Vegas weddings, writing ballads, and playing in Trump’s America: in conversation with Fat Dog
As Fat Dog return with their second album, Cancel Me (I’m Tired), the South London chaos merchants reflect on touring Trump’s America, surviving their own intensity, and discovering that even a band built on mayhem can make room for something gentler.
It has been an interesting couple of years for Fat Dog. The London outfit have burst onto the music scene with a hard-to-classify yet infectious sound and heaps of intense energy, received impressive accolades for their debut album ‘WOOF’, embarked on a tour that has brought them to prestigious festival stages and on the road in the USA, reshuffled their line-up, and they are now back with a second long-player - which promises to stir up a conversation even from the title. ‘Cancel Me (I’m Tired)’, due to be released via Domino in early October, and if the first few singles drawn from it are anything to judge by, its sound is going to be just as eclectic and high-octane as their previous offerings, but also more focussed, somewhat less rambling, with a lucidity of direction that was partially missing from the band’s earliest production.
“We did agree, as a band, that I would put myself forward as scapegoat, should it come to that,” Chris Hughes - founding member and synth magician - announces with regards to the choice of title. “But you know what? No one’s fucking blinked an eyelid at it.” “I think we’re past that being a controversial phrase,” frontman Joe Love agrees with a grin. “You can take one look at us and be like, ‘oh, these guys, there’s definitely worse people than them. We’re easy bullying targets, if anything. If it was Kanye doing it, then people would go, ‘Oh, he’s doing it again.’ It’s like he’s got a cancelled callus by this point. It doesn’t hurt anymore”.
So-called cancel culture is actually not a main concern within the album itself, primarily because its actual meaning has become somewhat elusive. “It’s hard to find where the boundary is,” Hughes notes. “Just as a phrase, being cancelled, it’s kind of silly. It almost infantilises it. If you’ve actually done something really bad, it should be like, oh no, justice was served in this case. ‘Being cancelled’ feels like a weak, chronically online phrase compared to that”. It’s different in America, Love points out: “In England, people often take as a joke, but in America, they make a very serious deal of it”.
“Just as a phrase, being cancelled, it’s kind of silly. It almost infantilises it. If you’ve actually done something really bad, it should be like, oh no, justice was served in this case. ‘Being cancelled’ feels like a weak, chronically online phrase compared to that.” - Chris Hughes
What was it like, for a band that is in many ways so quintessentially British, touring in Trump’s America? “The weirdest thing about it is, people just get on with it in spite of everything,” says Love. “The same as with COVID. Although we were there when Charlie Kirk got shot, and those were a strange few days”. If there’s a true noticeable difference, Hughes points out, it’s the low-level tension hanging constantly in the air: “The way in which people interact, in some parts of the States, it’s more suspicious. There’s less trust. There’s not necessarily loads of trust in London either, but it’s palpable in the air that people are worried about a threat to their safety a lot more”. “You’ll be getting a beer from a liquor store, and the thing they always say is, stay safe out there,” Love adds. “I’m like, what?”
Some American memories are decidedly more wholesome. “We were playing Las Vegas last year and my wife and I got married the morning after,” Love reminisces. “It was so fucking funny, because it was an Elvis impersonator kind of wedding. We invited the rest of the band and it was just a good day. Our sound man was late, and he stepped out the door just as the guy was doing his ‘if anyone has anything to say against this wedding’ bit, and we all thought ‘Oh fuck, what is he going to say?’ But he was just late”.
Even with some pretty big venues ticked off the list, there are a few dream gigs the band hasn’t had quite yet. Mexico City and Barrowlands in Glasgow make it to the top of the wishlist. “I used to love the Glaswegian music scene,” Love reveals. “All of my favourite bands were from Glasgow at one point. Remember The Amazing Snakeheads? They only made the one album, but they were great”.
Whatever the venue, both reckon the band’s vibe has remained staunchly unchanged. It might be time to branch out into something less hectic, Love reckons: “We all realised, it’s kind of intense sometimes, and it would be good to play some songs that are just nice. There’s one at the end of the new album that’s called ‘Aliens’, and it’s just a nice change of pace. With live gigs especially, it’s all right when you’re playing the Windmill, and it’s half an hour, then it can just be all guns blazing. But when you’re starting to play for an hour and fifteen, and it’s been fucking 180 BPM for an hour, it’s nice to hear a ballad. The second album was a place we could explore doing different stuff, like writing ballads; which is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. With the second album, a lot of people just try and do exactly what they did in the first album, but for us, we were trying to see what else we could do”. Does the occasional lull in the chaos reflect a more serious outlook? “When it comes to making music, the serious part is making it sound good,” Hughes decides. “But then you can’t take yourself too seriously on stage, because you know what you’re playing. And you know the song has the strength to carry it through. So you can have your fun, as long as you don’t get in the way of that”.
“The second album was a place we could explore doing different stuff, like writing ballads; which is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time.” - Joe Love
“I heard it said, don’t take anything too seriously, but take music seriously,” Love adds. “We are actually the exact opposite”. Whether on the record or on future stages, then, it sounds like lovers of mayhem have nothing to fear: Fat Dog are in great form. And not getting cancelled quite yet.
Photography by: Emma Toma