Pipeman Interviews Gene Hoglan of Dethklok at Hellfest 2025

0:04 Hey, you love then too, Yes, that's true. For gee, why crazy young? This is the pipe Man here on the Adventures pipe Man W four c Y Radio, and I'm here with the Hope. Man, Geene Hopeman. Hey, what's happened to everybody? Nice? Here at Hellfest? And you picked the right day to come because this is like the coolest day of all four.

0:48 Days I heard. I was just speaking with my drum son, Ash Pearson from Revocation and he's here and they played a couple of days ago, and he was stayed here yesterday. He's like the concrete was melting. UF picked the right day to. Be here, So it was brutal. I don't even know how bands perform in that, especially a drummer. Right. Well, you know what. That's one thing I trained so well and so hard for this kind of thing, is that I'll go on stage tonight and I wear neoprene when I play, and I like sweating. I'll wear a long sleeve when I play tonight, and I'll be fine. God, we got a short set tonight for Death Clock. We don't get to play our entire set, so it is a piece of cake set. And I played this exact same stage a couple of times with Dark Angel with Death to All headlined, both of those a couple of years ago. And it's a toasty stage and it's a tent, so there's not a lot of not a lot of circulation. But it I'm into sweating. That's We're here to play metal guts.

1:43 That's it, right day man. This ain't about what, you know, having fans blowing on you and playing in air conditioning. Yeah. The other night, Nicole over here, that's taking picks. She'll tell you that the smile grin ear to ear. But I was dripping sweat because Exodus played right and I made sure that pit was a lot bigger than it started. Nice, excellent. Oh that's a way to go, pipe man. Absolutely, So tell. Our listeners that may not be familiar with Death Clock what it's all about, because it's a really cool story. I love that you're on adult Swim. It's like, how many other bands metal bands can say that. That is true? Well, you know. Death Clock was a concept that was put together by the creator Brendan Small and it was during his end of his time with his first TV show, which was called Home Movies, which is another animated series and Brendan essentially the way he explained to me, he was like, I want to do a show where I get to play guitar all the time.

2:42 And Brendan is is a real metal head, so he pitched this idea. Guy. He had his partner Tommy Blocker and him pitch an idea to adult Swim. They went for it, and so Brendan got to just be. A metal head bring metal to the masses. There are so many people, especially from eighteen seventeen, sixteen years ago, where Deathclock was their absolute gateway band to metal. That's what death Clock did for so many people. We get it all the time, Like Brendan and I do a lot of meet and greets, and that's what people say. It's like death Clock was a first band I ever heard. And also his early involvement in those Guitar Hero series.

3:24 We had thunder Horse from the first season, first album on Guitar Hero. That was a real introduction to the musical side of death Clock. The show is just such an irreverent It's about a metal band who is the largest band. In the history of the world. They are so large, their economy is they have the seventh largest economy in the US. I think they're one higher than Belgium or something like that. And they're a band of pretty much arrested adolescents who are just a bunch of kind of idiotic titled children. Who sounds familiar, Yeah, who are.

4:05 Just in charge of this entire global phenomenon that is death Clock and it's from the TV show Metal Acalypse. I'm sure it's streamable all. Over the world, or if it isn't, there's youtubes, there's torrent sites, you can get it. A lot of the folks here in Europe. I mean, we've been playing huge shows. We're gonna our tent is going to be packed tonight, doesn't matter who the headliner is. We played Grasspop a couple of nights ago and our monitor man was in touch. He's got a good pal on the Slipknot crew. We went up directly against Slipknot and he was getting texts like ten minutes after we got off stage and he's like, hey, man, Corey's wondering, what why this influx of people have just entered.

4:48 It's noticeable how many folks are coming over to Cat's Slipknot. Did you guys just finish? And Uncle Timmy ar monitor. I was like, yeah, we just finished. That's what you're getting in nice. You got the guys from slipnot noticing that. Wow, that's a major amount of folks coming over, So that kind of thing. So it's a blast to play. It's such fun, it's such a great it's a comedy and our set is so brutal, so intense, so comedic that. If you do not have a fantastic time seeing Death Clock, now I don't know what's wrong with you. You have such a great time. Everybody comes out having the best time ever, big smiles, everybody's sweaty, everybody's got their metal fixed because it is intense, and we are not lit up on stage the band.

5:36 It's kind of like Mystery Science. Yeah, we're kind of like that live. We are in the shadows. Brandon likes to refer to us as kind of like the orchestra pit band, and we want you paying attention to that big, giant screen behind us, and it's massive, and it is just such an assault on the senses that at the end you're just like you've been brutalized and pummeled by Death Clock. Definitely, So it's a great time all around absolutely, and I've. Talked to him before. What made him approach you? Besides being like probably the busiest drummer and metal you. Al, he's a bit of fan and you know, he was talking with the guys from Century Media and he was approaching them for like, hey man, who can I get? You think I could get gene kind of thing a dank and they put us together. He got my number from somebody at Century Media because that's who Strapping was with at the time.

