Interview by JOSH ANXT
Once again I have decided to bring you an interview with another great Southern Metal band. This time we got Ben "Boss" Hogg from Beaten Back to Pure answering some questions via email. He had some cool shit to say. If your not familiar with this band then check the interview out and then pick up one of their discs, it is well worth the cash. Check it out....
Could you give all who arent familiar a little outline of the bands history?
Man that is tough for me to remember. Hell, we formed around 98 or 99, I dont remember. I doubt anybody gives a damn. There was a few changes early on, but always for the better. Fuck our history man, i cant imagine why anyone would care.
Congrats on the new album. I think it sounds killer. Got any interesting or funny stories you could share about something that happened in the studio this time around?
Hmmm.....studio time is the slowest and dullest increment of time on the face of the earth. I know I should come up with a story worth mentioning but really it aint that special. I dig the fact you like the new cd. I think it's pretty rockin but who the fuck am I?
Vince seems to really know what hes doing behind the console. Why didnt you choose to have him record the last time around and just rent a studio?
Damn, that thought never occured to us. It's a talent we've only just discovered in the past year. He always talked about doing it, but we figured he was just bullshit. Then, due to some legal unpleasantness, he couldnt come out and party like he used to and he had lots of extra time to sit at the house. So he got trigger happy and charged up a huge credit card full worth of equipment, turned a back bedroom and toolroom into a studio space and did tons of manual reading and recording other local bands demos. We developed confidence and the rest is history. We weren't sure it was a good idea, until it started being recorded and all our fears were eased.
How does Retribute treat Beaten Back to Pure?
Excellent. Real slick job. No fuckin around. THe fact remains it's a fairly small label so we don't expect the world either. We'd never leave them for another label of comparable size. It wouldnt make sense. The money is fair and he does a great job with ads and shit in magazines. He just released some other really cool shit by this band from Arkansas called Rwake. Fuckin sick.(Josh’s note:See I’ve been telling you guys about Rwake, now go buy it!)
Do they help in promotion of the disc and distro or is it more of they get the stuff pressed for you kinda thing?
fuck I ruined this with the last answer. After the pressing he pushes to sell that fucker, you'll soon see ads in Terrorizer for the new album. Last record was advertised in T'rizer, Metal Rules!, Unrestrained, just to name a few. I can walk into a book shop and pick up mags off the shelf and find BBtP info. That's all we can ask for and he delivers like a son of a bitch
What subject matter do you like to tackle in your lyrics?
Not much really. Nothing political, or religious. Those topics bore me. The tunes are a little more personal about real life day to day unpleasantness, shit like getting caught screwing around by your old lady, getting syphilis, you know, that sort of shit. Most songs that start off with topics get fucking morphed along the way, like the last tune on the new cd "Double Barrell Blasphemy", starts off about hunting deer and ends up about sniping people from a rooftop. Honestly I dont spend a ton of time on them, they come out sick and quick that makes me happy.
I read somewhere you have a kind of distaste for us yankees. I have some mutual southern brothers with you that we discussed before and one of them loves giving me shit about being a yankee. Why do southerners give us such shit just because we were born here? I mean those guys are way south but parts of Virginia are almost as far north as my state of Pennsylvania, so why the distaste?
I'm from Georgia and North Carolina. Born in Alabama. So living here in Old Virginny does almost feel like I'm in yankee land. But we are on the right side of the Mason Dixon line. The further north you go shit just tends to get more tense or rude. I genuinly hate being out of the southeast USA. Southerners, born and raised, are the only group of americans who ever lost a war and that's unsettling. I understand that we arent going to rise up and try to succeed from the union and I can live with that. It's just a sense of pride in where you're from and a predeliction towards the southern way of life. I also make fun of my yankee friends. We are at the other end(of Virginia), on the ocean just above North Carolina. Dixie forever.
They call you Boss Hogg. I love the Dukes of Hazzard. Are you a fan of the show?
