WERS 88.9 fm - Artist Interview: Dr. Dog

March 17^th, 2010

"To me there's no reason to be a live band if you're just going to sound like your record," exclaimed Dr. Dog vocalist, Toby Leaman.

From a label switch, to a line up change, a new drummer and personal growth as a band, Leaman spoke to WERS.org and reported some great news in promotion of their newest album, Shame, Shame. That's a whole lot of change for the Philly-bred quintet and Leaman told all during a twenty minute interview.

Calm and collected, Leaman discussed the band's hopes of their upcoming release. "In general, I don't really have expectations. I mean, I hope people appreciate it—we spent a lot of time on the album. I don't really have expectations. Ideally, it'll be better than the other records."

Many alterations have surrounded Dr. Dog for the past few years and Leaman was excited about all of them. No one change was more significant than another—each had its own heavy impact on Dr. Dog's sound. Regarding Dr. Dog's 2009 label change, Leaman remarked that the switch "definitely [helped the] new album." He went on to say that their former label, Park the Van, only had about three employees and the new label, ANTI Records, has about thirty to forty. An enthusiastic Leaman stated, "ANTI is great—you can just look at their roster and you know that they're really good."

Dr. Dog will start their official tour in April, but went through a test run of sorts last month. The practice was pretty well received after the band started working out the kinks. Flukes are inevitable and it's great that they've already managed to flush them out—for the most part. As with most bands, full-on perfection is never truly achieved, but that's the beauty of the tunes—live and recorded.

Leaman mentioned that last month they were only playing "five or six songs and [they were] still kind of sketchy." He went on to state that Dr. Dog is, "still trying to figure out the right way to pull [their songs] off live," but that, "the crowd seems to really like it."

Line up changes can be difficult, and more often than not, change takes place because of creative differences, a drug addict in the band and so on. However, Leaman delved out quite a bit of information on their four former members. "What eventually happened was [the former members] realized that they didn't want to be in a touring band as we took on more responsibilities." Leaman went on to say that they remain friends to this day. "It wasn't like 'you're out of the band because you're an idiot' or anything. It was more like [former members stating] 'I've gotta quit the band because it's driving me insane!'" Through laughter, Leaman confessed, "It's not for everybody."

Naturally a line up change will affect any bands sound. Dr. Dog very recently brought a new drummer on board and Leaman was nothing short of pleased by this. He admitted that the new line up definitely changed the band's sound—and for the better. Leaman remarked, "We just got a new drummer who drastically changed us. He started making our sound super tight and it's great!" When talking about change, Leaman is all about it exclaiming, "That kind of stuff is fun!"

Dr. Dog's U.S. tour will kick off this April and they'll be spending some time overseas. Now that the quintet has made a name for themselves in the states, the logical next step is to go international. When asked about his expectations for the overseas portion of the tour, Leaman seemed very lax and comical. The band has been to Europe twice before and Leaman admitted they had little success. Although most acts would set career goals, all Leaman hoped for was nice weather. "We've [always] been to Europe during wintertime when it's disgusting and raining. So, I'd like to go over and have a positive weather experience." Leaman also remarked that Dr. Dog doesn't pour as much into the international dates as they do the national tours.

Aside from closed venues, Dr. Dog will be playing the Bonnaroo Music Festival—a gig they've played twice before— among many others. Avid concert goers know that there's a remarkable divide between festivals and club shows. Leaman's well aware of this exclaiming that the two are, "drastically different. They're barely even the same thing." However, he does enjoy playing festivals because of their hectic and chaotic side—people running around, no time for sound checks, and equipment being swapped out in minutes. "The cool thing about playing festivals is that flow-and-go attitude. It makes you antsy and nervous," Leaman said, going on to exclaim, "It makes you want to get up there and just play as hard as you can for the short amount of time that you have." At the end of the day, Leaman does not prefer one over the other: "You're playing music at both of them but the experience is totally different."

WERS will be welcoming Dr. Dog to Boston's Paradise Rock Club on May 11^th and 12^th. When asked to describe a typical Dr. Dog concert to someone who's never been, Leaman answered, "All of the subtle nuances that are on the record are completely changed when we play live. It's a totally different animal." When asked about acts whose performances sounded like replicas of the studio cuts, Leaman humorously closed the interview with this statement: "You might as well just send your record to the venue and have 'em turn it up real loud."

Leaman made it very clear that Dr. Dog's upcoming release, Shame, Shame, will differ greatly from previous studio efforts and he would like music lovers to know that they'll get the bang for their buck when seeing Dr. Dog perform live.

-Words by Jacquelin Voegtlin and images by Jason Nocito