Transcript of an interview I recorded with Gene Hoglan of DARK ANGEL - 28/08/19. Full article here. MAL-
On the line Gene Hoglan from DARK ANGEL, Gene, thanks for taking the time to talk to me today. GENE- Hey, thank you very much, Mal, appreciate it. MAL- Yeah, it's good to have you on now. Basically, since 1984, DARK ANGEL, how's that time been? What's your main memories of the early years? GENE- Well, you know, that was that was, you know, a kind of a magical time in metal because, you know, the thrash movement was getting started and DARK ANGEL before I joined the band was, was a big part of that movement. You know, there was a time when there was, you know, there was VENOM, METALLICA, and DARK ANGEL as the three thrash bands on the planet, you know, SLAYER was still kind of doing the covers thing, they hadn't quite swapped over to their super metal (?) yet. But, you know, I was I was checking out DARK ANGEL in the clubs and in the fanzines and all that sort of stuff, and I had all their demos and whatnot beforehand, but when I joined the band in 84, it was a matter of joining this, you know, pretty kick ass band, going to try to make it even more kick ass. But it's not like there was a great scene or anything like that in, in LA for, for thrash metal or anything, it was always like, you know, you'd have a night of three hard rock bands. And then if you were lucky, your thrash band will be sandwiched in the middle of all that sort of stuff. So there wasn't that much of a scene, but all we tried to do is just keep on plugging away and putting out good, you know, starting to put out albums and stuff like that in 1985, 'We Have Arrived' was released, and although I did not play on that record, I helped contribute some lyrics before I was ever in the band sort of thing. And when I joined in 84, we had a definite, there were now two guys in the band, myself and Jim Durkin, who had we were very like minded in how we felt DARK ANGEL's approach should be you know, just try to write really brutal stuff. Try to write really heavy stuff. And, you know, the speed wasn't that important as long as a heaviness was, however, we just happen to become this incredibly fast thrash band. But yeah, it was, it was it was a great start. I was a teenager, I was still in high school when I when I joined DARK ANGEL, so it was a whole lot of roadwork right off the bat, you know, playing all over the place and and it was, it was a really awesome way to be in the middle of my teens, MAL- Over here on the other side of the world we used to hear about, you know, as far as thrash goes, not much happening in LA, but San Francisco being, you know, where it was at, for the west coast of the USA. Was that the case and how did DARK ANGEL deal with it? GENE- Well, thrash completely started in Los Angeles, you know, you had, you had METALLICA and DARK ANGEL formed at the same time, at the same high school in California. The Metallica guys were a couple years older and DARK ANGEL guys were, you know, like sophomores in high school sort of thing. And that's kind of where got it started. Got to start in LA. However, since out you know, and SLAYER came along pretty quick after that, you know, by late 82, early 83, they were they were playing some thrashy stuff. There was a better scene, definitely up in the Bay Area for heavier music in general. Yeah, and that's kind of where, you know, SLAYER started go up north play DARK ANGEL did the same. Obviously, METALLICA just couldn't really catch a break in LA. Because in LA, like, the heavy bands were like W.A.S.P. and maybe ARMORED SAINT and things like that, were, you know, heavy to a degree, but none of that was going to you know, like, like, rip your face off in terms of ferocity or anything like that. So but the the Bay Area was always way more open to, to the heavier stuff. And that's why, you know, the LA bands kind of drift up there play a lot of shows. And by the time METALLICA was entrenched up in the Bay Area scene, you know, along with EXODUS and, and bands like that, you know, that's where all the baby bands started coming around, like the LEGACYs and the FORBIDDEN EVILs and, and bands like that, that were just that all kind of became a part of the Bay Area thrash scene. So you know, LEGACY turned into TESTAMENT and, you know, you've got EXODUS, which were the kings of the clubs up there. Totally. So that's pretty cool. MAL- What was the turning point for DARK ANGEL, do you think? GENE- I guess it might go back to when I joined the band, like I was saying, we had two guys, like, I think DARK ANGEL was kind of in the, they were, they were really, really good band before. But I think there wasn't the cohesion in terms of like mindedness of approach. And when I joined, I was all about this, let's be brutal, and heavy and write the heaviest thing ever, and Jim Durkin was all about that, too, and I think me perhaps he was having kind of an uphill battle, trying to get that approach across to the rest of the guys in the band. But finally, he had an ally, and I was, I was the writing partner as well, you know, I came ready to write riffs and things like that. So that's where I think, you know, I'm not laying it on my own shoulders, but I think that was that was a turning point for DARK ANGEL in terms of the the approach and just the aggression that 'Darkness Descends' displayed as opposed to 'We Have Arrived'. 