EMQ’s With Hog Meets Frog

EMQ’s With Hog Meets Frog

Hi everyone. Welcome to another EMQs interview with International Power Trio, Hog Meets Frog. Huge thanks to them for taking part. 

What is your name, what do you play and can you tell us a little bit about the history of the band?

The name of our band is ‘HOG MEETS FROG’. Which is no word game and it means something like hog meets frog.

We like to call the music we play SQUEQUACK music. It is some kind of progressive-rock-metal-jazz-punk-funk. or simply said: some kind of weird metal-funk or weird funk metal… or something like that.

HOG MEETS FROG was brought to life by two musically abstinent copywriters – a drummer and a lyricist bassist, who was pregnant with a riff and some fragments of a story of a hog and a frog having sex… Ahm… Fun together… And the rest… Well, it just happened.

Since these days HOG MEETS FROG has experienced a few guitarists and drummers… the only constant is petz – bassman and storyteller – he’s so to say the bold red line of the band’s history.

How did you come up with your band name?

To be honest, the inspiration for the name ‘HOG MEETS FROG’ was just a joke about the band ‘Dog Eat Dog’. As soon as I made the joke, I had the story of a pig and a frog meeting and having fun with each other. But it took some time before the band was gifted with the name and the story of the pig and the frog was told for the first time.

What Country / Region are you from and what is the Metal / Rock scene like there?

HOG MEETS FROG is an international, Vienna-based power trio. The Vienna I mean is the one in Austria, Europe – the motherland of Mozart or Falco, Harakiri for the Sky or Bilderbuch.
We have a very big Metal-/Rockscene here in Vienna (and also Austria), so many interesting and outstanding bands, and a great and loyal fanbase but sadly no real media support for it. Okay, Austria is a pop music country and not only the big but also the smaller labels are hardly not interested in metal. This is also because Austria is a small country and most A&Rs don’t want to do anything new here. This is also very clear from the fact that most of the famous Austrian bands (and also composers like Mozart or Haydn) were only played here in Austria by the media after they became famous abroad.
The few exceptions that exist are simply not enough to give the metal fanbase what it would like.

What is your latest release? (Album, EP, Single, Video)

HOG MEETS FROG’s latest release is a 5 track EP called ‘humANIMALization’ (Feb. 24th 2023). Combined with it a video will be published – the song: ‘Of snakes ‘n’ moles ‘n’ bulls ‘n’ dough’.

Who have been your greatest influences?

There is no particular influence I’d like to name or a band I take my cue from. In principle, everything I listen to influences me – even if I don’t like it.

But, if I have to name some important bands/artists that I have listened to (or still listen to) from my childhood on since today: e.g. some Austrian bands and artists like Georg Danzer, EAV, Falco, and – of course – international ones like Queen, Guns N Roses, Metallica, RHCP, Primus, Frank Zappa, Béla Fleck & the Flecktones… And so many more.

What first got you into music?

Music is an important part of my life because my father and also my mother(s) loved music very much. At home, we listened to a lot of music – whether opera, pop, rock, country, singer-songwriter or chanson. And when the music didn’t come from vinyl, CD, or cassette, the radio was on.
Another very important influence was my father as a social role model. When I was a kid, he played guitar even more often, and sometimes my big brother and I played and sang with him.

If you could collaborate with a current band or musician who would it be?

Collaboration in the sense of a together tour or together concerts – well, I guess it would be fun to play with Psychostick, for example. They are so weird! But of course, it would be great to play with bands like Tenacious D, PRIMUS, Red Hot Chili Peppers, TOOL or Fantomas and so many others.

If the question is who we wanna collaborate with at the studio: Dave Grohl, Tom Waits, Serj Tankian or Carter Beauford… and many others.

If you could play any festival in the world, which would you choose and why?

Yes, we would like to play on big festival stages all over the world, like Bonnaroo Festival (US) or Roskilde (Denmark). Festivals are a great place to play because the more people come together the more energy and intensity you do feel on stage – if you manage to involve the audience in the show. And – this is not supposed to sound arrogant – we are a band that does it quite well. At least that’s the feedback we get from the visitors when we play live.

What’s the weirdest gift you have ever received from a fan?

In the beginning of HOG MEETS FROG we used to play a song which was called ‘How It Would Be To Be A Shoe’. We didn’t play the song at a concert, but people wanted to hear it as an encore. Actually, we wanted to stop, but then one of our fans gave us an interesting gift: one of his shoes.
It goes without saying that we played the song. But, I have to admit, I returned the shoe after the concert.

If you had one message for your fans, what would it be?

Enjoy our music and do not forget to look behind the masks.

If you could bring one rock star back from the dead, who would it be?

Definitely Frank Zappa.

What do you enjoy the most about being a musician? And what do you hate?

What I enjoy most is playing live and feeling the energy of the people listening and watching us – especially when they are having fun or I confuse them and then see their faces.

My least favorite thing is lugging gear and stuff. I’m always happy when we’re spared that.

If you could change one thing about the music industry, what would it be?

This is a big issue.

I would change the attitude of the music industry towards music in general. You get the impression that most decision-makers in the business want to use bands to milk them.

I don’t wanna say everyone in the music business is like that, but a lot of people seem to think they’re better than the bands. In fact, we all need each other, and that’s why I would like to change the music industry to a more progressive thinking, band-supporting, and wealth-sharing one.

Name one of your all-time favourite albums?

It’s hard to choose one… But if I am asked so quickly, I would say: ‘We’re Only In It For The Money’ by Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention.

What’s best? Vinyl, Cassettes, CD’s or Downloads?

To be honest… I don’t mind. It’s true that (if the music is mixed for these mediums) the sound of Vinyl and Cassettes feels warmer and not as sterile as the one of a CD and the one of a CD sounds better than the sound of Mp3s, but first, in line, it’s about the music I listen to. And it’s like talking to people: if you wanna understand what they say you can understand (mostly).

What’s the best gig that you have played to date?

That’s a question I can’t really answer. Every concert has its own dynamics and taste.

If you weren’t a musician, what else would you be doing?

Well, what I would do if I didn’t get into music is hard to say, because music has been an important part of my life for so long. But at the moment we do live for but we can’t live from music.
So, I have a so-called civic job – I work in research marketing.

Which five people would you invite to a dinner party?

Five is not enough ☺. I would invite my brothers and their wives and children and their partners, my mother and her partner.
But I guess that’s not what you wanted to hear – right?

What’s next for the band?

The next step is to publish the album and a video and to check out and play as much as we can.

What Social Media / Website links do you use to get your music out to people? 

Unfortunately, we invest too little time in our social media channels. But we do have them.
So let me list these in order of density, and how we use them at the moment:

https://hogmeetsfrog.bandcamp.com 
https://music.apple.com/us/artist/hog-meets-frog/380835827 https://www.deezer.com/en/artist/604281  https://open.spotify.com/artist/1w7aaApd98EsHwRF6RbqBI
https://hogmeetsfrog.com 
https://facebook.com/hogmeetsfrog 
https://www.youtube.com/@hogmeetsfrog 
https://www.instagram.com/hogmeetsfrog 
https://www.tiktok.com/@hogmeetsfrog 
https://twitter.com/hogmeetsfrog

Time for a very British question now. As an alternative to the humble sandwich, is the correct name for a round piece of bread common in the UK either a Bap, a Barm (or Barm Cake), a Batch, a Bun, a Cob, a Muffin, a Roll or a Tea Cake?

A Bap

Thank you for your time. Is there anything else that you would like to add?

Let me say: ‘Thank you for the interview and your time as well’ and let me add more thing: ‘We are ready to be booked.’

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