Blessing The Hogs Interview

For those who can't get enough of insanely thunderous power grooves, Blessing The Hogs new record "The Twelve Gauge solution" is just what the doctor ordered. Tremendous riffing, aggro vox and spine-breaking rhythms are all a part of BTH's recipe for sonic devastation, and if that's not enough, the enhanced CD has more cool features than you can shake a baseball bat at. Including a video, a video game, web links and more, this is one disc that you'll find to be well worth your hard earned dollar.

The Gauntlet: The Twelve Gauge Solution is a remarkably heavy album. What recording techniques did you use to get such monstrous guitar tones on the album?

Billy Anderson: Thanks, man. The heaviness comes from the playing, dude. Do you think I'd tell you how we got those tones? Not a chance. No really, it was a pretty standard process to be honest, a couple of mics on the cabinets for the basic tracks, some roomier mics for some of the feedbacky bits and overdubs. We basically just captured what comes out of our amps naturally, then ran the signal through tube gear, a bit of compression, and a little EQ. A lot of the guitars (and vocals too) were recorded in our practice space through tube preamps with good mics. We did do a "direct" track for some of the main guitars 'cause Eric Rachel (engineer) asked us to. I think he may have used those sometimes for running through some, let's say "more modern"-type treatments when mixing. I don't wanna know...

John Sargentini: Yeah, top secret shit. If people read this we'll have to kill 'em. We each recorded up to three tracks at a time.

The Gauntlet: Tell us a little bit about the shooting of the video "Lets Play Doctor Kevorkian".

Billy Anderson: The video started as an experiment. My good friend Mitzi Auer (Mitzilanius Productions) had been shooting some live footage of us at a few shows, plus I had been collecting show footage from various people and places I also tend to accumulate clips and photos of all kinds of weird and sick stuff.One day Mitzi started to put together some live footage of us and we decided to do a project together. After tossing a bunch of ideas around, we imported a song the Hogs had just finished writing, "Let's Play Doctor Kevorkian". Funny thing is that none of the footage you see in the video was actually us playing that song-we hadn't played it live yet when most pf that stuff was shot. So the parts of the video that appear synced up are really not us playing that song at all. So Mitzi started teaching me Final Cut and together we started to assemble stuff-clips of us playing interspersed with clips of people doing dumb shit, effects, etc... We slowly chipped away at this thing which, over the next few months, became a "music video". I made the decision to keep it a surprise and finish it before we showed it to the band.

John Sargentini: Billy really surprised us with that one. We showed up to the studio one day to record and he had a video projector set up and a gigantic screen the size of a wall in the main room of the studio. Pretty fucking cool. We're ugly as fuck when we're two stories high.

The Gauntlet: When was the first time that you realized you had something very special going with the band?

Matt Dunlap: I really knew we had something with this band once John and I reunited in San Francisco. We had been in a band prior to Blessing The Hogs and hadn't spoken to each other for a couple of years after that band broke up. After our first rehearsal, I knew this was exactly what I'd been wanting out of music. It was clear that John and I were on the same page. We both wanted to incorporate a brutal, unique, metal sound. We had a few member changes. Then after recording what became "The Poisoning". Billy joined the band. His joining allowed us to focus and on our sound, which is what you hear on our new album.

John Sargentini: Matt's lying. The first time we jammed was a joke. He was playing with this asshole of a bass player who got all pissed when I came around and threw some tantrums. A few practices later he smashed some guy's amp and trashed the bathroom at the studio. After our first rehearsal all I knew was that I wanted to kick that kid's ass. I wanted to incorporate my guitar and his skull. I think he had a crush on Matt.

Billy Anderson: I've always known this band was "special" ...

John Sargentini: We tour on the short bus.

The Gauntlet: Which of the band members is the most responsible for the songwriting on the new record?

John Sargentini: It would be hard to say. We all toss ideas and parts around. There aren't any songs on this record that were written by a single member. I think we work better as a whole than individually. We all have different styles of playing so when we all work together the songs have a wider range. One thing we hear a lot is that we don't have an easily classifiable sound. I think that's due to the fact that we all have different influences and writing styles.

