Ahead of what was set to be a raucous Friday night at Bodega, Alice Beard sat down with Joe, Chris and Morgan of Fat Dog for a few wise words along with more than a few wisecracks.
As we sat down, the band instantly spotted Bodega’s Disco Kitchen menu lying on a soggy table and what followed was a heated debate about the best dips up for offer. Chris eventually settled on prawn cocktail sauce, “Marie Rose, that’s a real disco dip!” As much as I would’ve loved to continue this dispute further, I nudged the band towards some (slightly) more serious questions. To ease us all in we started off discussing the tour so far. The band had been on quite a hefty one so far, kicking off all the way back in early October. A boisterous night at a sold-out Scala in London set a high precedent for the rest of the tour, but it was playing a pub in Cambridge that the band really seemed to have thrived on.
“We’ve never played Cambridge before so it was really nice. We played in a Greene King which was cool. We were expecting nice Sunday roasts though but they were trying to fit in with the gig theme, we just had to make do with onion rings, jalapeno poppers and burgers.”
It seems the audience made up for their disappointment in the cuisine though. As you would expect with any Fat Dog gig the fans were as frenzied and frantic as ever, with Morgan recounting the moment one audience member refused to let frontman Joe Love down off their shoulders. Mind you, it’s all in a day’s work for Joe “it was funny, I could feel the guy’s legs shaking and I just knew he was gonna go any minute”. Chris joins in the chatter, joking that Joe was “like a paranoid MC- ‘let me down please!’”
This is nothing new to the band. They have rapidly built up a reputation for being one of the rowdiest live bands on the circuit at the moment. For them, garnering such an intense audience reaction is really what makes their gigs. Chris explains “you could play the perfect set, but if the crowd’s dead then what’s it all for”. It’s this connection with the audience that has helped them build up such a cult following, both online and with dedicated fans who try and join them on as many nights as possible. It’s important to note, as Chris points out, the band had no idea this religion would develop. “Especially having only one song out you don’t expect it at all. That’s why word of mouth is so cool.” Morgan smiles as she acknowledges how nice it is to see the same familiar faces at gigs, prompting Joe to give a warm “shoutout to Billy!” Billy, the only man in Bodega before doors like me and proudly repping Fat Dog merch, of course I had to have a little chat with him. He’d been in Cambridge the previous night and told me he was following the band to Manchester too for their gig at The White Hotel. Serious dedication for a seriously silly band. Fat Dog clearly adore him, Chris even suggesting they smuggle him in their van for all upcoming shows.
Fat Dog give their all in every performance, to get that same energy back from the audience is the least they deserve for all their efforts. I ask how they get themselves hyped up for such incendiary sets. Aside from having Thunderstruck and Pump it Up on their pre-show playlist, it seems what really gets them started is getting shouted at by their tour manager Jonny. “It doesn’t feel good unless he’s screaming at us, pure spite energy is what keeps us going during a gig!”
We soon get onto discussing their debut release King of the Slugs. It’s a seven-minute beast of a track that has been hotly anticipated by fans for what seems like an eternity. It felt only right for the band to meet the desperate pleas for some physical music online aside from the extensive collections of Windmill sets on Youtube. Whether the band would be able to translate and pack all of their energy into a recording was certainly something I was worried about before I first listened to the release, and for the band too it proved a challenge.
“It was actually quite hard, we got about twenty-five different versions of it before we settled. There’s a bunch of really weird takes of that song that are never going to see the light of day. We did one take and tried layering loads of weird sh*t on top of it. We even tried to make our own choir”. After long periods of stubborn refusal to release any music, the band admit it is nice to finally have some music out online. “It’s nice that people know the song, they’ll even start singing along to the bassline which is a bit crazy, it’s not a very sing-able thing” nevertheless the fans love it, and that’s what matters really. Joe and Chris accompany Morgan’s comment with shaky renditions of the track’s instrumentals, before slowly fading out.
The first time I ever got to witness the glory of Fat Dog was when they supported Sports Team at Rock City in October 2022. The band are pleased to hear this, being big fans of the venue itself. “It’s the best venue here, it’s got the nicest man on the door ever. I can’t remember his name but he’s just an absolute gentleman, he’s an older chap but anyway he’s so nice, so polite”.
