Drumtalk, the video podcast by German drummer and videographer Philipp Koch, conducted an interview with legendary extreme-metal drummer Gene Hoglan (TESTAMENT, DEATH, STRAPPING YOUNG LAD, DARK ANGEL, DETHKLOK) on June 16, 2013 in Bremen, Germany. You can now watch the chat below. In a 2010 interview with Invisible Oranges, Hoglan stated about how he first started drumming: "I was a super air-drummer when I was a kid. I'm a big proponent of air-drumming helping you out when you first get out in the kit. For three or four years, I had my pair of sticks, and I would just air-drum to all my favorite records [while] growing up. Then when I got on the kit, I already had sort of an aptitude for it. I could air-drum all the parts, so when I [had] drums in front of me, it was like air-drumming without the air." Asked what the three most influential songs were on his playing, Hoglan said: "Probably side one of '2112' from RUSH. That was my first moment of 'Wow.' I had already air-drummed to a lot of KISS songs. Then when I heard '2112' from RUSH, I remember learning all of that on the air drums, of course. And then after I got on my kit, when I started playing, the song 'Brother To Brother' by Gino Vannelli was a big lightbulb moment. That has some really killer drumming on it. And another song called 'Presto Vivace' by UK on their live album 'Night After Night'. That had Terry Bozzio on drums. I remember figuring that out when I was a kid. That's got some stuff to it. It's not like it's 'The Black Page' [a notoriously difficult song] by Frank Zappa, but for a 13-year-old kid trying to figure out some drums, I was really psyched when I learned how to play big chunks of that song." Regarding whether it was a conscious decision to not be a very demonstrative drummer in terms of gestures, Hoglan said: "I used to be [demonstrative] when I was younger. I like headbanging while I play. [But] a lot of times the patterns that we play these days don't allow for a lot of demonstrativeness. In order to play a full set and pound as hard as I do I don't know if it looks like I'm hitting hard or not, but I'm one of the louder hitters out there. So I figure if I'm being demonstrative while doing it, that takes away from the power of what I'm doing. [But] I [do] try to be demonstrative. I've got a lot of stick flips and stick twirls and goofy things like that in the middle of thrash metal mayhem. All those '80s rockers used to do stick flips while doing [simple patterns]. And that's so lame. So, hell, put a stick flip or a stick twirl in the middle of a blastbeat that's fun."
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