6:25 And I got a call out of the blue from Brendan saying, I'm Brendan Small. I have a show that I was well aware of the show and. I had yet to see it because it was in the first few weeks of its initial airing and I was just running like crazy. So happened to be at a place where I could catch the show that night, because I remember it was a Sunday night that. He called me. We were watching football, me and my buddy. So the new episode was on later that evening and I caught it and and Brendan said, we have a budget to make an album, a soundtrack album to the show. Might you be interested? And I'm always into doing sessions, you know, that kind of stuff. And then when I saw the show, I freely admit I was like, it's like the humor happened. To catch the episode where murder faced the basis is puke it into a bucket, and I'm like, okay, I get it.

7:13 But the music was serious metal, you know. I was like, wait a minute, this is not corny TV metal, right the rock or something. This is this man. You could tell he knows his metal apps, And so right then I was like, okay, you definitely have my attention. And then I got to see a couple episodes real quick soon afterwards, and I could see where some of the humor was. Actually it's on some higher level. There is some actual, real high brow humor to this thing place in the midst of these five idiots that are just a bunch of idiots, you know, but there's some actual, real kick ass humor there. And so I was hooked. And so by the time we got to track the record a month or so later to how that worked out, Death Clock a global phenomenon, and it is a lot of people are very very much saying this was my gateway metal band.

8:05 And we have toured so much in the States. Over the last fifteen plus year, sixteen years or whatever it's been. God yeah, almost twenty years now, eighteen years. There are so many folks that have come to me that they're the grizzled veterans of the scene in their towns, and they'll come to me after the show and they said, look, I've lived in this town forever. I've seen every concert from club shows to the giant arena shows, in the stadium shows. This was the best. Concert I've ever been to, the best concert. And I've heard that for almost twenty years. I love so it's great. It's a fantastic night. So everybody that's fortunate enough to be here, us especially, I was really gonna enjoy tonight absolutely here at helped us.

8:49 And I'll tell you how epic it is that yesterday I was doing an interview with the band Sick, who played here yesterday, and they were like, I was asking her, you could be here tomorrow. So he gets and I actually said, are you gonna see death? Fucking He's like, oh my god, I can't believe I have to leave right And they were like, oh my god, I would Gene and da da da da da, And he was just fanboaying out, oh that, and like, oh, I would love to be here for that. You're so lucky. I'm so jealous of you. Excellent. Well that's very cool man, And. I'm gonna show you something that we're in person, because I showed it to you on the video, but it's one thing in person. And see if you recognize anything there.

9:31 Look at that battle jacket. What a great one. That's awesome. Man. Let me get let's get a picture of that. Man me talking about right there looking there, and this has gotta be pushing forty years old. I would say, you know. Eighty one is when I first got it and started doing all that stuff. That's awesome. That's very cool. Pipe man, we dig that. That's all that. That looks great. Got some GBH on there, got some Oh the old school megadet that's our eighty five logo. I said, yeah, this is. Definitely old school. We got the old school. You're gonna see a little pit action there and blood on there for you. Absolutely, boy, that is an ancient metallic action dr You got hardcore black. Yeah, that's killer. That's great. That look a merciful fate.

10:11 You get English dogs love them right metal Morphosis record that was a game changer in the hardcore scene. Totally loved English Dogs. So that's great. That looks awesome, brother, Thank you well, thank you for lots of memories over the years in multiple bands like You're all what You've been all over the place, like probably the most in demand drummer in my opinion. Well, I put the hoe in Hoagland. I'm a drum home man definitely. So I just I love doing what I do. I'm an absolute poster child for living one's dream. I set out on this path when I was eleven. That's when I said I'm gonna be a rock and roll drummer. I'm gonna play for play for bands and see the world and all that. And by the time I was thirteen and super into metal. By that time, I was twelve in nineteen eighty when the huge crush of metal came out, me too. That was still the best year of metal ever and that was all fresh stuff being thrown right at me. So that cemented my love for metal, and that's why I'm like, I'm gonna be a metal drummer. I'm going to play in fast heavy, I'm gonna be in the heaviest bands I can find, and I didn't even like relegate myself to one band.

11:24 I was even back then. I was like, I'm just I know, I'm gonna play with a ton of musicians and it's gonna be great. And so here it is forty five years later. And I'm could you even predict that we'd be sitting here at Hellfest forty five years later? Right? It was a wish, It was a dream. And tell you that, I guess I've recently come in the term come into contact with the term of manifestation, and I'm like, everything that I hear this manifestation stuff is that's what I did. I just I made this happen. I created this out of my own brain, and I saw the path that I needed to be on, and I tried to make all the good decisions that I could. You know, we might have talked about it growing up in the LA scene there, and I was a part the initial La scene of the all the Dante Boxes and Great Whites and Rats and Motley.

