FEATURE: Spotlight: Fat Dog

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

  

Fat Dog

__________

I did recently write…

about modern Rock and whether there is much personality and punch as there should be. Whether the Rock artists around now are engaging with politics and important issues. Maybe we will see more of that in 2024. I hope so. What is apparent is there are a few Rock bands who are engaging and worthy live bands who will develop into a complete and professional studio band. Maybe Fat Dog are not quite there in terms of having enough fully-formed songs to record an E.P. yet. A live set more built on energy and the performance rather than song cohesiveness and tightness, that is not to take anything away from their electricity and buzz. They are clearly one of the U.K.’s best live bands of the moment. I think next year will be one where they work on a few songs showcased at shows, work them up in the studio, and then release an E.P. I am spotlighting them because there is this hope and buzz around and on them. Their debut (and sole to this point) single, King of the Slugs, shows that they definitely have promise. An edge and USP that, with studio discipline and some dedicated time there next year, will produce a solid and original E.P. This is an occasion of highlighting and championing a group in their infancy. Those exciting first steps. Led by Joe Love, it is clear that Fat Dog have big opportunities ahead. Epigram spoke with a band who seemed to have arrived at a good time. Captured a particular mood:

“It’s hard to know what to expect with Fat Dog. With a reputation for immense live shows and an ever-growing cult following, they are one of the country’s most talked about bands. Yet a sense of mystery remains; outside of a few YouTube videos, information is scarce. To understand it all, or even catch a glimpse, you really have to be there, in the right place and at the right time.

So, the irony was not lost on me when I turned up to interview them, in both the right place and at the right time, and the band were running late. Soundcheck had run over as they tried to convince the sound engineer at Strange Brew that the audience should feel the noise as well as hear it. Neither party seemed fully convinced by the final outcome. When that was over, lead singer Joe accompanied by Johnny (drums) and Chris (synths) decided it was time for a pint, and at their request we went to the Hatchet, leaving the other members of the band behind. As such, this felt less like an interview and more like a conversation between friends that I happened to be overhearing.

‘We’re sort of lazy, sorry, perfectionist’ Chris jokes when I ask about their approach to building up their reputation and audience over the past year or so. ‘It was just about getting people down to the live gigs’ explains Joe. A simple approach maybe, but one that’s clearly worked. ‘It happens sometimes in the Windmill scene’ Johnny tells me, referencing The Windmill in Brixton, the pub and venue that has been home to Fat White Family, Black Midi and Black Country, New Road amongst others over the years, and for which this current post-punk scene is named. Although Johnny says the band are wary of being ‘lumbered in too much’ as he puts it, to the Windmill scene, they also recognise that they owe it a fair bit - ‘the Windmill’s big for that, they gave us a chance’.

But there is also more to Fat Dog than The Windmill, after all this is a band that managed to bag a national tour with Sports Team without being signed to a label or having released any music. In particular, the band tell me the quirks of touring Europe and Chris attempts a German accent to tell me how ‘you realise cultural differences especially in Europe. It’s like if they like it they won’t do anything they’ll just stand there and stare and you’ll be like “oh no” but they come up to you afterwards and be like (mimics German accent) “that was a really good gig”’. It’s not all like that though, and Johnny points out that, in Holland in particular, ‘they really love and appreciate the music and don’t mind showing it, often quite ferociously’ as he tells stories of parents holding babies next to the mosh pit in Rotterdam.

This sense of chaos and intense audience interaction is what is so intriguing about Fat Dog. Go to any of their gigs, especially those early London ones and in between the constant moshing, you’d see at least half the crowd singing along to an entire set of unreleased songs. It’s chaotic, not least because you’ll never know what you’re going to get from the band themselves, but it’s exciting and it’s no wonder the hype was built so quickly. Theatrics are something the band have always encouraged. Joe tells me ‘we always wear this stuff’ when I ask about the band’s penchant for costumes; Johnny wears a dog mask as a homage to former Windmill dog Lucky, whilst Joe is often found in a Judo outfit with a cowboy hat and Chris has a whole routine with a cloak, although they tell me ‘we don’t come up with theatrical songs so that Chris can do a backup dance’. They may be downplaying it, but it’s all part of the plan: ‘the dancing is part of the music, the plan is to encourage people to dance, there’s nothing worse than a gig where someone’s not dancing so to try and encourage that is great’”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Sophie Barloc for Loud and Quiet

The South London band are getting love from some very big sites. Rolling Stone UK spent some time with Fat Dog in October. Beyond the buzz and all the hype are a band who have the stamina and determination to be here for the long run. I know that they will be on the radar of many as we head into 2024:

“Fat Dog are all about the vibe. The latest group to emerge from South London’s fruitful alternative hub, their chaotic live show – a rabble-rousing cacophony of dance, punk, klezmer and just about everything else, designed for maximum madness and kept in time by a drummer in a latex dog mask – has built them one of the most excitable word-of-mouth reputations since the pandemic. Picked up by Domino Records (home to Arctic Monkeys, Wet Leg and more), their recent debut single ‘King of the Slugs’ proved they could also bottle the party successfully on record. But even when it came to finalising their line-up, a priority of spirit over seriousness was front and centre.

