With the band signing with Snakefarm Records and the release of the physical format in stores, we got the chance to meet Hogjaw in Paris, a day before the end of their winter run in Europe.
Hey guys how are you?
Kwall (drums): We’re very well!
Jimmy Rose (guitar): Awesome! We feel really blessed to be here today with you guys.
You’re about to finish your Euro tour in a few days, how was it?
Kwall: We’ve done the European circuit five times now and I think this was probably the best one. It’s been great. We played forty shows and they’ve all been really good to us. No complaints. (laughs)
What’s your best memory so far?
Kwall: It’s so hard ‘coz again we’ve done it a few times but we made a lot of friends between promoters and people that own the venues. However, Spain has always been very good to us.
You played many shows there!
Kwall: Yes correct. However a country like Germany was almost equal this time.
You released your new album “Way Down Yonder”. What’s the meaning of its title? And what about the link with the artwork?
Jimmy: It’s pretty much a magical mystery right down into the swamps. It’s kind of a fictional tail. It’s kind of going into the swamps, into the yonder, getting your wishes make true like a lot of things we had lately. Basically the artwork took off from that song.
Kwall: We had a hard time time figuring out how to title the album and we got to the completion of the songwriting we said “hey lets title it after this song” it has a good storyboard and we had a graphic designer that made a killer cover so we got guided into that direction.
Your music is described as southern rock. What did lead you into this musical style? Why not another one? Which connections do you have with southern rock?
Kwall: When we started out, playing jam music and we were all listening to country music and southern rock. We grew up in the 70’s so the style of music that we’ve been listening to getting into the 80’s we all kind of balanced around. He (pointing Jimmy) was listening to blues, I was listening to a lot of metal but however the roots where we came from, which was what our parents made us listen to, which wasn’t a bad thing (laughs) it kind of came back around. Ten years later, here we are.
You just signed with Snakefarm Records. You must be really proud about it right? What will it help you to? More touring?
Kwall: Here’s the thing: we’ve been a independant band for about ten years, starting out, putting records out, toured. We got to a point where an opportunity came to us to be able to maybe take things to the next level, we don’t know what the future holds for it. We have the opportunity to do more things.
Did you have the opportunity in the past?
Kwall: We never looked to it. Early in the game I was like “lets not try to send stuff to record labels because in the end they’ll come to you”. So it worked out that way for us. It’s definitely a positive thing.
You’re all friends since high school. What did give you the envy to form a band?
Kwall: The inception of the band started really with JB and I meeting. We’ve all known each other since we were kids and played together. A few of us went and like myself followed the path of music and travelled, done that for many years. It was my neighborhoud band so I came back, met JB and said “hey let’s start this band for fun and write”, we got Jimmy here.
Jimmy: He picked me up on the way. (laughs)
Kwall: Yeah we’ve known him for a long time as well and it just… You know people say “things happen for a reason” well we feel that way.
Did you all play in other bands before forming Hogjaw?
Jimmy: Yeah.
Kwall: A few of us yeah. JB for instance has never been in a band.
Comparing to “Rise To The Mountain”, this new album looks a bit less up tempo. Do you agree? Can you explain it?
Jimmy: I think the approach that we took in with “Way Down Yonder” we were looking for vocals, like exploring different layers of vocals and also different sound, going into a more natural way for the guitars for example. To open it out, to allow for more vocals, plus with three vocalists in the band, doing more harmonies. We didn’t really know which wrap was going to go with it but it seemed to be more pushing towards the center on vocals on this album along with the typical Hogjaw riffs. We were super happy when we got into it because it had more depth, there wasn’t so much guitars or distorted guitars.
Kwall: We were exploring more boundaries of the music that we’ve been working on. We already got a big catalogue with all our records. If you go back, each record has different ups and downs even on this record you don’t have only one type of beats, I’m the drummer so I know (laughs) but I think that for this record we give focus on the habilities that we hadn’t really tried to capture because it was always JB singing and I’ve sung on a couple of songs and on “Rise To The Mountains” we were really working on becoming a band because Jimmy came into the band for that record so we were mainly focused on working him as a lead player to the band. He was already a good lead player so we were exploring our musicality. On this record, I think we focused a little bit on both.
Which topics are you dealing with through your songs?