Billy Anderson: Yeah, we all have our way of contributing .John and I will show up with riffs and ideas. Matt will interpret the beats in various ways and we toss shit around in various ways till we have something we can all disagree on. Then we kick it around some more till we aren't throwing shit at each other. That's the normal process for us; it can take time. Sometimes, though, songs will just appear and be finished before we realize we've actually written an entire song. It just depends. A few of the songs on the new album were being written in the studio as we were recording. Okay, in reality, John and I don't actually write any of it. Matt's 6 year old daughter, Zoey, writes about 93% of the riffs we play. We are merely vehicles for her riff-mongery.

The Gauntlet: Do you feel that this is the album that you have always wanted to create?

Billy Anderson: This new album is pretty much what Blessing The Hogs has been striving for since day one. Signing with Goodfellow Records allowed us to create an album we're proud of.

John Sargentini: I think this album represents where we're at right now. But to say it's the album we've always wanted to create would be like saying we don't plan on recording another one. There's a pretty big difference in the song writing between this one and The Poisoning so now we're looking forward to writing the next one. If the next album sucks then yeah, this is the one we've always wanted to create.

Billy Anderson: It's the album we've always wanted to create until we make the next one.

The Gauntlet: Fair enough. Besides the single, "Let's Play Doctor Kevorkian", which song do you feel is the most deeply impacting on the record?

John Sargentini: I know which songs I think will be the standouts but you never know what people are going to be drawn to. We hope they all have an impact on somebody. We didn't put any songs on there as "filler". Each one of us has a set of songs that mean something to us, which is why the album is as long as it is. There might be a song or two that I could drop but then someone else will have their reasons why it has to be on the album. The last album had songs that I thought would be the standout but I was wrong. The track that most people mention from that album was the fucked up sample I made for the hidden track.

Billy Anderson: That's my personal favorite. Wait a minute single? What do you mean by that? Are we in heavy rotation somewhere and no one told me? Are we movin' units? Damn. I wondered where that Ferrari in my driveway came from. I thought it was Matt's. In my opinion, they're all hit singles. I smelled radio from the moment I joined this band. I dunno, they all have different effect on different people. Some have lyrics that strike some listeners in a certain way, some songs have memorable and/ or annoying riffs that stick with you, it's hard to say. For us in the band, they are all important and have a deep impact 'cause we worked so hard on them. For the listener, I wouldn't begin to guess which ones will have the most impact.

The Gauntlet: Tell us about the atmosphere present at one of your live performances.

Billy Anderson: I wouldn't consider the atmosphere at our shows a "present" at all its usually a hot, sweaty, spit-laden, insult-riddled retard-yard-sale of over-adrenalized juvenile grown men acting like high-school dropouts with dangerous levels of testosterone, whiskey and occasional offerings from audience members is that descriptive enough?

John Sargentini: It's always different. You can never tell what to expect. We've played big shows that were boring and small shows that were awesome. Some of my best times have been at shows that should have sucked. The one constant is that no matter where we play, at some point we find ourselves in the van or a basement with some Good Samaritan who makes us smoke their weed or eat their rhinoceros tranquilizers.

The Gauntlet: What is the one piece of gear that you just cannot live without in concert?

John Sargentini: Jagermeister. It's good medicine for a bad throat.

Billy Anderson: I tend to have a shitty show without my amp and guitar. But that's not to say we haven't played shows without those things and other essentials mics, p.a. systems, vocal chords, audience members, equilibrium. Truthfully, I would be lost without my 5150. Amp, that is.

The Gauntlet: Do you find that your songs evolve over time, or do you try to stick to the way it was recorded?

John Sargentini: We try to keep it the same but sometimes you get idea months down the road and want to hear it. There are exceptions though. We might be working on a set list and have an idea of how to end a song differently so it flows into the next. Small shit like that.

