Fat Dog share new song "I am the King"
The news of “Woof” is out! Fat Dog’s debut album will be unleashed on September 6th via Domino.
Ahead of that, the London band release new song, the expansive epic I am the King. “It was written in the toilets of the Wetherspoons pub in Forest Hill,” says frontman Joe Love, thereby ensuring the pub will one day get a blue plaque. “It was after I got broken up with.” With an orchestral opening, it sounds like a cross between Vangelis and Underworld, and is a poignant song, possibly the world’s only poignant song to namecheck The Karate Kid Part II.
Directed by Dylan Coates and Travis Barton, the video for I am the King opens on a scene of the band mourning and weeping at the side of Joe’s grave and progresses to the King himself parachuting from the sky out of a helicopter. Classic Fat Dog. The single is available to stream HERE.
You can watch the video for I am the King below:
Alongside the pep-talk-in-the-mirror of I am the King, Fat Dog have confirmed a string of instore shows in September to launch the album. Tickets on sale now from HERE.
Saturday 7th September – Rough Trade East, London
Sunday 8th September – Rough Trade, Bristol
Monday 9th September – Rough Trade, Nottingham
Tuesday 10th September – Rough Trade, Liverpool
When the chaotic south London rabble known as Fat Dog formed, they made two rules: they were going to be a healthy band who looked after themselves and there would be no saxophone presence in their music. Two simple edicts to live by, and two things long-since broken by the Brixton five-piece. “Yeah, it’s all gone out the window,” says Love.
Life is too short to stick to any plans you made in the unsettling, strait-jacketed times of 2021 anyway. That was when Fat Dog came together, Love deciding to form a group and take the demos he had been making at home as a way to keep himself sane during lockdown out into the world. In Chris Hughes (keyboards/synths), Ben Harris (bass), Johnny Hutchinson (drums) and Morgan Wallace (keyboards and, umm, saxophone), Love found like-minded mavericks to help bring the dream home. “A lot of music at the moment is very cerebral and people won’t dance to it,” says Hughes. “Our music is the polar opposite of thinking music.”
Hughes should know. He was a fan of the band, at that point making a name for themselves with a series of exhilarating and/or wonky shows across south London, before he was in the band. Those formative gigs formed the bedrock of what Fat Dog were all about, seizing the moment, drinking too much with the moment, going home separately from the moment but making up with the moment again the next day.
Check out the video for Running below:
It didn’t take long for the kennel-dwellers to come flocking, every Fat Dog show in London becoming a huge upgrade on the last. They sold out the Scala in October 2023 and, in April, played a triumphant set to a sold-out Electric Brixton. There is something deeper going on here than the usual punter-goes-to-gig situation. Everyone is in on it. “There’s a sense of community about Fat Dog,” says Hutchinson. And it’s not just the capital who have been bitten; recently, the band completed an ecstatically received tour of the US that included an all-conquering set at a taco joint. No lunches were harmed. Fresh off a UK tour last month, their next run here is in November including London’s O2 Forum Kentish Town as well as performances at Glastonbury, Truck and Latitude festivals. They will also return to North America in October.
The sound Fat Dog make, Love says, is screaming-into-a-pillow music. “I wanted to make something ridiculous because I was so bored,” he declares. It’s a thrilling blend of electro-punk, rock’n’roll snarling, techno soundscapes, industrial-pop and rave euphoria, music for letting go to. Produced by Joe Love, James Ford and Jimmy Robertson, WOOF. passes by in a flash. Influences include Bicep, I.R.O.K., Kamasi Washington and the Russian experimental EDM group Little Big.
The album is a visit into the mind of Joe Love - be thankful you have only been granted a temporary pass. “Music is so vanilla,” says Love. “I don’t like sanitised music. Even this album is sanitised compared to what’s in my head. I thought it would sound more fucked up.”
The video for King of the Slugs is available below:
“Woof” is available to pre-order on red vinyl, standard vinyl and CD from Domino records HERE. You can also order a digital copy HERE.
Upcoming live dates
26th - 30th June - Glastonbury Festival, Somerset
Saturday 7th September – Rough Trade East, London
Sunday 8th September – Rough Trade, Bristol
Monday 9th September – Rough Trade, Nottingham
Tuesday 10th September – Rough Trade, Liverpool
Saturday 14th September – Spring Attitude Festival, Rome
Sunday 15th September - Poplar Festival, Trento
Monday 16th September - ARCI Bellezza, Milan
Saturday 28th September - Float Along Festival, Sheffield
Thursday 7th November - The Grand Social, Dublin
Friday 8th November - Empire Music Hall, Belfast
Saturday 9th November – Stereo, Glasgow
Sunday 10th November - Brudenell Social Club, Leeds
Tuesday 12th November - Rescue Rooms, Nottingham
Wednesday 13th November - Band On The Wall, Manchester
Thursday 14th November - Crookes Social Club, Sheffield
Friday 15th November – Thekla, Bristol
Saturday 16th November - Mama Roux's, Birmingham
Sunday 17th November - Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff
Thursday 21st November – Papillon, Southampton
Friday 22nd November – Patterns, Brighton SOLD OUT
Saturday 23rd November - O2 Forum Kentish Town, London
