James Reynard
Currently touring South Africa, Hog Hoggidy Hog, a punk/ ska/metal posse, has recently released an album that twists through a humorous labyrinth of melodic and unpredictable punk/ ska/metal arrangements a la Sepultura, Green Day and Madness.
The album, Driving Over Miss Davie, includes an inter-active multimedia presentation designed by the band’s axeman Amos Keeto. It features the video for their 5fm top-10 hit, Time 4 love. The band is made up of guitarist Keeto, drummer Davie Mybergie, bassist Sean Snout, trombonist Ross Macdonald, vocalist George Bacon and University of Cape Town jazz student, trumpeter Lee “Lips” Thomson. They have appeared on the international punk/ska compilation album Taking on the world. It features 25 tracks by big names NOFX, Millencolin, Fungy Gone West and Leek.
Where did you get the title Driving Over Miss Davie from?
Thomson: Our drummer, Davie, is always making us drive him all over the place … [We] thought it would be appropriate to call the album Driving Miss Davie.
Bacon: One night we drove over his foot or something by accident and he was complaining that he wouldn’t be able to play drums again. [That’s] when we decided on the name, Driving Over Miss Davie …
How do you think the new album is different from the previous one and why?
Bacon: I think we’ve … um … matured, might be a bad choice of words, but we’ve definitely refined our sound. [We’ve] all grown as individual musicians and we connect with each other musically a lot better too.
Thomson: There’s also the brass element of this album, which wasn’t on the last one.
What made you cover Britney Spears’s Baby One More Time?
Bacon: [It’s] really cool to see a whole bunch of punks jumping around on the dance floor to a song that they once all despised.
What has your experience of being an independent band in Cape Town and South Africa been like in terms of opportunity and exposure?
Bacon: It’s been great in the way that it’s given us the opportunity to do exactly what we want …
Thomson: We’ve also been quite lucky as over the years we’ve developed quite a large and faithful cult following that couldn’t care less how many times we’re played on daytime radio.
What do you think being on the compilation means for the band’s future?
Bacon: I think it’s great. We’re already receiving a lot of e-mails from people overseas who’ve heard our stuff and like it, not to mention the contacts with other bands. [Influential] people in our genre have heard our name already … [It’s] a good start.
Keeto: We’ve already organised a gig in London at the end of this year and next year we hope to go to America.
Check out the international compilation at www.croakroom.com. The band’s second album is available from their www.fishpaste.com website and at most music stores.