SceneFour asked Testament's legendary drummer Gene Hoglan what he listens to for fun. His answer might surprise you.

"Well, I am a metal-head through and through, but my initial interest in music goes way beyond metal. I try to be an all-encompassing musical listener. Those who know me, know that I am a huge Stevie Wonder fan, and he’s one of my idols absolutely. Old soul, old Motown and I love soul music, and I love vocally oriented things. That’s the first thing I hear when I listen to a song. I listen to the vocals.  

"When I was younger growing up, I would listen to the drums and that’s how I’d learn how to play drums, but these days, I’m so vocally oriented. I love Broadway as well, and that’s not very metal, but that’s one thing myself and Brendon Small from Dethklok, Metalocalypse and Galaktikon share. It is a love of Broadway and that’s always been awesome.  

"I grew up listening to the AM radio of the late 60’s and early 70’s so that was a very magical time for pop music. I loved pop music, and they just don’t write songs like that anymore. There are so many amazing pop songs in the early 70’s and mid 70’s. They were probably sung and performed by horrible looking guys. Once videos came along, for me, that’s when the song quality kind of dissipated because half the guys that sang all the great hits of the 70’s were freaky looking, big fat bearded guys playing piano. They’re not very photogenic, but god, they had great voices and wrote great songs. That’s one thing that is lacking in today’s music, and I don’t mean to crab about today’s music, but I like anything that has great hooks. I love hooks. I love a great riff. I love vocal melodies, and that’s why I always go back to soul... because they always have such great vocal melodies. Pharrell Williams for instance, is an amazing vocal line writer and melody writer, and I couldn’t tell you a whole bunch of his songs, but every song that I hear I seem to like by him, so that’s pretty good."

Check out Gene's artwork with SceneFour at GeneHoglanArt.com.

Testament will return to Europe in March/April. The band is still touring in support of their latest record, Brotherhood Of The Snake, and they will be bringing along with them Canadian thrashers Annihilator as well as Polish death metal tank and label mates Vader.

Tour dates:

March
14 - Gothenburg, Sweden - Traedgarn
15 - Oslo, Norway - Rockefeller
16 - Örebro, Sweden - Conventum Kongress
17 - Stockholm, Sweden - Arenan
20 - Helsinki, Finland - Circus
21 - Tampere, Finland - Pakkahuone
29 - Bristol, UK - Motion
30 - Manchester, UK - Ritz
31 - Birmingham, UK - Institute

April
1 - Dublin, Ireland - Vicar Street
2 - Glasgow, Scotland - QMU
4 - London, England - Koko