Today we’d like to introduce you to Warhog
Hi Warhog, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
WARHOG is a 4-piece heavy metal from Dallas, Texas. WARHOG is vocalist and guitarist Scott Beetley, guitarist Eric Kendall, bassist Justin Hopper, and drummer Robert Powers.
WARHOG started with Eric and Scott developing songs remotely in May of 2020. The full band formed in December and spent the next year developing and rehearsing our first release to ensure a cohesive stylistic and narrative experience during our live shows.
Since December of 2021, WARHOG has played thirty live shows across Texas and Oklahoma and played with national and international acts including DROWNING POOL, VENOM INC, and CRYPTA. WARHOG’s releases include the 74-minute “Call of the Voyager,” a trilogy of EP’s collectively known as “The Dystopian Chronicles,” and standalone singles “The Clockwork Man” and “Warhog.”
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Our adventure has been exciting and productive overall, but we’ve navigated some challenges as well. I think what’s important to note is that we started WARHOG with a clear vision of how we would operate as a band business. That allowed us to very easily look at unwanted results and consider different options. For example, releasing a full-length record versus splitting something up into EP’s, or opting to not make shirts because we thought it was a waste of time. Having a strategy-based plan has been extremely useful and our approach to playing shows and the way we develop new material has been successful if you look at how we’ve grown in terms of turnout, merch sales, and song streams.
Some of the struggles that threatened to derail us include losing our drummer Ben in June of 2023. He had a knee injury and had to quit playing. We hated losing him as a bandmate, but we also had to pause booking shows and recording the music we had slated for the back half of that year. During that time, we also lost our favorite north Dallas bar/venue, O’Riley’s when it closed in August of ’23. But like the great American philosopher Rocky Balboa said, “It’s not about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.” We just took all these things as moments in a longer narrative and pivoted to other productive work and figured out a way to keep going.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
WARHOG is influenced by classic and modern heavy metal bands from different sub-genres and we specialize in a kind of melodic, chuggy, sing-song music style that’s high-energy and also accessible to a wide audience. We’re definitely a band you can headbang to but also sing along to. Our formula is more or less, “kick them in the teeth and leave them humming the chorus” and I feel like we’ve been really good at that so far. We’re not precious about the music and our songs are very often not serious, but that’s because our focus is on the show. Creating a fun in-the-moment experienced that is shared between the band and the audience is what WARHOG hopes to achieve.
There are really good bands in Dallas and we’re friends with a lot of them, so WARHOG takes pride in being a band that other bands want to come see and play with. The DFW metal scene is great, so we’re happy to be recognized among our peers and we try to support the scene as much as the scene supports us. What helps us stand out is that WARHOG is focused on making a visual impression as well as a musical one. As mentioned, there’s a show happening and only half of it is an auditory experience. If someone who’s never seen us before is going to be looking at us for 45 minutes, we want our logo burned into their brain when it’s done. That’s how they’ll remember us.
Alright, so to wrap up, is there anything else you’d like to share with us?
The DFW music scene needs people to come out and see shows, so if you’re a fan of live music – especially heavy metal, come see a show. If you’re in Dallas, get on the train and come to Deep Ellum. The Green Line drops you off right behind Reno’s. Walk down Elm and see some bands. Most places are done with music by midnight.
If you do happen to wind up at a show – not ours, but anyone’s – try and connect with the bands who played. Let them know you came in sight unseen and checked them out. We need to know that kind of stuff and we want to know what you thought. If you’re shy, stop by the merch booth and let them make the small talk, but its so important for us to get to meet people that we’re not bringing in ourselves.
WARHOG loves its fans and followers, but we’re not playing to win them over. We already did, that’s usually why they’re there. We’re there to win over the people who’ve never seen us before and we want to hear about it from you. We want to make sure you had a good time and we want to know how we can get you to come back.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://warhogband.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/warhogdfw/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/warhogdfw
- LinkedIn: https://bsky.app/profile/warhogdfw.bsky.social
- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4i82SptJfgcqQZHAoq4wWz
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkQ4Y_WVyGrIxts2m3P2GEg
- Bandcamp: https://warhog.bandcamp.com/
- Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/WarhogDFW
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@warhogdfw
