HOGS OF WAR - A new hardcore band created from an old school cloth

Interview conducted with vocalist Greg.

Hogs of War is a relatively new band which is made up of scene veterans. What made you guys decide to form this unit?

After the No Solution show with Sham 69 I kind of got a wild hair up my ass and wanted to play out again. I’ve been doing art so long I forgot how it feels to play music again, it’s in my blood. I post up on FB and Adrian replied. We discussed what we wanted to do and churned on with..James replied and then we recruited Cory and the Hogs were born.

What is the origin of the band name? My first impression is that it’s a play off The Exploited song “Dogs of War”.

That’s a crazy question, we just threw names around on a group text some of them would’ve cracked you up, some bizarre shit being thrown around. Then Hogs of War was agreed on.

Is this group a continuation of the sounds you created in bands such as No Solution, Vice Grip, Formula for Victory and Krullur?

Yes and no, it has all the elements of all our past bands just mixed together and something different, but still and angry, hard and pissed as ever.

Besides having a wealth of experience playing in bands, you have also been extremely active in creating art for flyers and album covers. Can you give some insight about your passion for art? Who are your influences?

My passion for art goes back way before my days of hardcore in kindergarten drawing Kiss, then to Iron Maiden covers. I was in about 7th grade a friend had a Thrasher with an ad for Septic Death. Now that I have the Attention that shit blew me away never seen anything like that before.. I spent a majority of my early punk/skater days drawing every picture Zorlac put out in Thrasher and ordering stuff from early Pusmort. Those packages were amazing, usually came with 2 posters and he would always write a letter and sign it..I said that’s what I want to do with my art. Another ground breaker in my style was Agnostic Front-Cause for Alarm which still to this day is the best Punk/Hardcore cover of all time simply amazing!! I started seeing more of Sean Taggart’s stuff in zines and what not, kind of hard in the days before the Internet. Then when Todd McFarlane dropped in Hulk, and Amazing-Spiderman he had a big impact on my style as well. It’s been a dream come true seeing that my art has gone global with Total Chaos, pretty stoked about it.

Keeping with the previous question, you have had the fantastic opportunity to become a designer for Embassy Skateboards. How did that come about? How has it been working with them so far?

Met Lee Leal at a skate contest and showed him my work. He was stoked and asked me if I wanted to a series with John Gibson, Craig Johnson, Todd Prince, and Ken Fillion..Being a product of the Mid-80’s skate scene I said hell yeah!! As mentioned above, Pushead doing the graphic for Zorlac I kicked a ton of the Gibson’s and Johnson’s around in my day. It was a dream come true and I was honored. I proudly display mine next to my Zorlac models on my wall.

Being a longtime veteran of the Houston hardcore scene, what changes have you seen in the past few decades?

Want me to sugar coat or be honest with this question? Being involved in the Houston scene for nearly 25yrs now I’ve seen a lot of faces come and go. Hardcore to me has always been about inviduality and just being yourself, and fuck what people think, walk your own path. I think hardcore has lost that identity with the whole gang/crew mentality. Back in the day we were just friends hanging out for each other didn’t have flaunt it or all dress the same, we just looked out for each other. Now days shows are nowhere as violent as the back in the day, the fear is gone you could just feel it in the air. Now days kids all have their little agendas too pc and hugging trees or being to easily offended by words just basically retarded yeah I said it.. All follow the latest trends that bands push out to them. I still can’t believe Krishna is still relevant in Hardcore blows my

mind. I just wish that shit would go away.. Religion in my opinion has no place in Hardcore. Don’t even get me started on Veganism, probably the lamest thing to ever hit the scene. Keep your opinions to yourself and don’t force them upon me... I go to shows not for a damn rally, shut up and let the music do the talking.

The Internet is another thing that has changed, the scene kids read shit on there and try to school me on stuff that was happening in the 80’s. I just shake my head. It’s taking a lot away from the integrity of things. Remember when you would search and search for that one record and were so stoked when you found it at Record Exchange. Now it’s available at the click of a download, I’m guilty of it, but it’s not as rewarding as hunting stuff down by getting out of the house and hitting multiple record shop several times a week. Internet has its advantages with eBay, my guilty pleasure. I’ve been able to acquire stuff I’ve never seen or would ever see in a store in Houston.

Back to Hogs of War, when can we expect to see you live on the stage? What do you have planned?

Well May 1st our first show with you guys ay Rudz, and some recording coming along very soon.

Thanks for the interview. Feel free to have the last words.

Be true to yourself, and always follow your dreams and passion in life. Never let that flame cease to be and never let others put it out.. Peace out..

Greg

https://www.facebook.com/hogsofwarhouston

http://www.reverbnation.com/hogsofwar