Metal go getters DOG TIRED have been hard at work upon their fourth full-length album titled "The Electric Abyss", set for release this fall! Set to follow this album release will launch an array of tour dates and other showcases to get the word out and about as much as possible! The band goes on further more to say lots about themselves and the future set-up for them.
1. Please tell us about the history of your band and its members.
Dog Tired are an Edinburgh based metal band, which started in late 2004 from a mutual unhealthy obsession with riffs. Luke (Guitar), Chris (vocals) and Keith (Drums) have been in the band since the very beginning, and Barry (Bass) joined not long after. The current lineup has been going strong since the release of the first EP, and this constant has allowed us to hone our sound and performance. We’ve gone from playing in a garage in Penicuik in the early days to playing some amazing gigs, such as Bloodstock, Thrashersaurus and Nottingham Rock City. We’ve also managed to get further afield recently, playing shows in Ireland and the Netherlands. We pride ourselves on bringing a show that is relentless, heavy and crammed with energy, and this is what people have come to expect from us!
2. What’s the origin of the band’s name?
The band name was thought up by our drummer’s brother, when he used to be a second guitarist around the time of the initial EP. I’m not sure why he came up with Dog Tired, a lot of people assume it was due to the Down song, although he has always said it wasn’t taken from that. Either way, the name stuck. Initially this suited the band as we had more of a Southern (Down-esque) sound to us. As our band grew gradually heavier, faster and more intense, the name became separated from the connotations and became our own. As Dog Tired is not a name you would expect from a band as heavy as we have become, it does a good job of standing out!
3. Where is the band based out of and what is your music scene like there? Are there any local bands you could recommend?
We all live in Penicuik, a town just outside of Edinburgh, so we have played quite a lot of gigs around the Edinburgh area. There’s a few great venues in Edinburgh, mainly La Belle Angele for the bigger gigs, The Banshee Labyrinth for the smaller gigs and Bannermans/Opium for those inbetween. There are loads of amazing metal bands from the Edinburgh area (a surprising amount of which have members from Penicuik!). We’d highly recommend you listen to King Witch, Iron Altar, Sapien, Tommy Concrete and the Werewolves, Lucifer’s Corpus, Disposable, Perpetua, Solar Sons, Razor Sharp Death Blizzard, Scumpulse, Somaesthesia, Anaxor, Hammer, God Damn Brewery, Juniper Grave, Black Talon, Kingpin, Runemaster, Burning The Dream, Firebrand Super Rock, Certain Death, Ifreann, Centrilia, Bacchus Baracus, Catalysis, Robot Death Monkey, Dolour, Cultmaster and many, many more! The Scottish scene is currently rammed with talent and loads of the bands are putting on performances well worthy of main stage festival slots!
4. How would you describe your style?
Riff laden cosmic beef. It’s hard to pick a genre with there being so many sub-genres nowadays, but riff laden cosmic beef about covers it. We’ve merged our favorite parts from many different influences to create a unique style that is both heavy and memorable. There’s hints of Gojira, Strapping Young Lad, Metallica, Pantera, Sepultura, Testament etc, as these are the bands we grew up listening to. We definitely have a distinct Dog Tired sound, which comes through whether we’re playing a three minute thrash tune or a seven minute open instrumental epic.
5. What have you released so far and what can someone expect from your works?
To date we’ve had three full albums and the initial EP.
Dead Head Rebel came out in 2010, and it’s quite rare now. We recorded it in Studio 24 in Edinburgh, which was a great venue that unfortunately closed down not too long ago. This album was recorded with Matt Justice, who is currently the touring guitarist for the Exploited.
This was then followed up by 2013’s Titan. This album felt like we were starting to find our sound. It’s definitely centered around the chunk, with songs like Iron Sky and Mad Jack providing slabs of power and songs like Cronos giving the album the epic feel we hadn’t quite reached with Dead Head Rebel. It was while touring this album that we got onto Bloodstock festival in 2014. We have several music videos from Titan that are on YouTube. The video for the first full track on the album, “God Disease”, is probably a good example of what to expect from Titan. The cover for this album was done by the legendary Christian Sloan Hall, who has done artwork for loads of bands, including Amon Amarth and Testament.
We then released “It Came From The Sun” in 2016. We recorded this in Chamber Studio in Edinburgh and it was mastered by Adam Douche of West West Side studio in New York. This album has been a commercial success and helped us to reach mainland Europe and Ireland, as well as all over the UK. This also gained us a supporting tour with Evil Scarecrow, as well as support slots with the likes of Raging Speedhorn, Gama Bomb and Black Bomb A. This album has a faster pace than Titan overall, but also has a foreboding, ominous feel to it. There’s a lyric video on YouTube for the song Outpost 31, an homage to John Carpenter’s “the Thing”, which was done by Andy Pilkington of Very Metal Art.
6. Do you have any new music in the works?
We have just recorded our 4th full length album, entitled "The Electric Abyss". This will be released on 07 September 2019, and will be accompanied by a launch show in Edinburgh. This is definitely our most dynamic, intricate and ferocious album to date. With eight tracks of unapologetic, monstrous metal and an atmospheric and haunting interlude, this is definitely going to be our best offering to date. We are really proud of the album and feel we have finally got the sound and production we have been striving for on this one. We’ve released details of the launch already, and will shortly be releasing a video for the first single.
7. How about playing shows and touring, have anything planned out?
The launch is going to be at La Belle Angele on 07 September 2019, and we’re going to be joined by some awesome bands for it! King Witch, Disposable, Perpetua, Lethal Injury and Solar Sons are all on board, so expect it to be a messy, heavy night! We’ll be announcing a tour this week, including dates in England, Ireland and some overseas. For the time being, we have Rabidfest in Oxford on 18 August 2019, Hordes X in Dundee on 28 September 2019, Rock The Foundry in Newcastle on 6 October 2019 and Unearthed in Birmingham on 19 October 2019.
8. What plans do you have for the future as a band?
Once The Electric Abyss is released, we’ll be touring it as extensively as possible! We’ll be trying to get shows in new places to promote the album far and wide. We just want to play as many different places as possible, and hopefully arrange a few festival slots for next year.
9. Where can we listen to your band and where can we buy your stuff?
Both Titan and It Came From the Sun are available on Spotify and Amazon music. Dead Head Rebel is very rare now, so if you don’t have a copy it’ll be hard for you to get one! We have loads of videos on YouTube, and will be adding a single from the new album soon. The Electric Abyss will be available on Spotify, however, to get it on release date you’ll have to buy a copy on our big cartel page (once pre-orders are available) or at the gig! Our Big Cartel merch store, as well as our videos, are available on www.dogtiredmetal.com.
10. What is it you’d like a listener to remember the most when hearing your music for the first time?
At least one of the extremely fat riffs that are on offer.
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