Top Tens: Thibaut Hox from The Octopussys Top Ten Punk Rock Influences

Thibaut Hox, lead singer of Belgian punk rockers The Octopussys shares his top ten punk rock influences.

Nirvana: This was the first band that got me in the alternative scene and I was so obsessed with them around the age of 12. I remember even doing a few gigs back then together with my current guitar teacher singing and playing Nirvana covers, that was my first real stage experience.

blink-182:  There are a lot of discussions about blink-182 going on and opinions how good they used to be or are now or how they sold out, etc. But still, this was a band that for me, just as for many others, served as a gateway band to other punk rock bands that weren’t really covered by the main stream channels.

Lagwagon: I didn’t know many punk rock bands yet and got my hands on a demo of Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2, with May 16 as one of the featured songs. I played this demo over and over just to enjoy this song and knew that this was the kind of music I wanted to create some day, fast and melodic. Let’s Talk About Feelings remains one of my favorite albums to date.

No Use For A Name: I always had lots of admiration for Tony Sly’s very melodic vocals; you feel that the music is written based on them. I was also always a big fan ofhow their drums sounded, when recording new songs I often referred to some parts of NUFAN songs to explain how I feel it should sound. To date it’s still the band I felt most lucky to share stage with. International You Day was also the opening dance of my wedding sung by Hans of F.O.D., that was very epic.

Five Days Off: I do not mention them just to mention a Belgian band, but because in my opinion they’re still the best Belgian punk rock band ever. This was the first local band I checked and they instantly convinced me that Belgium has a lot of good quality punk rock bands to offer.

Allister: About 10 years ago I went to England for a few months and I forgot my CD collection, I only had “Last Stop, Suburbia” from Allister still in my Discman, which I did pack. This album quickly became my all-time favorite punk rock album ever, a soundtrack to a part of my life and a major influence.

Rufio: Ishare my great love for Rufio with our lead guitarist, who really likes the technical guitar stuff and tappings they provide. This combined with the very high, but awesome vocals they make a perfect mix. 

MxPx: Even though MxPx have also released a number of bad records, I still love them. Mike Hererra may not be the greatest singer, but throughout the years you canreally hear a lot of progress, but live as on album. That’s why he always was great example for me, even if you’re not that great of a singer, keep doing it and you will improve.

Ten Foot Pole: This might be my favorite punk rock band (it’s hard to pick just one). I’m especially a fan of the Ten Foot Pole since Dennis Jaggard took over from Scott Radinsky. I just love the unique sound of the vocals and it showed me that you don’t need to have a typical clean or punk rock voice to be awesome as hell.

Pulley: I love all the Pulley stuff; this is punk rock how it is supposed to sound. The combination of fast punk rock and catchy mid-tempo songs is how any punk rock album should sound in my opinion.

Stream and download music from The Octopussys here: https://theoctopussys.bandcamp.com/

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