El Dog

Hi, Thanks for your time. How are things in the El Dog camp at the mo? 

We’re pretty good. We spent most of tonight eating Bombay Mix and shouting ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ at each other, and filling the air with a fine spray of half chewed spicy lentils. It’s a long story. We’re getting geared up for a cheeky wee Christmas release right now, so keep an eye out for it. It’s a cover of “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!” by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne, in a very El Dog fashion. 

Earlier this year you released your debut album,’ The Lamps of Terrahead;’ could you give us a little background on the creative process behind the album? Was it a long time in the making, or a record that came together relatively swiftly? 

It was a bit of a labour of love to be honest. The album was self financed and the only studio time we could really afford was put to tracking the drums. The rest we recorded ourselves with Calum, the drummer, taking the reins. We wanted to make sure that the arrangements and flow of the album was right and the fact that we were recording whenever we had time from our full time jobs meant it took a lot longer than we would have liked. But, with the help of the awesome Iain Cook on mixing, we got there. 

How has the overall reception been to the record so far? 

It’s been pretty good. A lot of people have said they really liked it and even the people who don’t really like it don’t totally hate it. There’s usually one or two nice things in every review. 

When, where and how did El Dog initially get together? You seem to have widespread roots in the music world, with a few of you involved in multiple projects, band management, music technology etc?

Have you been spying on us? Yeah, we were all aware of each other from different projects but the main event that brought us together was Bob break dancing, dancing naked (except for a cunningly placed shoe) at a local open mic night we used to go to. We’ve all been in various different bands over the years and have also worked as Audio Technicians, Sound Designers for Theatre and Film, event organisers and promoters. Right now Jim’s working for Linn Records which is pretty awesome. 

Emerging from the Glasgow music scene as you have, how would you say that your environment and background have shaped your music? 

There looks to be a strong musical community in the area... There definitely is. With so many great bands playing in Glasgow you really have to raise your game. Bands like Sucioperro, The Darien Venture, Analogue of The Sun, Trapped In Kansas, Bronto Skylift to name a few. Working in a town with such awesome bands all around and such amazing music lovers who really know what they want and expect from a band means you really have to think about things on quite a serious level early on as Glasgow fans won't suffer people who aren't pouring everything they've got in to it! 

For those readers that are new to El Dog, could you name a few points of reference, influences, musical approach/genre and so on to put them in the picture? 

Although we’re sited as being like Biffy Clyro a fair amount, I would say that we take our influence from a fairly disparate bunch. Rage Against The Machine, The Blue Nile, Nine Inch Nails, Sigur Ros. There’s even a nod here and there to pop artists from the 80’s like Cyndi Lauper and Huey Lewis and The News. 

How might you describe your live show to those that have yet to see you, and is playing live something that is central to you as a band? 

Our live shows are engaging, quite emotional in places, raucous in others. Because the music is so personal and emotive we like to break it up a bit with some light-hearted banter or some fun costumes now and again.

We’ve spent a while honing our live sound and right now it’s at a place where we’re really happy with it. Recording a CD can really detach you from the music you’ve written because you’re so caught up in all the tiny little details of it, so playing for an audience is great as the rewards are immediate. When you make that connection with the audience the songs come to life. It’s such a great feeling playing live. Especially when people aren’t throwing things at you and shouting, “get off the stage”. 

Have you had the opportunity to do much touring so far in your careers, or shared the stage with any upcoming, underground, or unsigned bands that we should really be checking out? 

We’ve not done as much touring with this album as we’d like, but we’re working on it. We have been lucky enough to play gigs with Sucioperro, who are awesome and nice guys to boot. We also played a wee gig in Greenock with Twin Atlantic. A couple of months after it we saw them supporting The Smashing Pumpkins. The four of us were staring at the stage thinking, “Damn! We’ve got to get our finger out” Ha ha. 

Returning to ‘The Lamps of Terrahead,’ would you say that there are any defining themes or ideas that run through the album, either in terms of sound, lyrical content or inspiration? 

There are a few cheeky lyrical and harmonic themes going on in the album but I think it covers a wide selection of different…eh…stuff. We didn’t necessarily sit down and plan what the whole album was about but it all fell into place pretty well. Some of the songs are about love, others about loss, some deal with anger and some are about finding beauty in the strangest of places I.E Milngavie. 

Where would you say that you’d like to take El Dog in the near future? 

We just want to make music that we enjoy and let people hear it. The more people that hear it the better, whether it be at a gig or on the album. We’re not too fussed about getting a number one or being the biggest band in the world. We would make do with being...oh...I don’t know...Third biggest.

We’d also love to have our own cookery show. We love to cook and it would be awesome to eventually have our own show, selection of cookery books and possibly our own line of cookery utensils. 

Finally, any words of wisdom for readers that have the album, or those that think you might be what they’re looking for? 

This album is like one piece of work in itself and it’s definitely worth delving into with that thought in mind. Crack out some headphones, turn it up loud and let us take you on a 

www.myspace.com/eldogmusic.