Fear Factory’s Gene Hoglan Talks Drumming

this self-taught drummer is known to use
unconventional devices as percussion
instruments hi my name is Stephanie and
welcome to watchmojo.com and today we’re
speaking to jean Hoagland of Fear
Factory about his drunk could you tell
me a bit about how you got into music
and especially behind the drum kit when
I was a kid I was raised on the American
AM pop radio all those great songs from
like the early 70s like super awesome
pop songs or when I first got into music
with and also I understand my very first
record that I bought was when I was two
I demanded from my parents that they go
buy me the latest Santana single which
was called no one to depend on when I
started playing drums I was a big kiss
fan growing up then I just started
getting into really serious heavy metal
you know severe metal like the faster
the better
where some of your drumming idols today
Stevie Wonder is my favorite drummer of
all time right now and you know a lot of
people are not even familiar with the
fact that you know he’s played on a lot
of his albums a lot of songs you’ve
heard Stevie Wonder’s find drums on and
he just has such a crazy approach to
drumming you know he’s not a drummer but
he plays really good drums are you
someone who was self-taught or did you
do any training to be able to be as good
as you are now
I am completely self-taught I learn
drums through osmosis just by listening
to my favorite bands and being able to
pick up their drummers licks and I
always had a really good aptitude for it
I was a world champion air drummer
before I started playing drums and being
a being as proficient at air drumming as
I was when I got on the kit the first
time it came really easy and right now I
mean you’re known as a very proficient
technical drummer how do you nurture
your talent these days by getting
no-sleep playing every night and just
going and going and going that’s really
what I do to hone my skills
I guess rehearsal is like training camp
and then the the touring is like the
season you can find yourself mentally
sort of checking out sometimes you know
because every day is is the same and I
used to love touring so much that never
fazed me but nowadays it’s like it’s a
little bit of a grind and you’re known
for many things one of those things is
using strange devices for your
percussion effects could you tell me a
bit about that when I was in the band
death on the individual thought patterns
record I used a 10 pound brass boat
propeller it had this really crazy sound
Hill Gang Gang Gang kind of sound and
every time I’d hit it it would spin one
so every time I’d hit it it would have a
different tone it was just kind of neat
so I’ve always said you know I’ll play a
card or on stage of it sounds cool
so you put out a set of instructional
DVDs what kind of advice can you give to
novice drummers buy my DVD that’s the
best advice I can give you period and
then watch it the one thing if you are a
novice drummer and you watch it by all
means never think for a second that oh
my god I can’t do that because that’s
the whole purpose of my DVDs and I think
you can here’s how I do it here’s how I
get to do all this crazy stuff these are
all the little techniques and tricks and
tips that I’ve taught myself because you
know self-taught drummer I just had a
really good time with it and I just had
fun you know and it is really fun and I
just wanted to make it so anybody a
drummer a guitarist or bassist or non
musician whatsoever could just you know
enjoy it and go hey I was two hours well
spent