Meet an Arizona band with a distinct name and a penchant for rocking out: Slug Bug.
The young group has only been playing shows for about a year, but they have the chemistry of a band that’s been together for much longer — and it’s paying off. They have become a fixture at local clubs and recently got the chance to play the local stage at the McDowell Mountain Music Festival.
With brothers Wyatt and Waylon Hjerpe on vocals and drums, alongside bassist Ellie Willard and Alex Zahn on lead guitar, the group is just getting started.
The Show sat down with Wyatt recently at the Soleri Amphitheater at Glendale Community College to talk about their inspirations and trajectory.
Full conversation
WYATT HJERPE: I've had, like, a lot of friends who are in the music scene here. I was never, like, playing music, I just was watching. And then I've had, like, failed band attempts, but like, really good names and really good branding. And that's it. No actually recorded anything, but Slug Bug is the first, like, real, like, we actually played in front of people, and we've recorded stuff and we, yeah, it's like the first real band, yeah. And I think that's literally just because Waylon lives in my house.
LAUREN GILGER: Waylon is your brother, yeah, and the drummer?
HJERPE: Yes. So that makes it really easy. I just go down. I just go, ‘Hey, got a new song. I like, let's do it.’ We just get it done.
GILGER: Have you two always been close? Have you ever played together before?
HJERPE: No, Waylon only started playing for the band, so we started at the beginning of last year. So we've only been around for like, a year. So Waylon didn't play anything at all. I had a little bit of a head start. We're still pretty new to all of this, but we are close because of similar age, like, two and a half years apart.
GILGER: Yeah. So you didn't, you know, grow up playing music. This is not like in your blood, in that way that a lot of musicians talk about?
HJERPE: No, not necessarily. I mean, there were instruments around, but I was stubborn. I was like, I don't want to play them. My mom would be like, ‘play guitar. It's cool.’ And I'd be like, ‘No, not good, because you want me to, no.’
GILGER: Because your parents wanted you to, fair enough, that's how that goes often. What do you think it was that sort of finally made you say, yeah, I'm gonna start a rock and roll band. That's a big leap, it sounds like for you then?
HJERPE: Yeah, a very pivotal moment in my life. I kind of started really to get into, like, the more mature local scene, not just going to free coffee things with my friends, like seeing bands I'd never heard of before.
GILGER: Yeah.
HJERPE: And then our uncle, who plays drums, passed away, and then we got his drum kit, so we had a drum kit around. So I think having a drum kit and having a guitar meant we can start doing stuff.
GILGER: As you're writing songs it sounds like and you're pretty new to this. What's your process like? Does it come from like? I want it to sound like this, and I want the instruments to do this, and then the lyrics are sort of secondary?
HJERPE: My guitar knowledge is limited, it's pretty much just whatever I can do is what I'm doing. So I get the instrumentation down first. I'm really focused on the song structure, like beginning, middle, end, beginning, middle, end, that kind of stuff.
GILGER: It sounds like, for a songwriter, you approach it really analytically, which is interesting.
HJERPE: Yeah, and well, then writing lyrics is horrible. Like I had, I had songs for like, ever that had no words whatsoever, and I was like, I'm sick of this, because it would only take forever for me to write something once I have the beginning, middle of, end of a song recorded and done, like, just with guitar, I then sit down, like I'm writing an essay, and I just write down three topics, three, like locations and like, three, like, just things I've heard that I think are cool.
GILGER: You have a formula here.
HJERPE: Yeah.
GILGER: How does it work? Does it work?
HJERPE: It works. I think it's gotten better. I call it the 333, like songwriting strategy. I got three. Like, let's say you take three like topics and you go, like, OK, be like, real generic, which is love, like happiness. You can be like, or, and then like sadness, too. You can throw those in. That's like, three. That's it, bingo. That's the theme.
And go to three locations. I feel kind of cool, kind of helps build the character. It's like, is it like being alone on a road? Is it like in a house? Is it, where is it? Then the last ones where you have the most my fun, you just pick random things that you've been interested in. So, like, an old one I was like, well, flying cars. So I just wrote about flying car. I was like, I gotta incorporate flying cars, like cybernetic eyes. And then, like, I once said, I want to see you old. And I thought that was so cool. So I wrote that phrase down and those three topics, and then it's like, the back of, like, a kids menu we have, like, what are those called? Like, ad libs.
GILGER: Mad Libs. Yeah.
HJERPE: Mad Libs. It was like that. I just have to now force that to work with the topic. Sometimes it's a weird bridge, but it's cool.
GILGER: All right, so let's, let's hear that song that you were talking about, “Old.” What's this about? Exactly?
HJERPE: It’s a combination of wanting to grow old with somebody, and also not wanting to miss out, though, on the future. Kind of the fear of the future.
[SONG PLAYS]
GILGER: But it sounds like a lot of what you love about this, and maybe the band, too, right, is the live performance, and that's what you've been doing a whole lot of since you've been doing this for the last year or so. Yeah, what do you love about that?
HJERPE: It's, well, it's you get to hang out with a bunch of cool people.
GILGER: Yeah, there's that, yeah, that's pretty much.
HJERPE: That's pretty much the main thing performing is like just an excuse to be in a cool space with cool people around for me.
GILGER: But you know, I mean, you could be at a show and be in the audience and be around a lot of cool people. What about being on stage and being the front man?
HJERPE: True, but they kick you out sooner. And they, also the people playing loud music can't even talk, if you're playing it goes by faster. But I like playing music though it's, the local scene is really cool. Like Arizona, it's got a surprisingly very good local music scene. I think nobody even likes, acknowledges you go, like, go like California, and people are like, what's in Arizona? They like, don't even know it's like, actually, a lot of really cool venues. Trunk Space is awesome. Valley Bar is awesome. Rebel Lounge is awesome. And you can get into those places like it's not that unobtainable, yeah.
GILGER: That’s kind of a theme here in Phoenix, right? Like this, the barrier to entry is low, but it sounds like you think the quality, though, is probably, yeah, so. I mean, you guys are young. The band is pretty new. Where do you want to take this?
HJERPE: I don't know. I just want to go. I just want to keep going for as long as we can, because it is fun. I'd like to go on, like a proper tour, record some albums.
GILGER: Why do you think this is resonating with people? Like, what do you think it is about? Maybe your live show, or the songs, or whatever you're doing that is sort of hitting a note.
HJERPE: Well, we're all friends, and I think that it shows that we're like, we're buds, we're cool, we're all nice. Everybody likes us. We respect venues, and we respect other bands, and we, people resonate at us because we are in it, like we're we played on the street, like every month, this Friday, and you just, we just talked to people, and I think we're just approachable, basically, like, we're approachable, likable, we're relatable.
I think that's the main one. Yeah, you almost feel like everybody knows everybody. It's kind of like you're almost like, oh yeah, proud of those guys for being, we know them. I know I'm way more into the local music scene. I am, like, rooting them on, and I'm like, feel like I'm a part of it.
GILGER: It’s like hometown heroes. All right, and let's have you take us out on a song?
HJERPE: This one is called “Faster and Faster.” It's about friends and seeing them get better.
GILGER: All right, let’s hear it.
[SONG PLAYS]