Billy Anderson: I think we let them take their own course sometimes the songs have a mind of their own. Consciously, we don't change much-like John said, beginnings and ends, we change the samples in some songs, add or subtract them from others. But mostly, we strive to play them as they are on the album. Some songs we actually learn from the album.

The Gauntlet: What is the one element which every BTH song must contain?

Billy Anderson: Notes and words and chords and shit like that. Actually, I take back the "words" part. They must all contain an element of aggression and a feeling of uneasiness. It has to have that unnamed quality that makes me bang my head and spazz out uncontrollably.

John Sargentini: Nothing specific. It just has to be heavy to us. You'll never hear us break into any whiny parts. Not that we're tough guys or anything like that. We just whine in a more violent way.

The Gauntlet: Who was responsible for putting the package together?

Matt Dunlap: Phil from www.apt13.com did an amazing job on the layout and design for this album. We put Phil through hell. We all had varying ideas of what we wanted it to look like. He must have done 4 different designs for us before we all agreed on the current one (the design you see). Phil has a way of creating designs that fits the bands music. He listened to our CD the entire time he worked on our album.

The Gauntlet: Was it the band's idea to use enhanced content as a part of the release?

John Sargentini: It was something we'd talked about after I made the video game. After we saw the Dr. K video we decided to see what it would take to make the enhanced part. Took some work but I think it turned out alright. There's some bonus shit hidden in there but I haven't heard back from anyone yet.

Billy Anderson: Yeah, there's some cool shit in there. It auto starts on Windows systems and takes over the whole screen. We put a bunch of links pages that we will be updating frequently with cool, weird shit. There are some hidden treats for the intrepid explorer.

The Gauntlet: I must say that I am guilty of playing the Blessing The Hogs version of Pac-Man for many hours. Can we expect a version to appear on a major gaming platform in the near future?

John Sargentini: Should be available for Playstation 3 by Christmas. Not really. There are some secrets in the game. Once you find your way to the hidden shit on the disc it tells you how to fuck with the game. Fuck I'm a geek.

The Gauntlet: How do you cope with the pressures of being a recording artist?

John Sargentini: What pressure? We have fun doing this. This is how we deal with the pressure of being everything else. Some people play golf. Some people go on killing sprees. I hate golf and killing sprees always end badly for the spree-er.

Billy Anderson: No pressure really. We have no A&R geeks up our ass, no label jerks that try to change what we do and when we do it, no gigantic advances to pay back, no trophy girls to keep dusted in coke. None of that shit yet. We do go through some stressful times. For instance, I feel a bit of stress when having to record, play and write simultaneously. But in the bigger picture it's totally fun and I feel lucky that things like that are my biggest stress. Nothing very bad, ever. Like John said, it's a release. I work with music all day, every day. There is some stress there-its tough to keep afloat these days when making music is your livelihood, and it's a lot of business and stuff like that. Playing in this band, going to a show or practice or the studio, it feels like a field trip or playground time. I hate golf too. Club Med is expensive, and therapy is overrated. I don't, however, think that killing sprees always end badly.

The Gauntlet: What is one thing that you feel would result in a major positive change for the group?

John Sargentini: For me it would be if the rest of the band would dress up like gorillas when we're on tour. I would be very cool when I go into the truck stop with my own road apes.

Billy Anderson: Spare change equals positive change. Id be happy if we went on tour more. Gorilla suits would be like. I sing on the cake.

The Gauntlet: What are your thoughts on the metal scene in 2005?

Matt Dunlap: I'm a true music fanatic, spending quite a bit of time and money buying music. It's great that metal and heavy music in general is bigger than ever. Every day there seems to be a new metal/heavy music magazine in publication as well as a shitload of new webzines. This is all very positive.

Billy Anderson: There are so many bands, most of them really great. There's sort of a renaissance happening with metal, it's sort of like punk used to be in the eighties. It went from being really underground to being a rich and diverse community that spread all over the world and did really well for itself. What eventually happened to punk was sort of disappointing in a lot of ways. I only hope metal stays true and hardcore in the future.

John Sargentini: Bacon tastes good.