ONE WOMAN IN EXTREME MUSIC   Editor's Note: I conducted this interview quite some time ago.  Since then Paul Hogan has been promoted to Label Manager at Nuclear Blast.  Congradulations Paula, you rock.   Total and absolute dedication, true love and appreciation of the arts and music, down to earth and open minded, martial artist and press queen; these are all terms I would use to describe Paula Hogan. Paula has spent over ten years in the extreme music industry. She started out with a zine called Industrial Metal and also worked on several radio shows. Her first paying gig in the industry was with Century Media doing press/radio and promotion, where her favorite band was Only Living Witness. From there she spent 5 years busting her ass for Fierce/Mayhem Records, even surviving the label being sold by Steve Sinclair and bought by Mark Puma. She worked many great releases like My Dying Bride, Cradle Of Filth, Dio, Anathema, Boiler, Testament, Pro-Pain, etc... She left Mayhem about 6 months ago(much longer now) to start her own promo company called Manic Media, never expecting it to take off like it has. Paula has saddly had to turn down many bands just because of a lack of hours in the day. Pay attention cause Paula was kind enough to give me some words of wisdom! - Greg   1) What was the first album you bought?
That would be Journey's Escape. I bought a Jimi Hendrix poster too, just because it looked cool. I hadn't heard Jimi at that time.
 
2) What band pushed your taste into heavy music?
Metallica!
 
3) What is the most important thing you have learned about the industry in the past 10 yrs?
That's a hard question because I don't want to come off sounding negative. I would say, know who your friends are. The
music business can be very caddy and it's important to know who your real friends are. That goes for either the people you work with and the bands you work for. My downfall is that I care too much for the bands. I take up for them and sacrifice a lot for them, This can get you in trouble with the label and can have you feeling exhausted. Some press people might not make an important phone call at the end of the day because they have a date or would rather leave early to goto the movies. What they don't understand is that by not making that one phone call maybe the band they work for won't eat that day. If you forget to call the club for the band your working then they might get screwed. This isn't a 9 to 5 job, this is people's lives and I really get involved. The bands are relying on me, it's very serious to me!
 
4) What have been your favorite bands to work with?
Only Living Witness, they mean a lot to me, also MY Dying Bride, Cradle Of Filth, and Dio. I consider these bands
my friends.
 
5) What trend have you seen flop?
I don't really follow trends. I stay away from the confrences and festivals. I'm too busy working for my bands to pay attention to trends. There is a lot of talk about the come back of Metal. First off it never went away, but nonetheless
you've got Rolling Stone listing the top 10 metal bands but we'll see about a come back. I see a lot of stoner rock bands getting stories now. It could be that people are more comfortable writing about stoner rock cause it's more like Black Sabbath and more commercially acceptable. Metal still seems to be a taboo.
 
6) What caused you to start your own promo company?
Working for a label can be too submersive. You have to deal with press, posters, stickers, radio, this and that. Now I just deal with promotion, plus I get to pick the bands I work with. Like I said, I get very attached to the bands I work with. it was very hard to tell Cradle Of Filth, Dio, and MY Dying BRide that I was departing from Fierce/mayhem. THey all said "No, you can't leave me!" It's hard to believe but when things were really rolling for Mayhem it was because of only about three people's hard work!
 
7) If there is any band you could work for past or present, who would it be?
The Beatles.
 
8) Share a crazy backstage or tour story.
The Cradle Of Filth US tour was hilarious. most of the band had never been to America, so it was fun to see how they
reacted. one night an opening band snuck into the hotel room of Cradle's keyboardist and filled it entirely with beer. I guess the guys felt like they had to drink it all. So the next morning I had to be the bad guy and wake everyone up for a 7 AM flight. We had to carry some of them thru the airport and as they passed out we put "fragile" stickers all over them. Since they were still drunk from the night before they didn't even notice walking thru the airport covered in "fragile" stickers. Also seeing My Dying BRide in drag was funny!
 
9) What's the biggest strength of the industry?
Music has the power to bring people together, even though it effects people differently. Music is truly magical, it's a
magic that bands don't produce, they possess it.
 
10) Top 5 Favorite Albums
1)Metallica - master Of Puppets
2)Slayer - Reign In Blood
3)Cro-Mags - Best Wishes
4)Cure - Disintegration
5)My Dying Bride - Turn Loose The Swans
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