Interview: Dog Is Dead

Dog Is Dead make the short trip from their native Nottingham to Birmingham this Monday for a much-anticipated headline show at the O2 Academy 3 and they’ll be bringing their enchanting combination of jangling melodies, heartfelt tales and delicious harmonies with them. Tom Pell caught up with frontman Rob Milton ahead of the show.

“We’ve got loads of songs just floating about from being together for so long, it’s only now getting to the point of condensing them into one body of work,” explains Rob Milton, frontman and original Rob (more on that later). “But we just thought, ‘Why not? Let’s do it.’ We’ve done the support thing, we’ve paid our dues in pubs and bars to a few people, but now it’s nice to think we can just rock up somewhere and there might be a decent crowd there to see us.” Rob is talking excitedly about the prospect of the band’s first full headline tour which is underway now and represents the perfect opportunity for them to burrow their way into the limelight which has been seemingly waiting for them.

Decent crowds there will be too, as radio play is increasing. Huw Stephens recently played new David Kosten-produced (Bat For Lash- es, Everything Everything) single Two Devils on Radio 1 weeks ahead of its March 5 release to get the ol’ taste buds a tinglin’.

“It’s crazy really. That’s the great thing about radio that makes it so vital, because when people hear it they do really pay attention to it.” This is attention to a song Milton has previously described as “a tale of guilt and insanity,” which suggests polar opposites to the Your Childhood work, which is more about, well, your childhood. Growing up and all that.

“Did I say that?” he laughts. “Well… It’s not too far away from what we’ve been doing, it’s a darker side, but it’s a nice avenue to explore. It’s semi-autobiographical, it’s my imagination running wild. It’s me mulling over memories and different build-ups of guilt that I’ve had over the years, so I’ve just used that, and let my imagination go crazy. It’s a bit more psychedelic, a bit more twisted, but at the same time it’s reasonably upbeat. We only wrote it a couple of months ago, so hopefully people are going to be excited by it.”

The signature sound can be summed up by ‘lots of instruments, lots of harmonies, lots of euphoria’. It sounds like summer. Like joy. “I guess when we were first writing together, guitars were a bit boring to me at the time, and none of us were really that good at playing them to be honest. So we thought we’d use our voices to see what we could make out of that. As simple as ‘you sing this note, I’ll sing that note.’ It was awful at first. It takes a while, but after a bit, we were all doing it, all five of us, and making some kind of noise.”

For further information, please look no further than the rousing chorus of Young or the euphoric proclamations (“We are a mess, we are failures, and we love it!”) of Glockenspiel Song.

“There are a lot of us, and it always feels like there are a lot of us. But I like that, I like having this big band behind me. I’ll write the song, but then everyone will add ideas to what I’ve already written, so it balances really nicely. It’s really easy working with your friends too, that helps.”

From friendship and playground idiocy the name Dog Is Dead was born, as unusual a moniker as you could fathom. Doesn’t make any more sense the more you hear it. “We were about 15 when we met and started jamming together, and we needed a name for a school talent show. At the time, there was some private joke going around that to this day I can’t remember what it meant. Something about ‘Dog Is Dead’. So some- one suggested we go for that as we had nothing else, and very quickly it changes to you having played a few shows, and by then you already have a reputation as being that band, so it’s too late to change it!”

The bizarre name business doesn’t end there, as original Rob was once competing with Rob number two, Rob White, who now goes by the name Paul Roberts. “It’s more natural than it sounds,” insists Milton, trying his best to disparage cult-type rumours, to little or no avail. “Looking at it now, it looks like we just make everyone have a different name! [Laughs] It was just we didn’t want the confusion of having two Robs in the band. So Rob couldn’t be Rob. So obvi- ously, you’d call him Paul. So he’s Paul. And Trev just came back from Chile once and he looked like some guy off an advert, so everyone at school called him Trev. That’s kind of the deal. I like having pseudonyms in the band. I bet it’s really cool to be in Guns N Roses and having a mate called Slash. ‘This is my friend. His name is Slash.’ That’s pretty cool.”

Hanging out with Slash may still be a long way away, but February and March will bring over 30 dates of relentless rock n roll tour- ing across the country. The boys are new to this game, and are planning to dive in head first. “We’re just being classically naive and

thinking, ‘Yeah, it’ll be fine’. I think we’ve got three days off in about 35, but it’s going to be fun. It’ll be this ridiculous adventure; it’s something that not everyone gets to do. We’re very lucky. I know you’ve got all the usual hygiene things to think of, and all that driving around can’t be fun either. But apart from that, it’s such a cool thing to do. Why not be on tour?”

So you can record an album, is one reason. It’s not all fun and games you know, some folks would like some hard copy. The end of summer 2012 is the projected release date for the as of yet untitled full debut, which is, “…all written now, with just a tiny bit of recording to finish. And then it’s just a case of sorting it out, and finalising it into something we’re really proud of.”

Something like getting signed by a major label after only recording an EP, before shooting off on a headline tour? You’re doing alright. Pipe down, Florence, the Dog (Is Dead) days are far from over.

Dog Is Dead are live at the O2 Academy 3, Birmingham, on February 20. Tickets are available from here or on the door. Support comes from Boat to Row and The Jellybean Rebellion. Doors open at 7pm.

New single Two Devils by Dog Is Dead is out on March 5 on Atlantic Records. Keep an eye on our Facebook page for an extra surprise treat from Dog Is Dead too.