Speaking today from a hotel room in Sheffield, midway through a current headline tour that’s already seen them sell out London’s Scala, vocalist and main instigator Joe Love explains that now-keyboard player Chris Hughes was originally hired when he volunteered as the band’s violinist. “I told them I played the violin and the next day I went out and bought a violin. I gave myself a week to learn it,” Chris laughs. “It was the worst fucking thing when he came to practice,” Joe groans. “Violin is not the sort of instrument you can learn in a week. But I liked the confidence.” “And that’s why I’m in the band,” Chris concludes.

Having started Fat Dog both as a visceral reaction to the pent-up frustration of lockdown and as an antithesis to the self-serious bands surrounding him in the South London scene, Joe’s vision for the outfit has always been to make something designed for letting loose. “When I was making the demos in my room, I was making songs that were a bit too ridiculous, that weren’t music,” he chuckles. Now, the quintet have distilled that energy down into something that just about resembles the shape of a series of songs, but Fat Dog’s uncontainable spirit is still howling free, as Joe and Chris explain…

You’ve been called every genre under the sun from rave to punk to electronic and more – how do you see your music?

Chris: I always just say it sounds like rabbis on ecstasy, but I don’t know…

Joe: I think that’s a perfect answer. You listen to stuff and you put pieces together, and you steal a lot of shit: stealing is a massive part of it. I think musicians should be a bit more honest and say, ‘I’ve just stolen everything’. If you steal 13 songs in one song, then no-one can realise.

There’s a klezmer (traditional Jewish folk music) influence that’s unusual; where did your love of that come from?

Joe: From video games. I just played Serious Sam 2 a lot, where you’re in the pyramids and you’re shooting loads of tentacle aliens, and I was listening to the soundtrack from that. I use the same scale in all my songs, I should probably change it up…

Your gigs have become the stuff of rowdy legend – can you remember the first?

Joe: There were lots of sitting down ones [during the socially-distanced period] but I remember the first standing up one at Laylow [in West London]. When people started moving, I got so gassed that I went into the audience and slipped over, sprained my ankle, and I couldn’t walk for two weeks. There’s videos of me just falling flat. It’s very embarrassing. You look around the room thinking, ‘Has anyone seen that?’ And then you realise you’re playing live and a lot of people have definitely seen it”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Sophie Barloc for Loud and Quiet

I am going to move on now to Loud and Quiet’s live assessment of Fat Dog. They played the Big Top at End of the Road festival earlier in the year. Even with some chaos and some lacking focus during the set, they were impressed by the reputation the band have. The love that is clear from the audience. Already live legends, it is now a case of this band getting into the studio and honing their songs. Even if some are not fully on the Fat Dog bandwagon, it is clear that the band are getting a reaction and are one of the most interesting around. Coming into the industry with a definite bang:

“The only way I can think to explain the monstrous, frenzied crowd that gathers, barely out of their PJs, at this 1pm Fat Dog set is with some philosophical bullshit about our perverse desire for all the ugly, nihilistic terror of the world to be reflected back to us through music. Please tell me it’s that. Otherwise, I am stumped.

It tells you all you need to know about Fat Dog, a rock band (sort of?) out of South London’s Windmill scene, that their first – and, at the time of writing, only – single is seven minutes long and titled ‘King of the Slugs.’ My first thought is, will they play the one song people know first, or last? The answer is neither – it comes halfway through – which tells you even more about Fat Dog.

PHOTO CREDIT: Sophie Barloc for Loud and Quiet

Namely, they know how to curate a live show. In fact, the absolute chaos that unfolds seems carefully put together. The band’s entrance is prefaced by an air raid siren and a booming voice counting down – “one-minute warning,” “ten-second warning” – not to mention by the whoops and hollers of the bucket hatted crowd who are positively aching to get slugged, or dogged (I’m not sure of the best verb form there). And when the bassist, dressed like an off-duty hedge fund bro in a pressed white shirt with his sleeves rolled up, indicates that he would like us to form a circle pit, not only does the crowd oblige, but it feels like they knew in advance.