I could take or leave the show really. What really soured me on it was the years it ran I was in 2nd, 3rd, 4th grades. When you're last name is "Hogg" which mine is, I heard endless amounts of bullshit. I had to fight my way off the schoolbus everyday, until my dad one day pointed out, what's wrong with being the "boss"? The older I got I really see the humor in it and have gravitated toward it, but goddamn it caused me fuckin grief back in Towns County Comprehensive School.
Any touring plans for Beaten Back to Pure right now?
Right now we're just trying to do weekend "minitours", go a little north or a little south and this winter we want to take a week or two and just hit it with some other band. Can you hook us up a show in your neck of the woods? Let me know if you have the juice to do that. Two nights ago we played with Weedeater and Goatsblood, in a cool bar called Swingers in Richmond (confederate capital). Good vibe. But, in response to your question. All plans are pretty loose currently but we're trying to get the name out there to some degree. Anyone reading this that has a line on dates in your area, you're encouraged to get in touch and let us know what you can do, we'd love to come to your town too.
If you make it here to Pittsburgh, will you give us a sample of your bloodletting? Or do you even still do that at all I guess I should ask?
Never say never. I havent done it in awhile, but you never know, with enough liquor anything is possible.
In the new disc, The Last Refuge of the Sons of Bitches, you put your phone numbers in there welcoming people to call. Has that turned into any sort of annoyance? Have people actually called?
Shit, I'm glad you asked that. I think most people think that that's our "management" or some shit. It's not, it's my cell number and Vince's (guitar player) home number. I dont think anyone has called, they probably figure they'd need to have an agenda to call, but not really, if they feel like calling (preferably after 8 or on weekends, free cell phone time)I'd be happy to chat them up. I dont recall another band doing this (putting their #'s in the album). I think it's a nice touch.
Whats in your stereo right now?
Well, let's see. The new Today is the Day, Nile, Sour Vein and a compilation called "Sucking the 70's", it's mostly stoner rock bands doing wild ass versions of 70's tunes. It's a 2 cd thing with about 30 bands. Very cool. Also this stoner band called The Rubes from Ohio I think. Cool mellower shit.
Whats some of your favorite albums of all time?
Hmmm....Slayer "Reign in Blood" is number one. Others in no order are Obituary "Cause of Death"(James Murphy MADE that album), Entombed "Wolverine Blues"(fuck the detractors), Iron Maiden "Live after Death" (best live album ever and a good retrospective into their most vital material), Sabbath "masters of reality" and "paranoid", Celtic Frost "Morbid Tales" and "to Mega Therion", Iron Monkey's Self titled debut, maybe not of all time, but that band Cult of Luna put out the best cd of last year on Rage of Achilles. Very impressive shit. Mastodon's "Remission" may make this alltime list too eventually.
I wanted to ask you something about the clean vocals on the new album, but, I didnt want to annoy you with the same question everyone else is probably asking which is why. So, Ill just ask you: Have you always been able to do clean vocals or did you discover it recently? . I dig your clean voice.
Wow, thanks man. Well, I've always had the same voice (since 13 or 14 anyway) and I've always known I could sing, the first album I just hadn't really added that element into the songs yet. Honestly Vince pushed me to do some different shit and that's what ended up coming out. The new stuff (early formative stages) we're writing he's wanting me to tone down the amount of clean shit. I think he's afraid I'm full of myself or something. HAHAHA, he's created a monster. I'll continue doing them to some degree in the future. I hope you keep diggin them.
What is the bands stance on drugs? If you use them, which ones how often?
No stance really, I dont care. I encourage everybody to do what they want. Just keep it between the lines and dont let it make you a worthless hobo or thief. Richie and Slam smoke alot of dope and Vince and I are worthless drunks. Chuck does some of each. We aint junkies but have plenty of friends who are.
Last words to our readers?
I'd be inclined to thank you for hooking this up with us. I want folks to check out the website www.beatenbacktopure.com, download the title frack from the new record. You can order all sorts of shit directly through us, you know, shirts and cd's and such. Get in touch, we like that. Help us spread our poisonous gospel. It's a sweet ride. Take it easy folks.
www.beatenbacktopure.com
www.retributerecords.com
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