'We Have Arrived' was a good quality thrash album, kind of safe sounding, and 'Darkness', there was nothing safe about that record. So, you know, yay, yay, new drummer, you know, that helped. MAL- Why did the band split in the early 90s? What happened there? GENE- Well, actually, it was a matter of our singer, our vocalist, Ron Reinhart. He came to the band at a rehearsal. And he was pretty dejected, he looked pretty bummed out. And, you know, like, hey, Ron, what's happening? And, and, and he's like, I, I've got to just quit the music industry. This is not working out the way I was hoping and expecting and, you know, and we, I felt for Ron, you know, he was he was going through a hard time. And, you know, it's when you have a dream that has to get put to the side in order to, you know, my guess make make a living or something. You know, that's always challenging. And so with Ron, freshly out, you know, it took us so long to find Ron, when we when when we got rid of the other vocalist. You know, it took months and months and months to find a vocalist that we could, you know, we could settle with, because back in 1987 this style was still not popular. It's not like we had people beating down our doors to come sing for us, because it still was a, an underground music and most of the LA rockers or even metallers, they, you know, if you were metal they do the metal guys were leaning more towards the, you know, Rob Halford and Geoff Tate and, and and Bruce Dickinson kind of vocals. And we just wanted, we just wanted somebody, you know, aggressive, who had those chops if needed, but you know, we weren't gonna rely on on, you know, operatic histrionics for the band, you know, we just wanted somebody really aggressive. And when we found Ron, it was like, perfect, you know, you've got the best of both worlds with Ron, you could do some melody if we needed. And he was, you know, in a good aggressive barking voice. So we dug it. And so just, it I just remember is like, oh, man, we've just lost Ron, it took us so long to find Ron. And at this point, in time, Death Metal was starting to really take hold, and all the vocalists are all death metal, and I'm like, that's great. But that's not quite our approach. You know, I like I love the elements of it. But, you know, I don't want to find just a death metal vocalist and carry on as like a death metal band, so I just felt like maybe it's my time to, to step aside. And, you know, hey, guys in the band, if you guys want to carry on and find a, find a new drummer, that writes all the material and writes all the lyrics, and the vocals and does all the interviews and does all the, you know, behind the scenes stuff, by all means, please carry on, you know, but I think I'm just gonna, I'm going to start examining some of my options. And within a month, I was, I was out there jamming with CHUCK from DEATH, and that was the next phase of my career. But, but that's kind of where it happened. We, we never broke up, you know, actually, we never really broke up, you know, it was just kind of like, just kind of a dissolution of any, if anything, and you know, it was never out of animosity, or 'I hate this guy, and I hate that guy', no, we were all we always remained friends and you know, super supportive of each other and everybody's new endeavors and stuff. And anytime I'd come around with one of my new bands, you know, playing in anybody's, you know, any of the bands towns, you know, if the guys would come out, you know, we'd have a good time. So we always, we always remain good friends. And that's why it's really fun getting to play music with my old friends, my old brothers, my old bandmates, because we it's an even better time now. There's, there's no pressure from from any anywhere. It's just like, hey, let's all get together, have a good time. enjoy each other's company and play some great metal and the fans seem to enjoy it. So you know, if, if we can keep doing this, and let's keep doing it. This is great. MAL- I've read your discography, now lots of stuff on there. When was the last time you slept? GENE- I couldn't even tell you how many albums I have out. But I would imagine there it's pushing around 50 or so, so I've been slacking over the past like four or five or eight years, because I've only put out a couple, you know, two or three albums, four or five albums in the last few years. So I'm slacking, I gotta pick up the pace a little bit. MAL- Let's skip