Dogstand Press

Text Box: “We had hoped to be in this position a few years ago when we recruited a Euro friendly line up for Dogstand” Carli explains. The band had comprised of Graeme, Stuart and Ms Dogstand herself, as well as Iberian Bassist Dani Brito from Madrid and German axe queen Irene Schrunner. “Though it was a great combination of personnel and a talented unit, personal reasons led both Dani and Irene to return to their respective countries,” It did however, as Carli explains, serve to offer another opportunity to develop new material and provide an outlet for Dogstand’s songs on both sides of the channel. “Irene’s departure forced me to take a greater role in the band. We remained great friends, and through visits to Irene in Germany we got to know and love her partner Marcus Theinert, who is the most gifted musician either Graeme or I have ever met. He helped to breath new life into several of our songs which we recorded in his studio, and felt comfortable enough to allow ideas we had to take on a life of their own as Irene and Marcus set to work recording our songs at their leisure. It felt like dropping off the kids for their fist day at school and picking them up when they’d graduated from university.” “Yes”, Graeme adds ”The whole process of letting go and trusting other musicians with my songs allowed me to give Carli a freer role to develop her sax skills within the band and experiment with other instrumentation. At the same time as this Stuart was becoming ever more enthusiastic about getting a fully functional band back on the road, and managed to persuade bassist Jon Patch and lead guitarist Paul Langford to try out for the band. Both of them slipped into it with no problems and have bought a wealth of experience to the group.” It’s early days yet, but this group is capable of making some damn fine music which will win a lot of praise, and over in Germany, the Dogstand songs Irene and Marcus are working on start to show a lot of commercial potential. In plain and simple Borg-speak……………………... Prepare to be assimilated...resistance is futile!”

Dogstand Wrap blue

Text Box: Carli Dogstand. Top dog, prize bitch or just barking mad?

alton towers carli

Planet Dogstand

Text Box: ‘A blend of the erotic and the neurotic’ was the curt description given to me by a colleague here at MMR with reference to London songsters Dogstand. I caught up with them many miles from home on the recommendation of said colleague who knows my taste for suburban angst all too well. They’d been spotted as an acoustic duo performing their chunky melodies anywhere they would be listened to, and had in their own way built up quite a reputation for creating thoughtful pop tunes for the Prozac generation. Now tired of the open mic phenomenon that has swept the pubs of this land, they have devoted much time and effort to going electric with a full band behind them. With the full line up now almost complete, and a speedily recorded demo duly dispatched to our office, I set off to find out more. Main tunesmith Graeme Martin’s face lights up when I tell him that I had decided to check Dogstand out when I read in his bio, accompanying the demo that he is in fact a refugee from pre Brit-poppers BUM! ”Happy days” he interjects “I don’t think we realised what a good little band we had then. We were definitely too late to ride the Baggy groovy train, but a bit premature for the Britpop party…. consequently we failed to be pigeonholed at all. Sadly we parted company just as we were gathering momentum and our EP started getting decent radio airplay.” I think the band had just had enough rejection for being so different at the time……..if only we’d given it a bit longer!” The good news, for those of us lucky enough to have caught them all those years ago, is that the new Dogstand line-up includes original BUM! drummer Stuart Soulsby as well as a set that includes two of their early songs. Carli Dogstand, the other half of the duo, adds that Dogstand has something for the old faithful but with a new attitude: “It’s like punk rock that’s gone a bit pre menstrual” she jokes. “The music can be a bit ferocious but more than a little fragile too! Graeme has a talent for writing cynical, angry, sad tunes with pathos and humour that are dressed in appealing melodies, so I’ve got a lot of scope to interpret the songs in a number of ways…..although the bastard doesn’t always let me sing the best songs. He tends to nab them for himself!!” “So it’s an autocratic set up” I joke. “Hell yes!” Graeme responds “No level of real democracy ever works in rock’n’roll….sad but true I believe. I’m not very assertive in many areas of life but when I’ve got a strong view on my music I try not to be afraid to make it known. I’m not 100% comfortable with it though, I just want people to like me really. I’d much rather we could totally read each others minds and work unquestioningly for a single cause like we were a musical Borg collective or something” “As long as I can be Seven Of Nine,” buzzes Carli, inadvertently sparking a discussion on how they’d both fantasised about Star Trek Voyager’s implanted one at some time or other.

Abridged version reproduced by kind permission of Monkey Music Review – Jan 2005