I’ll hand it to Fat Dog: the live show is exceedingly fun (for most people) and exceedingly strange. They traverse the standard antics – making us crouch low to the ground before springing back up in time with the music; a wall of death, or two – but there’s also a synchronised, slapstick dance by the saxophone player (yes, they have a saxophone player) and sampling/keys guy, who’s adorned in a yellow Sou’wester hat. There’s a lo-fi projection of a chrome dog perpetually spinning behind them. The frontperson, Joe Love, wearing his own band’s merch, holds his arms out by his sides like some kind of Christ figure or king (of the slugs, I guess). But you kinda want them to crack a smile, as if to acknowledge that they’re in on the joke – that this is weird; that they’re not actually serious – otherwise it’s all a bit pretentious and gross”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Ed Miles for DIY

I will come to DIY and their features. They included Fat Dog as part of their Class of 2024. Although there are differences between Fat Dog and a group like The Last Dinner Party, both are phenomenal live acts. Gaining such buzz from one single. That sense of anticipation. I think that Fat Dog are going to keep growing and building on this promise. How their live shows translate into the studio and whether a debut E.P. or album will be lose to their shows or a bit more disciplined we shall see. Whatever they go with, there is a passionate army of fans already behind them. This will expand as we head into next year and the band play more shows:

“One might imagine that penning a deal with Domino, who boast the likes of Arctic Monkeys, Wet Leg and Hot Chip among their roster, would come alongside expectations of a certain step-up in professionalism. “No, not really,” Joe laughs. “We’ve been losing stuff along the way.” “Professionalism dipped, if anything,” Chris remarks. “I’ve lost the pedalboard in the airport, and I’ve left the flight case full of keyboards in a venue.” Both members of the band - completed by bassist Ben Harris, saxophone player Morgan Wallace and drummer Johnny Hutchinson - audibly scoff at the notion that they’d have staff on the team to take care of such matters, instead offering a shoutout for their tour manager, Johnny Ray, and the white van in which they schlep to and from shows.

Industry buzz, however you might define it, may be hard to substantiate whilst you’re in the middle of it, but both present members of Fat Dog carry themselves without any visible pretentiousness, cracking jokes throughout with the ease of any normal chat. Normal, that is, with a dash of slightly unhinged kookiness about them, like two strangers you’ve built a rapport with at a house party where there’s a mattress on the floor.

One tangible perk of the band’s rise has been the opportunity to work with producer James Ford (Gorillaz, Kylie Minogue, Florence + The Machine) on their debut album, albeit in a manner which is typically Fat Dog-ian in its casual nature. “He’s just a nice guy,” Joe says. “We were doing tracks in his house, in a little bedroom studio, it’s pretty chill.” “Yeah, it was homely,” Chris agrees. “There was a bit of, ‘You can’t play drums after a certain time because it’ll wake up the neighbours’.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Ed Miles

The tracks that will make up Fat Dog’s eventual debut LP are mostly songs that have grown from the band’s live outings, put together by Joe on his computer before being beefed up by his bandmates. “We’re trying to follow the demos as much as we can,” he explains. “I took what we had over to James [Ford] to thicken everything up.” Does this imply that Fat Dog’s inaugural album is on the horizon? “The album is nowhere near done,” he continues, after a long, excruciated noise from Chris that implies that the subject is a sore one. “I should be in the studio now but I’m taking pictures with a gold man,” he shoots a look at Chris. “I have about four weeks to make six tracks.”

“Domino have been nice. They’ve said, ‘We like the songs that you’ve written so just go for it’,” Joe continues, touching upon the artistic freedom that accompanies life at an indie label. “To be honest, I’m doing a lot of talking about songs which I mostly haven’t actually made at this point. I’m happy with the first single, though.” “And that’s a good one,” Chris concurs.

To call Fat Dog’s debut single, August’s ‘King Of The Slugs’, a “good one” is an understatement. The most ambitious opening statement from an artist since LCD Soundsystem announced themselves with ‘Losing My Edge’ in 2002, ‘...Slugs’ is the sound of a band setting out their stall with intent. Clocking in at over seven minutes, the track opens with a murky electronic soundbed before an Arabian riff enters proceedings, descending into something akin to a nightmarish, amphetamine-fuelled snake-charming exercise. “I’d probably suggest that putting a seven minute long single out is fucking stupid,” Joe says of the bold release. “But in retrospect, it was probably a good idea.” “The fans wanted us to put ‘King Of The Slugs’ out,” Chris notes.

When a fanbase has done as much heavy lifting for a band’s early notoriety as Fat Dog’s, it seems only fair to grant them their choice for the first single. Numerous members of the Fat Dog faithful have already followed the band across multiple shows on the same tour, and handfuls of audience members fondly remember the days when the Monsters Inc. theme tune was still a cornerstone of the Fat Dog setlist”.

There is this new wave of interesting and fresh acts who are plying their trade and releasing music. Taking shape and sitting alongside one another. There is no doubt that Fat Dog stand out. Rightly hailed as one of the most exciting live bands you will see, King of the Slugs is a nice taster of what is to come. So long as they marshal that potential and can dedicate a portion of next year working over songs and getting them into shape – halfway between tight and radio-worthy and a bit rambling and live-sounding – then they are going to be this long-running concern. They are undeniably an act that are worth a lot of attention. Live legends already. The guys of Fat Dog need to keep that energy up – but they also need to…

KEEP things focused.

____________

Follow Fat Dog

Sam Liddicott