forward. DARK ANGEL coming out to Australia. Where did this tour come from? How did that come about? GENE- Well, it was, you know, Australia is one of the greatest and most unappreciated metal areas to play, because Australia is so metal, you know, I've seen that for for 20 something years now that you know how metal Australia is. And that's one thing I've always appreciated about Australia is that everybody down there is so like, into the extreme stuff, you know, they're they're into it. There's a lot of countries that are, but Australia really seems to have taken to the super extreme stuff really awesomely. And so it's it when the offer came along, it was it was a no brainer. It's like, yes, absolutely, let's do this. And, you know, I've been fortunate enough to I probably played Australia about 15 times or so. And this is the first time the band gets to do it. And this is all about is, you know, this is always a great place to play. So all the guys in the band are super excited to be going down there. And I'm excited to be able to take DARK ANGEL and play play some DARK ANGEL music in front of a bunch of kick ass metal fans. So it's a win win all over the place for us, I tell you MAL- With the band back together, or 'off hiatus' if you like, is there any new any new music coming from the band? GENE- Well we are currently writing a new record. And that's been in the works for a while. Jim Durkin and myself are are pretty much heading the writing charge. And one thing that, you know I've said this many times in interviews is our schedules are pretty crazy, and mine is, and Jim's is as well, you know, because Jim has a has a great career for himself outside of music. And, you know, that was his path. That's what he chose to do. And so trying to get our schedules together to write, and that's one thing that we have noticed over the years is that our best writing occurs just like it did in the old days, both of us guitars in hand sitting right across from each other and riffing away. So we've tried the Skype writing, and we've tried to, 'Hey, I've got some riffs here, let me send them along.' And it just kind of works out that the best the most fruitful occurrences of writing happen when you're just face to face with each other. So that's, that's the challenge, because Jim lives about three hours away from me. And so when I'm in town, you know, we try to get together as much as we can and bash out some tunes and bash out some riffs. And I'm excited with the new stuff. And we're we're trying to work towards getting getting it out there. But you know, in that regard, there's also been no real pressure. I mean, we have record labels, knocking on our door all the time and how harassing us like, 'come on, when are you guys gonna get this record out?'. And we just, we still don't feel that pressure. It's like, hey, when it's ready, when it's as awesome as it can be, we're going to release it. And don't worry, it's going to be okay, because, you know, they the record labels that are interested, they're concerned with, 'Well, you guys started playing five years ago, you announced this album was coming out, you know, you were announced you were writing five years ago? Where is it?' Like, you guys, just stop worrying? Don't worry about it, is that's we'e the ones who should feel the pressure, and we don't. So don't apply any to us, you know, don't apply any unnecessary pressure to us, because we haven't signed with anybody. And we're going to, when it's time for when we're that far to where we're going to open up negotiations or whatever, everybody's going to come back to the table, you know, all those labels that are interested, they're still going to be interested and we're just trying to put out the most kick ass record we can. And I'm not about to rush that. Neither is Jim and neither is the rest the band. So when when it's time know when the right time is here. We'll all know it. Absolutely. I'm always excited to go back to Australia. Nobody's ever excited about the actual flight. And the internal flights that happen, Australia is a brutal place to tour you know, on the band, you know, like it's, it's brutal, you know, you finish your show at one o'clock, you know, by the time you get back to the hotel, you got the 6am alarm for the 7am lobby call to get to the airport by eight. So you check into your 10 o'clock flight. It just brutal, you know, you do that again every single night, but we're going to make the most of it and just try to kick everybody's ass. And we're really excited to come down to Australia. Absolutely. MAL- All right. Gene Hoglan from DARK ANGEL, absolutely. great talking to you today. Thanks for taking my call. GENE- Thank you, Mal. MAL- Look forward to DARK ANGEL in town. end of September. Thanks for talking to me. GENE- Thank you. Comments are closed.
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AuthorMetalhead who hates bad parking. |