Over a month ago, WTBU’s own Who Knows, Who Cares had the opportunity to interview Dr. Dog while they were in town for their 2 sold-out shows at Paradise Rock Club. It was our first interview with a band EVER so we were unsure to expect. But once we sat down with Toby Leaman and Eric Slick and they answered our questions and entertained us with tour stories, our jitters vanished. Even Eric said we were doing pretty good!
Who Knows, Who Cares: I have a question about touring. It seems like while touring you get pretty disconnected from the real world and the tour bus probably becomes your world. So you guys are pretty unaware sometimes of all the new music and stuff life that.
Toby Leaman: Definitely. That definitely happens. I mean there’s a certain amount of disconnect with things that are going on. You’re pretty insulated. We’re just kind of doing our thing.
Do you think this helps you make music that sounds unlike other things out there?
TL: No, I wouldn’t say it adds anything to it. I mean it’s just something that happens. We’re just stuck on the bus. But no, I wouldn’t say that it adds or detracts from our music at all. It doesn’t have a bearing on it at all.
You’ve been touring with this album [Shame, Shame] for nearly a year now. Is there any moment where you just get tired of this material?
TL: For sure, yeah. Oh yeah, absolutely. I mean that;s the whole struggle of playing live: to keep it interesting for yourself. I feel like we do a pretty good job with it. There seems like there’s always some element in a set that you can sorta grab onto, something that sounds fresh to you or maybe it’s a new song or maybe it’s just a different way that the high hat is gonna hit or something like that. There’s always some kind of little minutiae that you can latch onto that’s a change from what you’ve been hearing night after night. But yeah, there’s definitely a struggle sometimes playing the same material. BUT it makes the new stuff that much sweeter when you finally get to it.
Speaking of new stuff… have you guys started writing anything, recording anything?
TL: Yeah we started, a lot of it’s probably already written. We’ve recorded 4 songs so far and they’re great. I love them all. I think it’s the best stuff we’ve ever done. It’s cool, too. It’s the 1st album we’ve done with Eric and Dmitry. The way we’re working in the studio right now is better than we’ve ever worked before as a unit. It used to be 2 or 3 people in the studio at a time, always doing a bunch of overdubs. Now we’re all in there together all the time. But it’s focused. It’s not just kinda bedlam in there, it’s pretty focused. I think it’s great.
When it comes to getting stuff together for the new album, do you usually write the lyrics first or does the music come first? Does one sorta inspire the other?
TL: It goes from song to song, varies song to song. Sometimes you’re doing both at the same time. A lot of times if you’re doing that, if you’re writing songs, if you’re writing the whole song at once, you usually still have to go back and go through the lyrics again and rehash them and go through the structure and everything. I think for Scott, he’s been just looking—I’ve been going over songs with him just a little bit ago—I think he’s just been writing words and then just putting chords and melodies behind them. I think for me lately, well it changes, but I think for me I’ve just been writing melodies and figuring out words after that. Have to figure out what that melody makes you feel.
How do you guys decide on who’s going to take lead vocals or a particular track? Is it more about “Oh this feels better with my vocals?” or “This sounds better with Scott’s vocals?”
TL: No, its really just who wrote it, who wrote the bulk of the song.
What is one artist or band that fans of Dr. Dog would be surprised to learn that you’re a fan of?
TL: Hmm, I dunno.
No one? Guilty pleasures?
TL: I mean I have a lot of guilty pleasures but I feel like our band is kinda strange enough where it doesn’t seem like anything’s out of the question. There’s a lot of bands. (Pause) I just don’t know what people would think a band that Dr. Dog doesn’t like would be.
Eric Slick: We all like Beyonce to an extent, I think.
Everyone kinda likes Beyonce.
TL: Cause she’s a good song-writer. She’s great. I mean there’s the Misfits but it doesn’t seem weird that we like a lot of punk either. We all like a lot of punk. We all like a lot of old-timey jazz. I’m trying to think if there’s anything shocking that…
ES: There’s absolutely nothing that… I don’t think there’s anything shocking about…
TL: Pretty much any band you name, there’s probably some redeemable thing that you can sorta think about with that band.
Background: What about Scatman?
TL: Scatman Crothers? That guy is great. That guy overcame his stuttering, became a scat sensation, platinum-record (sings a little bit) That guy’s awesome. He’s a hero. He really is.
Do you ever have any really strange fan encounters?
TL: Oh yeah, all the time.
What’s the strangest one to date? Or on this tour?
