Q&A: Mike Hochins (VHS)

Mike Hochins: “VHS started in 2015 I think. All three original members had known each other for years but had never played together before. We actually came together to play a Gwar cover set, complete with all of the costumes. That ended up being a lot of fun and my wife actually suggested we should keep jamming together and play songs about horror movies.  We ended up recording a few demo songs our first jam and the rest is history. We’ve had a few lineup changes but have managed to stay very steady and release a ton of material over the years. No sign of slowing down either! We still have that fire and passion and want to keep making music as long as we can.”

MH: “I don’t think we ever threw the name Betamax around. Personally I never owned a Betamax player or even a tape player! I think I remember reading it was a superior format to VHS but VHS will always be king in my mind. Sort of on topic, I have talked about doing a more hair metal/heavy metal offshoot of VHS called Laserdisc so maybe that will happen one day!”

MH: “We aren’t a very prolific live band but we have managed to play with a bunch of really killer bands. We’ve played with Gorod, Katalysm, The Black Dahlia Murder, Toxic Holocaust, Soulfly and probably a few more that I can’t remember at the moment. Playing with The Black Dahlia Murder was definitely a highlight. Meeting Trevor and the rest of the band was awesome and the fact that Trevor took the time to actually watch our set and shout us out a few times during their set was awesome. Some great memories to remember him by for sure.”

MH: “Lenzi was a bit of an experiment for us. It was actually recorded way before the Vampire album but was delayed by the label for quite a while. The album was written in a very different way for us. Andy recorded recorded drum tracks first and then we wrote the riffs around the drum tracks. We wanted to do something a bit more epic and lengthy. It turned out pretty awesome I’d say. It’s very different than normal VHS fare but still full off a lot of horror movie atmosphere.”

MH: “I’m not a big drinker but I’m sure it would be stale beer with old cigarette butt floating in it! If not that probably something made to look bloody!”

MH: “The biggest bucket list merch item was an actual VHS tape for a VHS album and we have done that twice now! Aside from that, I would love to do shorts one day and we haven’t had a long sleeve shirt yet either. A Halloween mask of the zombie logo would be pretty awesome too.”

MH: “I’m not really a fan of Rob Zombie at all so I’ll have to give it to Alice Cooper. He’s got some bangers and always embraced the dark and spooky. ‘Teenage Frankenstein’ and ‘Man Behind the Mask’ are both untouchable. ‘Poison’ is one of my favourite songs of all time. We’ve definitely considered covering it before.”

MH: “That’s a tough one. On guitar would have to be Randy Rhoads as he is pretty much my favourite guitar player of all time. Drums would be a toss up between Dave Lombardo and Paul from Cannibal Corpse. Vocals would have to go to Killjoy. He’s a true legend and his vocal style is unmistakably his own. Maybe Cliff Burton on bass and I guess I’ll throw myself on rhythm guitar because why the hell wouldn’t I want to play with a bunch of legends?”

MH: “We would certainly love to one day but unfortunately we aren’t really a touring band so it does seem a bit unlikely. I know we have a lot of fans in Australia and we have worked with Grindhead Records in the past so we definitely have some connections so you never know I guess but I wouldn’t hold my breath!”

MH: “World domination! But when that fails we are hard at work on album #6 which we are hoping to have out sometime next year. Trying to secure some awesome guests for the album and we are tackling a slightly different theme this time around so it should be full of surprises when get it nailed down and ready for release.”