Kwall: We have two different type of writing. We have JB who is the storyboarder writer so like “Way Down Yonder” for instance or “I Will Remain” the whole lyrical content is a full storyboard. And then you have the other dimension which is writing lyrics that are more interpretated through the other persons so we have more lyrical content where you can figure out what the song is about.
How do you usually work/process for an album? How did you do this one?
Jimmy: Oh yeah we jam!
Kwall: Everything starts from a jam. We also do a lot of live recording and then we kind of figure out the parts which sound good or those where we already imagine vocals or something cool.
What are your objectives making music regarding fans? For a record and what can they expect live from you?
Jimmy: Live band is a bowl of energy. The rock show you know, like a two and a half hour/three hour rock show. Something that we love to do, loving playing on stage like a brotherhood and we want the people to feel that too.
Kwall: When we’re writing music, we don’t know if people are going to like it but we stick to our guns and hopefully people will like it. And when you perform it, night to night like on this tour, we’re playing a lot of material that people didn’t know about. You never really know but we work hard on stage with a lot of energy and you hope to get the same response.
You wrote many songs that are 7/8 minutes long, isn’t a bit risky for your type of rock to have that long tracks? Even if some southern rock bands did it before.
Jimmy: I didn’t think we ever looked at the time signatures or time length of the songs. The song, when you feel it, when you write, when it’s gonna end, it’s gonna end. Some of the songs that people like the most are those long tracks. My opinion, a lot of that is missing into today’s rock. Every band is going to write 3-minute songs.
Kwall: There’s a ton of stoner bands that record like 4 songs but each are twenty minute long you know. (laughs) The “I Will Remain” song which is a couple records before, we did a video for it and people are like “that was a really long song but it was great, I watched the whole video” because of radio, people are told that a 3-minute song is the norm for today but if you go back in time, you got 20-minute songs so. In fact that’s not a big deal for us, we don’t think about it. And the funny thing is that most people love those epic songs.
Jimmy: I don’t think any of those songs were consciousely thought “let’s make a 5-minute song” because in the moment you felt that, the rush of the song.
Kwall: “I Will Remain” could have been three minutes long but then we just kept adding on “we don’t want to take that out, leave it” (laughs) because that’s the composition that we created so we kept it.
Jimmy: There’s a risk by adding parts to a song and trying to create an epic song but when they flow naturally, it’s a win. If you try to build it and overthink it, it’s a dead end.
Kwall: Sometimes if you’re being to methodical about, not only about music, to analyze, sit back and go “well maybe this is enough”.
How would you define your new album? Which tracks are making it up to your top three?
Kwall: How we’d define our album? Hmm.
Jimmy: Fired up Hogjaw, I mean. It’s a hard one. They’re all written on pretty much true life experiences even “Way Down Yonder” even if it’s a bit mystical.
Kwall: We’ve always created our records the same way so this is like our first album that’s really being put under a microscope. We’ve been an independant band for so long, we just done what we wanted. The songs and including this record because we recorded it in March and it was written well before that. We just go song to song, not thinking about the big picture and then we go record and then “ugh we’re going to call the record THIS” and “Way Down Yonder” is specific about the lyrical content which is more off a storyboard and I think to answer your question, it’s kinda hard to define it other than the fact that we don’t really define anything.
(laughs)
Jimmy: My top three? “Back Home Today”, “Way Down Yonder” and “Redemption”. But I can change too. I don’t really listen to the record because we’re on tour and we play them live and we also select a few to play live. But I listened to it yesterday, twice actually. So that’s my top 3 now, for today. (laughs)
Kwall: For me it’s “Back Home Today” as well, “Dark Horse” a lot but it’s the same for me, it changes because when you’re the one creating something “I like everything”. For instance “Dark Horse”, we don’t play it live because it doesn’t create the same energy as like “North Carolina Way” which is a great song as well.
Finally we are “RockUrLife” so what rock Hogjaw’s members’ life?
Jimmy: What rocks our lives? Wow. Music definitely, friends, brotherhood, touring and expanding the family that we have. The people that we meet it’s such an opportunity to be able to meet people and make connections. But also fans, people that put us here and live out our dreams that to me rocks me. BBQs on the beach with friends and fans, hopefully it gets bigger next time.
Kwall: For me, it’s friends and family. You have one life to live, live it right.
Website: hogjawmusic.com
