on it I suppose is reminiscent of my 'SYMBOLIC' era, with a ton more crazy time-signatures and heap-loads of blast beats. I like it alot, and I'm proud to showcase us in such a fashion.
I figure, we'll be editing it for a month or two, and I'm kinda shooting for a June release. I'll be selling it directly to you thru my website, whatever version of 'GeneHoglan.com' that ISN'T owned by some guy in China, and I'm sure I'll be putting up links all over my Myspace account when that gets ready. Hell, I'll even sell it offa Myspace as well, if I can.

Now, as for the 'Gene-shirts', thank you all for your impatience with this matter. To paraphrase the mighty Homer, “I don't wanna say it's slack, but that was the slackiest pile o' slack that ever slacked”. I know. I said they'd be ready 2 months ago, and they weren't. Totally my fault. That's why I'm glad I've just hired some people to work here at Gene Hoglan Industries who will actually get stuff done, unlike Gene Hoglan, Slacker Extraordinaire. And I get to just play drums. Oh, and Playstation.

Those I've hired are now tackling 'Task #3' for 2007, which is booking my World Clinic Tour. We're getting started on that as we speak, and I intend to start with about 35-40 dates in the US, then the same in Europe, then move on down to South America, Australia, then over to Japan and South Korea. But that's all later in the year, plenty of time for that. See? Spoken like a true slacker.

I guess that's aboot it for now. I'll keep you all posted in the coming weeks as things progress.

Take it easy,

Gene