TL: Oh, man. I don’t really want to throw anybody under the bus. You get people who are just sort of relentless. I think they forget you were up there doing your thing and ostensibly working. Then people come and punish you, just yammer at you and expect all this other stuff out of you and you’re just, “Look man, I pretty much gave you the best I got. This interaction between us is gonna be sub-par”.
Do you get a lot of hecklers and stuff like that?
TL: Sometimes we’ll get hecklers. There’s actually one show we did in Lake Tahoe where we were sort of, kind of laying back and it’s not something we normally do but I dunno, somebody was sick or something…
ES: And you…
TL: I was sick! I had thrown up right before on stage.
ES: On stage! And the look on your face for like the first 3 songs was totally just in complete shock that you had just thrown up. And so we were trying to lay back just for your sake. And plus it was kind of a light night for us cos it was in Tahoe.
TL: That and it was a Wednesday. There was someone in the crowd who was like, “C’mon you fuckers, give it to us!” And it was like, “Oh man, this guy is totally getting that we’re kinda sandbagging it here.” And we did.
ES: But then I think the set got incrementally better cos this guy was like, “I know you’re playing San Francisco tomorrow. You’re not gonna give them this show!” It was really funny.
TL: Then he ended up being really into it.
ES: At the end of the show he came up to me and he was so nice. He was like, “I know I was just heckling you but I’m a really big fan of the band.”
He was just demanding his money’s worth.
TL: Yeah! I’m all for it. I got no problems with that. He wasn’t saying we were shitty, he was just saying that we weren’t giving it our all which we weren’t.
You guys have always had a dedicated group of fans even here. I know you guys played in Boston for a really long time. Your latest album has sorta been your biggest in terms of a hit, got really rave reviews, and sometimes it’s almost like it becomes easier. Like with a lot of bands when that happens they don’t really have to work for it anymore but you guys are so not like that. But are you in some ways afraid of the success you’ve been having. Are you paranoid that you’ll turn into one of those types of bands?
TL: No, because I feel like it’s been a slow-burn for so long. Every step we’ve ever taken has been pretty incremental. We’ve never had a real big jump. I’m not in any real fear of becoming a band that people like one minute and dislike the next minute because we’ve been around for so much longer than a minute.
ES: Everyone’s been really dedicated to the shows. I mean people have been coming to Dr. Dog shows, most of them have been coming since 2005 or earlier.
TL: I don’t know about that. There are a lot of kids at our shows these days.
I have this one friend who’s seen you probably 5 times in the last year.
TL: Wow.
ES: I just feel like I talk to a lot of people who are like , “I saw you guys back in ’03.” We definitely have a lot of standbys but yeah they’re really loyal. The fans are super, super, super loyal. I mean I’m new to the band but like just from talking to people, they’ll listen to anything we put out basically which is really cool. They listen to it and they listen with a critical ear. They’re really respectful. It’s awesome.
Is there really any set play list? Do you guys deviate from night to night or is it the same thing basically?
TL: I mean tonight it will be different because we’re doing 2 nights in town but I’d say for the most part, we play about 20-25 songs in a night and I’d say, usually about 15 of those are the same ones. But I mean we’re touring a record so that’s what we do. And those are the ones we’re best at and the ones we like to play. We don’t really play songs we don’t want to play.
What’s your favorite song to play?
TL: Right now?
Yeah… or in all?
TL: It changes all the time. I dunno what my favorite song… uh… That’s a good question, I’m trying to go them in my head…Maybe “Mirror, Mirror”.
ES: I like playing “Mirror”. I like playing “Shame, Shame”. I like “Blue” a lot.
TL: Oh that was the other one I was thinking of, too.
ES: I like playing “someday”. I like playing “Old Days” because at the end, lately it’s been really fun to play the ending of that song.
TL: Yeah the ending is really good. And the beginning has gotten really right, too. What ever was wrong with it was right-ed.
ES: I don’t even want to think about it. “Ark” has been really awesome lately. But “ark” is one of those songs that we sometimes have to cut out of the set-list because if it’s not vibin’ right.
TL: Yeah that song, a lot of songs are a good vacation from a tour or something.
ES: And then when we come back to them we can really embrace ‘em and maybe look at them with a new approach it’s cool.
Are there any covers in your sets?
TL: We’ve been doing the “Heart It Races” song so we’ll probably do that. Crowd favorite.
Interview ends here when we hear knocking on the door. It’s Scott McMicken’s family! Totally understanding of the situation, we tell Toby and Eric thanks before excusing ourselves so they can enjoy some family time before the show.