Dog of Man, a psychedelic punk band from Brighton who have toured Europe and brought their energetic live show to festivals in the UK, Croatia and the Netherlands, have been described as “dream headliners for an end-of-the-world party.” Their new single, Hello MI5!, was recorded live to tape at Brixton Hill Studios and is taken from their forthcoming second album Everything is Easy.
In this interview spotlight, I chat with Dog of Man about the latest music, technology, adapting during the pandemic and more.
Full Q&A along with links and music below.
Where are you from and how do You describe your style of music?
The band formed in the basement of a house in Brighton where Mike, Sam & Myself were living in 2015, during a glorious period of mutual unemployment. Me & Mike are originally from Stroud. Sam & Ben are from Brighton. We play Freakout Psych Punk music
How did you get here? As in, what inspired or motivated you to take on this journey through music and the music biz?
Me & Mike began playing & performing in bands together from the age of 13. Alt rock & grunge in our teenage years before coming together again to play gypsy punk with Buffos Wake for a number of years. We were still with that band when we began the first jams that lead to Dog of Man. I started learning to play the drums & mike suggested he bring this old 1960’s electro accordion down from his parents attic to our shared house in Brighton. That first accordion inspired the initial direction of the band, it sounded like a broken 8-bit nintendo game and kicked out such a huge sound when put through a bit crusher and an octaver. Sam later told me that on that day when we had our first jam he came home to find the whole house shaking with the bass and he struggled to get his key in the door, as the door was also shaking. He then grabbed his guitar and joined us and the project really started there. Before this project started we had always played in bands and done DIY records and tours etc, its just our way of life and its what we love to do.
How does your latest project compare/contrast with your previous release(s)? Were you setting out to accomplish anything specific, follow a specific theme, or explore different styles of creation?
This track and the rest of the new album has taken a bit of a creative shift. The material for the first EP & album was written just after we left Buffo’s Wake & Ratbag (a ska punk outfit me and Sam were in). We loved playing in and contributing material to those bands but I think afterwards we really wanted to explore a more open brief & write music that didn’t have to be dancey or entertain a certain audience or fit to a certain style. As a result those first two releases feature a whole lot of different styles and sounds, there’s some really creepy and somber sections to some of it, it was a really great experience to write music in that way. I think the difference with this record is that we have dialed a bit more of the punk and dance elements back in again. We love turning a crowd of people into a sweaty dancing moshing whirlwind of energy. There’s still a huge mix of styles on the record but I think it has a bit more of a high energy overall. Also we went down a completely different path in terms of recording technique this time so that has had a drastic effect on the overall sound. We recorded the album live to 2 inch tape. Nick Howiantz at Brixton Hill studios really helped us craft the overall sound of the record and he’s done an amazing job. Doing it this way also meant that there was no room for changes to the songs or edits or anything like that so we did three demos before recording to make sure we had the songs written the way we wanted. The song ‘Hello MI5!’ thematically was born out of the hotbed of conspiracy theories that were flying around at the start of the pandemic. Did you know that covid is a one big hoax cleverly orchestrated to mask the fatal effects of 5G? Scary stuff. Also I think Mike wanted to write a song where searching the lyrics online would get you followed by MI5 haha
Name the biggest challenge you faced as a creative during these unprecedented? How did you adapt? How have you kept the creative fires burning during all this?
There are always challenges to keeping a project like this going. We were pretty set back by the pandemic, in 2020 we had a great run of shows and festivals lined up as well as a 2 week tour in Japan. It was gutting to have to postpone all that but we will get round to it when we can. At the moment half of the band are moving to Stroud/Bristol so our most immediate challenge is trying to figure out how to navigate that properly and where/when we can still regularly get together to write and practise. Whenever we get in a room together new music just happens between us, the creative fires are always burning. We all have other projects that we work on alongside the band though. Most of us also play in other bands, we make art and Ben makes games so there’s always a number of different creative projects moving us forwards in some way.
What was the last song you listened to?
Exuma ‘Damn Fool’, great 1970s culty freakout kind of band that I’ve only just got into. Also ‘Source’ by Fever the Ghost has been on repeat recently. What a Banger.
Which do you prefer? Vinyl? 8-tracks? Cassettes? CDs? MP3s? Streaming platforms?
I collect them all. My record collection is probably the most precious. The sound and the artwork is just more satisfying in that format. There’s something really magical about a great record.
Where is the best place to connect with you and follow your journey?
Our youtube channel for starters, that’s where you will see our juiciest online psych punk adventures. After that its Bandcamp, they have the most complete discography of our stuff available online. Also our Facebook is very active and probably the best way to keep up to date with our shows and new releases.
I really appreciate Your time. Anything else before we sign off?
Thank you 2. Eat your Greens. Look after your teeth. Stay strong. Stay weird.