12:12 Cruz and Dubro. Before he was doing the choir, he was after quiet riot. That's I was a little quiet, right. It was a little before my time the initial Randy Rhodes, Quiet Riot, but Snow and all of those bands all a Kart one of the greatest bands ever. I was going to see all those bands when I was thirteen and becoming pals with those guys, and my sister was five years older than me, and she used to drag me to all those shows and this was awesome kid to me, all these guys that eventually became huge, big stars. But the thing that taught me was like a lot of those bands I would see at the time, they got huge with not the exact same members that they had because we go to the parties afterwards and the majority of the band would be pretty well put together, but there was that one guy in the band that would just get shitty drunk got a Wednesday night, and I was just a sponge. I didn't drink or do drugs or anything, so I've just I was just a sponge to it all. I'm like, I don't think that guy's gonna last in this band.

13:10 Sure enough, he gets the boot. They get a guy that's got more together from one of the other bands, they signed the big contract. They go on to huge things, and that guy is just left behind. I watch it happen so many times. So it was just being a sponge, being a witness to all of this activity where I was able to kind of discern that's the way to go. This is not the way to go. Don't act like I love that guy that scene. To not do alcohol and drugs in that scene, that's like unheard of. Right, I live that scene, so I know what you're talking about. So one of the people you're talking about, give me his business card. I went to their first show ever, all right, and he gave me his business card, which I wish I had today because he's not in that band.

13:54 Fair enough, There was a drummer for a band that went on to become a gargitchuan band. Was like fifteen or so. I obtained the keys to my folks's car, and I went and drove and picked him up, and he was driving us around. We're doing something together. And the biggest lesson I ever got ever was from this guy as he was talking to me about his philosophy on making it in the music industry, and he said, and this is no joke, he said, I don't care who I have to screw over step man f over walk on to better myself and get myself bigger in the music industry.

14:35 I don't care who I have to screw over. I will do it. And I was just like, I was like, I don't think listening to this, and I'm gonna do the I took from that, go do the opposite. I love. So he got the boot from that band. He's on their first couple of recordings, and they were They were killer. They were well known, especially in La especially on Cami Te. They were in the big push in eighty three eighty four, right at that first burst of the eighty three yeah yeah yeah stuff and eighty four definitely, And that was the biggest lesson I ever got. It's like, whatever he just said, do the opposite, and that's gonna work well for you. And so I've always always tried to help other people. I'm always like, if I got friends in a band, like, hey man, your band's pretty cool, let me introduce you to my record label. Or I know a guy over here that might be able to help you guys out, or I know of drummer that you guys could probably eat.

15:28 All that kind of stuff to try to help people, don't screw people over. But that was a huge lesson. That's why you're here forty five years later right there, because that's the only way to be. And it's like a few years ago I told a friend of mine from way back then, I'm like, you had the most brilliant marketing plan ever and he goes, it was just a. Record store clerk at OZ Records. Man, I wasn't planning anything. And you know who I'm talking about, Brian Slagel, right Like I went in there and he used to go check this band out, house checked it, go to this show and like led me go in like Slayers first show, Metallica's first show. I went and known anything without him. It was like we used to go in there to get our apple. Until you go here, listen to this.

16:09 I remember Venom Welcome the hell we handed it to me. I'm like, oh my god. And that's you know. I met him in the LA scene when he was putting out the initial Metal Massacre and he was one of those metal maskers coming out at the same It was kind of like using it as a release night for Metal Massacre and one when Saxon played two nights at the Whiskey, one night was the Metallica the other night was Rat and the number of other bands, and I went to both nights and that's when I met him there. And I was fourteen at the time and just cool guy that wanted to talk about metal. I was cool with that. Absolutely, that's the way it is. Now. One last question too. The castle out here in Hellfest is at your guy's castle. Did they bring it here for your show Ardhouse?

16:52 They did. They especially had it shipped out directly for Death Clock, So that's where Death Clock will be hanging until the show, and then we'll take the death cofter over to the stage and then play our stage and head back to the old Mordehouse castle that they got especially trucked in for. Death Clock here in the oil Fest there. It is well excellent, man. I love that you're here at Hellfest because this is like one of the most epic festivals for you guys to play. Indeed, we're really happy to be here. This is our initial run. We are only doing four shows out here, Death Clock is and so we're just introducing ourselves to the to the European public. Really, it's been a long time and like we played London last night and we played our own show in London, not a festival, and one thing we are very used to is Deathclock fans being very loud and very enthusiastic. But last night in London was the loudest ever. I mean, I'm death Clock has always been my flat out loudest band in the audience standpoint, just singing along, screaming along, cheer and all that kind of stuff, and it was amazing last night.

18:00 So that was awesome. So we're happy to be here. I think you'll break that record tonight. Maybe we will see absolutely boy. We did real well at Grasspop a couple of nights ago, so that was awesome. Well, thanks for being here at healfest and thanks for being on the Adventures of pipe Man. Thank you pipe Man. I appreciate it, and definitely check out that new Dark Angel album, Extinction Level Event. It's coming to you by fall, and I've got a couple singles out right now. Check them out and that's all I ask. Check them out, make your own decision on them. It is bad, so they definitely have to check it out for sure. Brother appreciate it. Thank you for listening to the Adventures of pipe Man on w for CUI Radio.