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DogHouse Swine
Interview by Tom Mathers
Rocknation: Hello DogHouse Swine and welcome to Rocknation. Your band has a
5 track EP called “Dogs Of War”. Please tell us about the writing and recording
process.
DogHouse Swine: Well, Dogs Of War represents a more aggressive sound than the
first CD we recorded ‘Faster Side Of Normal’. It is also our first recording as a four
piece band, with the addition of Iron Rich (bass). Digital versions of the CD through
itunes, amazon and google contain 4 bonus live tracks from selections off our first
CD. Track number one, ‘I’m suffocated’ was written in ten minutes. I (Ian - lead singer/
guitar) had a guitar riff and not much elese. I had to bring one more new song to
the table, to the rehersal that day, so we could start recording the following week,
I worked it out, and left for rehersal, we put it together and the rest is history. It is
the best song on the CD. With that song it just kinda happened, sometimes things
work out for the best when you least expect it to. ‘Hard Luck Education’ was written a long time ago by me and my friend Jim Foster from Electric Frankenstein fame,
but nothing ever came of it. We recorded a few songs, but never released them, so
they sat collecting dust. I called Jim up one day, and told him I wanted to use it in my
new band. He was cool with it, he even forgot about the songs we recorded, I had
to remind him. We were both laughing about it. ‘OpenWide’ was a departue from my
usuall writing style of riff based hard rock/punk. I wanted to try something different
with drop tune guitars and a more modern composition. I think it will appeal to people
that like heavier bands. It’s good angry mosh pit music. ‘Nonstop To Nowhere’ was
a song that I originally wrote acoustically, it was slower and a bit more meloncholly.
So I decided to give it some energy and a punk attitude. ‘Goin Down The Bar’ was
written by B.T. (guitar). It’s a punk rock classic. He was the guitar player for the east
coast punk band The Wretched Ones. Everybody likes to sing along to that one, it’s a
good set closer. We used a new studio in Sparta New Jersey. B.T. knew the engineer
and owner Kevin Lacatina. We spoke about the sound I was looking for, and he knew
exactly what I wanted. Kevin is a really funny guy, great personality and very easy to
work with. It just makes a huge difference in the studio when the engineer/producer
are in sync and on the same page with the band they are working with. The inital
tracking was done over the course of about five days,and about a week to a week
and a half to mix and tweak the sound before it went to mastering. Max Castlenova at
Clearcut Studio did the mastering for us, the man has ears of gold. We are just about
in pre-productiom of a new CD , and we will be using both Kevin and Max again, without question.
Rocknation: You live in NJ/NY area. What is the music scene like there?
DogHouse Swine: That’s a loaded question...lol. It depends what scene your into.
There is a LOT of Indie Rock, experimental bands, rappers, and NY and Brooklyn are
crawling with Hipsters. There is some metal, some rock, some punk, and its all good
but there is not enough of it in this area. The scene in this area used to be good, but
a lot of rock clubs closed. For example CBGB’s, for which I am proud to say I have
played on a number of occasions. I am still to this day, always amazed whenever I go
down Bowery and it’s not there, its just an office building now. Unfortunately there
were no other clubs that came up to take the place of the ones that are now gone.
There are very few bands like us here doing just straight up, no nosense hard rock/
punk. It kind of feels like we cornered the market on a certain sound in this area. The
people that see us play, like it. What more can you ask for. This area is more like a
strange bubble, rather than a scene.
ROCKNATION ISSUE 21
Rocknation: Your band has toured in the Midwest U.S. with stops in Ohio, Indiana, and
Illinois, as well as NY/NJ/PA/CT area. Any funny stories or encounters you had while
on tour you can tell us about?
DogHouse Swine: Well, what tour doesn’t have its share of stories or mishaps. Like
for the first night on tour for example, we were in Ohio, and right into the first song,
Bang!! We blew the fuses in the place, and there were two other bands on before us
and they were fine. A good ten minutes later we continued, and into the second song
my guitar was dropping out of tune....badly, and that never happens. So I changed
guitars, and that fixed the problem. We continued with the set and finished. It may
not seem so funny to the reader, but for me looking back on that first night, I have to
laugh about it because was it was like a bunch of bad omens happening all at once.
It was like the rock gods were going ( Insert gandalf voice here) “You will not tour!”
We did one other show in Ohio as well, great show, a real dive but with a great vibe.
It screamed rock n’roll. Bodies flying, beer flowing, no blown fuses, good time was
had by all. I found out about a month and a half later, that the place burned down to
the ground. Thankfully nobody was hurt, but the show we did was one of the last rock
shows in the place. It brings new meaning to the term bringing (burning) down the
house. The rest of the tour went great, good times in Indianapolis and Chicago as well.
For the tour we had a fill in guitar player, because B.T. could not make it for personal
reasons. So we got our friend Jeff to fill in, we taught him all the songs and he did the
job well. In the mornings before we drove to our next destination, we would go have
breakfast usually in a diner. The one thing about Jeff, is that he is a mythodically slow
eater, and Rich w