Louis Hoffman, lead singer and bassist of punk-rock band Toxic Suburpia, gives insight on the band’s origins, members, and toxic sub sandwiches… seriously. The band consists of lead vocalist and bassist Hoffman himself, guitarist Ty Hennecke, and drummer Jackson Otto. But, back to the sandwiches.

“So, it’s (Suburpia) a restaurant in Wisconsin,” Hoffman said, to begin. “They had these sub sandwiches… I guess they’ve been in a lot of legal trouble over the years,” he chuckled.

“They had this, like, cult following, and the sandwiches were sort of addictive? I thought it was pretty great,” Hoffman stated.

While the restaurant Suburpia has an interesting origin story, the creation of the band name Toxic Suburpia is just as interesting.

It all began with a phone call between Hoffman and his current guitarist, Ty Hennecke.

“We were just giving each other ideas, I was thinking of Toxic Suburbia at first,” Hoffman said. Yes, it’s a punk name, but Hoffman wanted to “take it a step further.”

“I kinda jive with the addictive John Belushi sandwich, anyway,” Hoffman later stated. And so, the name was decided.

Now, Hoffman had a name. But before that, how did the idea of forming a band even start? Hoffman had been thinking of starting a band for some time. Guitarist Hennecke and Hoffman were in line for the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) test, and Hoffman recalled speaking to Hennecke about his idea.

“Yeah, I told him about it, and he said, ‘Can I join?’, and I told him, ‘yeah, let’s do it’,” Hoffman said.

Originally, two other band members had joined but left. Drummer Jackson Otto was recruited, and it all came together. “We’ve been going at it ever since,” Hoffman said.

As the lead bassist of the band, Hoffman is not new to stringed instruments. He has roots in guitar, seven years to be exact. He picked up the bass for the band, once it had formed, and it came naturally.

Additionally, with Hoffman being the lead vocalist, he must have had a passion for it, right? Kind of.

“I was the only one who was willing to do it, really,” Hoffman explained. But there was another reason.

“I also wrote a majority of the songs that we’re working with right now,” Hoffman said.

Is Toxic Suburpia a garage band? Can you find them on Spotify or SoundCloud? Can we see them live? That’s still in the works.

“We want to get the music out there, but at this point, we are developing all of that,” Hoffman said. “We’re trying to get enough songs to make a set out of it.”

The gig plans to play a set in the future, something that made Hoffman excited to talk about. The band plans to perform live at gigs, in all of their punk-rock glory.