I ask if there are any other venues they’re looking forward to playing in the future. There’s a little lull to allow for deliberation before Chris jumps in to announce plans for a gig on Joe’s birthday. “We’re playing in a cave in Norway! That’s gonna be a great one”. Morgan tries to add details about a future gig at Nantes University, faltering slightly with the pronunciation at the unfortunate risk of sounding like she’s saying nonce University. Joe happily runs with it- “it’s where they all go and learn their craft”.
“I don’t even know how to make music, it’s just random. Lock yourself in a room for four months and see what happens!"
Tracing back to the beginning, the band started out with just Joe making beats in his room during lockdown. The band slowly built themselves up from there. On this discussion, Chris chimes in with a cheeky “shoutout to Will Cox!” Joe explains about their former keyboard player, running with the story that Chris ate him. “I gained his powers!” Chris jokes. On this topic, we get onto how the band’s writing process usually plays out. Joe seems nonchalant and plays down his musical abilities.
“I don’t even know how to make music, it’s just random. Lock yourself in a room for four months and see what happens! That’s why lockdown was great because then you could just write as much as you wanted. Not good for a lot of people, but the music’s done well out of it. It had its benefits. Prison for music!”
It goes without saying that Fat Dog’s sound isn’t for everyone. The collision of genres and influences can take a little for people to get their head around but the result is something that feels uniquely refreshing and exhilarating. There’s techno, punk, dance and even some Balkan style scales thrown in there to really get your ears twitching. The band waste no time in throwing around quips about their other influences. “Arctic Monkeys, big fans! Avicii, David Guetta” Joe continues “it’s a mix between Deadmau5, Interactive, Arctic Monkeys of course”. Chris quickly adds Megadeath to the list to illicit more chuckles from the band. “We’re simple people” he jokes. When asked if they would like to explore their sound any further Morgan is quick with her response “Devon!”, whereas Joe wants to do R&B. “Yeah, we’re gonna take R&B down to Devon, like new Boyz II Men but with Devon”.
Speaking of taking their music down to the ends of the country, Fat Dog had a remarkable circuit of over Summer with festivals. Leeds and Reading, Green Man, Dot to Dot, the band visited an extensive list of places dotted around the country, but it was End of the Road which stood out to the band. Chris remarks “End of the Road was great. I’m not really a festival guy, I usually end up losing my soul somewhere but that one was really nice, probably my favourite”. Although maybe the same can’t be said for all members, Morgan explaining how she unfortunately had to go home early due to a bout of food poisoning. Joe follows up, always teasing “you’ve just got a delicate stomach though, we all ate that pork!” Chris seemed content regardless, “I was eating good anyway, I had a proper gas stove. I was eating grilled cheese, beans- hot beans on my lovely stove”. Joe goes on to explain how unprepared they were for Green Man, only taking a tent and suffering from the cold as a consequence. “My sister came and she turned into an icicle”. Morgan quickly jests “she’s still there now!”
Unfortunately, the chat had to come to an end at some point, so to wrap it all up I asked them a nice easy question- what can we expect from Fat Dog in the future?
“Probably the same, we’ve been playing the same set for four years, we wanna see how long we can milk these songs for”. Then they begin to outline some slightly more outlandish desires. “We’ll slowly just stop playing, and then we’ll play classical music and all wear suits. The bassist can get into throat singing, he’ll move to Mongolia, ride a little pony and then we’ll just only play gigs in Mongolia” Sounds like a good plan to me.
Just as we conclude, we’re briefly interrupted by Jonny, their tour manager, handing out the night’s earnings. Joe is especially pleased with this surprise, “this brings the vibes up, big money please!”
We sit and chat for a little about what we’re doing with the rest of the night. The band are tempted to check out Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem for a quick pint before their set but they’re hungry too- probably from all that talk of disco dips earlier. They’re on the hunt for a place in Nottingham with good homecooked food. I admit I don’t think I can help them there. Long Row isn’t exactly the most illustrious place to provide the sort of food they were craving- Taco Bell, McDonalds, KFC and let’s not forget Mega Munch. I thought those recommendations would probably be better received post-set and with a few more pints in their systems. Regardless, I wished them luck on their conquest and of course on their set later, although I was confident they didn’t need it. One thing’s for sure, Fat Dog never let you down.
Alice Beard
Edited by Alice Beard
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