FRANKLY THURSDAY
AARON HOGG
Frankly Thursdays is back. Loyal readers will remember these short interviews with local legends, interesting characters, and just cool folk who make up the weaves and wefts of our esoteric past time. This Thursday, we get to know designer, illustrator, and musician Aaron Hogg.
Where do you live?
I live in Ōtautahi, Christchurch
What gets you out of bed in the morning?
I’m generally a morning person so I don’t need a lot of encouragement. A good coffee and the anticipation of some interesting work or a big ride is usually enough
What do you do for a crust?
I have been a graphic designer / illustrator / mo gfx designer for Kona Bikes for nearly 20 years now. I am also a freelance graphic designer and illustrator.
What do you do for fun?
Ride bikes, trail build, make and listen to music, play in bands, watch movies, eat fooooood.
What’s your ideal day off?
There are several versions of an ideal day for me, but the critical starting point would be good coffee. Then perhaps some music making at home. Because I start my day at 4am there’s usually a chunk of time to kill before my mates get going and I’m conditioned to be most productive in those early hours. A ride trip to the Cheeseman area via the Sheffield Pie shop on a crisp, bluebird day in early autumn conditions is always peak for me, but I could switch that location out with any number of the backcountry classics around Canterbury, or the other more natural locations in Queenstown or Nelson with mates to vibe off. Good food, yarns and maybe a show in the evening or a good movie.
What are your vices?
I don’t drink alcohol but I’m partial to an edible. Coffee. My other vices are all based around getting my body to produce as much of the good chemicals as it can without getting injured or arrested in the process.
Many people will have seen your design work around, like the Goat Cycles merch. How did you get into design?
I think my partner got sick of me floating about aimlessly, unemployed, playing in bands in my 20s, so she drove me to the Christchurch film school to pick up some information on their course. On the way out I decided to go and check out the Design and Arts College which was a few floors down. When I saw these rooms full of computers and people making all sorts of cool shit, I was sold. I trained in multimedia, so a combo of design, 3D animation and interactive.
What do you enjoy about working in that world?
I’m under no illusions that I’m extremely fortunate to have a job working in an industry I’m passionate about and that is almost entirely doing what I enjoy doing, so most weeks don’t really even feel like work. I’ve done the same job in agencies working for commercial clients and it definitely felt like more of a grind.
Working from home is another bonus, as is my work being largely project based which affords me a great degree of flexibility to get out to ride and trail build regularly.
Kona have always been an incredibly chill, family-first company to work for, so as long as I’m hitting my deadlines, they’re supportive of my work/life balance being good.
Tell me about your music and Throng?
Throng is a solo project I began in 2022 where I produce all sorts of weird, glitchy, niche electronic music, usually accompanied by some sort of motion GFX component.
It originated out of a free introduction to hardware synthesis night-course run by RDU called Synthonics. My studio setup has taken on many forms, from a fully “in-the-box”configuration, where I did everything in the computer, through to more complex arrangements with multiple synthesisers running through all sorts of pedals and outboard gear. I’ve settled on a hybrid layout now with one versatile workhorse (Novation Peak), a vintage synth (Korg MS20) that I use for particular heavy bass sounds, and everything else being done in Ableton.
I have an album due for release towards the end of the year, a stack of singles and an EP out on all the streaming platforms and Bandcamp. My plan is to perform this material live on bass, with a drummer and another producer running loops. Listen to Throng HERE
How did you get into music?
I have been playing in bands since I was 18, but it began after my parents bought me an amp and guitar for my 15th birthday.
I played Christchurch dive-bars in a variety of punk and metal bands in the early 90s and then was fortunate enough to spend most of my 20s in two bands—Pumpkinhead and Slim—both signed to Wildside Records alongside the likes of Shihad and Head Like A Hole.
We toured the country extensively during that time playing festivals and shows and supported a laundry list of 90s/00s rock royalty including Korn, Tool, Fugazi, Primus, and Faith No More.
Both Slim and Pumpkinhead are playing reunion shows in 2025; Slim are headlining Go Live at the town hall in August and Pumpkinhead are touring in October.
What are your musical influences?
I have a pretty eclectic range of influences that are constantly evolving.
My tastes tend to lean towards garage/punk/ heavier genres and weird indie stuff. I love fuzzy, noisy pop, so I’m particularly into slowcore and shoegaze bands, and I have had a soft spot for female singers that has grown out of a diehard ABBA obsession I had as a kid.
My electronic influences are similarly broad and weird…Mostly heavy ass, glitchy bass music, but if anyone really cares I’ve included some links to Spotify playlists below:
How did you get into mountain biking?
When I started work for Kona, I was a diehard surfer and didn’t ride bikes at all. I initially hated it. I even moved to Vancouver for a year and a half for work and probably went on five mountain bike rides.
It wasn’t till I got back to Christchurch and got introduced to the local trails here that I realised the time-to-fun ratio was waaaaay better in mountain biking compared to surfing, considering the average quality of local breaks. Once I got introduced to all the rad pirate stuff going on in Worsleys, I pretty much stopped surfing.
Do you do any other sorts of riding?
I rode a fair bit of gravel 2023/2024 before being introduced to the dark side of eeebing. Now I do all my local exploratory long-loop stuff on the e-bike. I can pack in twice as much distance and the eeeb descends better than my Sutra. It’s also mellower on my knees on the climbs.
I also love doing longer, less gravity-focussed rides like Ghost Road, or shorter hike-a-bikes like Mt Richardson. Anything that involves deep immersion in forest/bush environments like that can’t be beaten.
How would you describe your riding style?
I have zero style—I’m a bulldozer. I tend to just hold on and plough, but I’m trying to develop a little more finesse. I feel like I’m relatively fast for my age, but it definitely isn’t a thing of beauty.
What’s your favourite riding memory?
It could be any number of days riding trails in Cheeseman, Nelson, Tasmania or Queenstown with mates. I’ve had some incredible days at Wairoa Gorge and some similarly unhinged sessions in Squamish, the dark side trails in Vancouver, Whistler, and Nelson BC.
What’s your favourite trail?
I think it’s a toss-up between The Vein in Nelson BC, Dark Crystal (or Microclimate) near Whistler, Treasure Trail in Squamish, or maybe something like Cuckoo Creek or Cheesus…Oh and riding Ghost Road was as close to a religious experience as I’ve come.
Favourite bit of riding kit?
I guess the dropper post, or modern suspension products LOL. I reckon I could get by with circus wheels, 10-speed or any of the other old-school shit we used to suffer through, but I couldn’t go back to the faff of constantly adjusting my seat-post between climbing and descending, or creaky, shithouse 120mm of suspension travel.
What’s the best thing about mountain biking these days?
The products themselves are far better. There are so many good bikes now. I think e-bikes have been a positive from the standpoint of opening up the sport to more people and making climbing fun again for me personally. I like that the sport is slowly becoming more gender-inclusive which makes for more diverse riding groups
What’s the worst thing?
The cost of EVERYTHING is just absurd and to me completely unsustainable. Stupid single-season trends. Excessively bro’y bike-park culture.