There’s no doubt about it. The last two years have belonged to Fat Dog. At least for those who love all things associated with the famous Windmill Scene. Unlike their predecessors on the throne of South London’s wunderkinds, they seem to be riding a wave of success and have yet to be cancelled (although the title of their new album suggests they might actually want to be).
We were supposed to talk about Cancel Me (I’m Tired) with the band’s frontman, mastermind and only member to have been there since the very beginning — Joe Love. Instead, we heard: “Joe’s not feeling well. He’s lost his voice. And I’m out shopping right now.” Those were the words of Chris Hughes, the band’s keyboardist and something of its unofficial mascot.
But he was more than happy to tell us about the exhausting life on the road, the new album, meeting Dave Grohl and receiving an invitation to Eurovision. Make sure you give it a read!
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To start with, I’d like to go back to your previous album [2024’s WOOF.] because I’m 35 and all this nu-rave scene and bands like Klaxons were huge part of my young adulthood. When I first heard you, I thought: “Wow, finally someone is going back to these times!” Were those bands a point of reference for you at any point?
I think definitely for Joe they were, because he grew up listening to a lot of that stuff. I think because his neighbour used to have loads of the records at that time. That’s especially for the first record. I think not so much the second though. I think the second record is more trying to do more of a kind of songwriter route rather than just beats, you know.
2 years have passed since then and in this time you’ve released your second album, as you said, and toured all over the world. You could get pretty tired, right?
Oh, believe me, mate, we’re knackered. Although I will say when we have time off, we make good use of it. It’s pretty gruelling on tour, but it is still the best job in the world. So you can’t really complain, you know? It’s like the kind of tiredness you get when you feel like you’ve done a good job or something like that.
Yeah, I imagine you have got plenty of crazy stories from those tours.
Oh brother, we have some crazy stories. Probably can’t share them.
Not any?
Um, I don’t know, I could definitely share some of them. Let me have a quick think. I don’t know, it’s more about crazy meals. Crazy meals on tour, just like way too much food. Like last night I had a boat of sushi. Never had one of those before. And it’s the feast or famine life where you’re like… Even off tour, you come off tour and you’re like: “Whoa, that was awesome.” And you have all this adrenaline, so you need a vessel for it. And for me, that’s food. So I go out and spend way too much money on food.
Yeah, I guess that’s how the tours work. You’ve gone from being a band playing clubs to like 70,000 capacity stadiums with Foo Fighters on tour in a very short space of time. Can you even prepare yourself for that kind of leap as a band?
You know what, you’d be surprised that we get more nervous for the smaller gigs because it feels more personal. When you’re playing a stage that big, it’s like the audience is so far away from you that they don’t even look like people anymore. They just look like a kind of like vague carpet of flesh, and so it’s hard to get nerves for it. It’s more like when you can see the whole front row and they’re all looking at you, you can see if they’re enjoying it, you get stressed out. So yeah, the preparation was more like: “Damn, we’re gonna meet Dave Grohl”, you know.
How was it?
It was cool, he’s a nice guy.
I saw you play at OFF Festival in Katowice and I find it a little hard to imagine – you playing on a super small stage. Like, you are definitely made for the bigger stages with your energy.
You know what, I think we’ve got a sweet spot, which is like maybe 600-cap venues. Because it’s big enough that we have a good sound system and like the crowd can really move. But it’s small enough that it doesn’t feel like you can’t get the vibe from the audience. I’m sorry, I sound like a massive wanker right now saying “vibe” like that, but it’s true. It’s like you want to be able to feel it a bit better, and that’s easier on smaller stages. And also, I mean, the main issue is that we’re like sometimes a 7-piece, and trying to fit that on a stage can be a ball ache.
Yeah, I was about to ask about that. How would you even define your band?
Stupid! (laughs)
Your lineup changes in terms of like who’s in it, but also in terms of number of people on stage.
I think, you know, they’re all important to the sound and sometimes we have the benefit of having all of us. But generally, you know, we were a 5-piece forever. In fact, the other day we were a 4-piece for the first time in ages and that was hilarious. It’s pretty good to be transient and being able to have auxiliary members who can come and go. And I know also a lot of us have other projects. So it needs to be flexible for everyone to be having a good time and not feeling like they’re doing just a job. So we’re pretty good at having like a mix of, you know, from 5 to 7 to 4.
And when you write songs, do you think about it?
Nah, I don’t think so. Especially in a studio, you have the option to have such thickness, because you have all these instruments around you. You kind of mess around with all of them, and then you have to figure out how to make that work live afterwards. I think just making a good song is the main consideration, then afterwards you figure out how to like get that going live.
How did that gruelling touring schedule influence the new album and your approach to songwriting? There are a few more quiet, few more serious moments on the new album.
I do think those songs for the first album were written about 5 years ago, and that 5 years is a fair bit of time for people to mature and go through enough experiences in life that changes them fundamentally. So I think that first album, I guess you could call it immature, it’s of its time. So I think more than just touring and stuff, it’s just we’ve all grown up a bit, a little bit. I mean, we’re still pretty stupid, but it’s like there’s more of a songwriting and lyrical element to this new album, which is nice.
Weren’t you worried about that dreaded second album syndrome?
I think we were given so little time to do the second album that you smash it out. Obviously, it’s like you do worry about it, but we came off an American tour, and they were like, we need this done in 4 months. And so you just get straight on it, and you don’t really have time to worry about what’s going on. You have to lock in and just get it done.
Was that deadline set by the label, or was it internal?
No, it’s from the label.
You produced that album with Oli Bayston, who comes from the world of more electronic music production. What do you consider essential in that kind of collaboration?
I think being able to not let the artist get too in their own head and perfectionist that the album doesn’t get made. Having like a good hand that can be firm enough to be like: “Oh, don’t… We can stop this bit here. You don’t need to keep worrying about the same 4 bars or we’ll never get this done.” I think Oli’s very good at that. And he also didn’t over-compress stuff, so he kept it sounding quite big and a lot more raw than the first album, I’d say.
I know you’re already thinking about the new album as well. The third one.
Yeah, man. In fact, we kind of want to get on that as quickly as possible. It’s more fun. We’ve already started playing songs that we haven’t got names for in our set, because it’s just fun to keep jamming stuff out. It keeps it fun when you’re on tour.
I remember you were playing some songs from this new album back then in Katowice.
Yeah, exactly.
Okay, I can’t let you go without asking about the offer you have received to represent the UK at Eurovision. What was that about?
They emailed us and they were like: “Look, this year we’re looking for something a little different.” And we found that really funny because it’s like: “Really? Like us?” But, I don’t know, it’s such a controversial thing these days because of the whole Israeli involvement and all that. But on the other hand, it would be hilarious just because of the strangeness that is Eurovision. But, you know, at the end of the day, you realise it’s definitely not the best move. But it is 100% true. They did ask us and we were going to write some crazy, like, pub opera. We originally were going to see if we could do it for Switzerland and we were going to ask for passports if we won, but that didn’t work out either.
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Photo by Emma Toma