With their debut album, WOOF out today, the mercurial South London band are well and truly on the rise.
It’s 9am in London and Fat Dog keyboardist Chris Hughes has still not been home. Chatting to me from a park he doesn’t know the name of in Bethnal Green, it’s clearly been a long, long night.
“I went to the pub and gate crashed some party, then ended up at some random’s house. You know how it is in London,” Hughes admits.
Keep up with the latest music news, features, festivals, interviews and reviews here.
“This is the second time I’ve been interviewed by someone in this state. The first time I was in a telephone box that stank of piss and I threw up, so this is much, much better.”
It all sounds very rock ‘n’ roll, but alas, this is something Hughes is going to have to get used to. His band, Fat Dog are well and truly on the rise.
Fat Dog, the lovechild of vocalist and guitarist, Joe Love (mind the pun) began in 2020 during lockdown. Bored and bursting with creativity, Love began creating his own unusual solo music and eventually doing some gigs.
“Joe [Love] was like William Shatner singing along to his own little tracks, but instead of singing he was like speaking,” Hughes says of Fat Dog’s early iterations. Eventually after seeing a few of these gigs, he wanted to get involved.
“I only actually auditioned because I was going through a bad break-up. I asked the synth player if they had any spaces, and they told me they needed a viola player. They were like ‘Can you play?’ and I was like ‘Oh yeah, I can play’ which was a complete fucking lie.
“So that night I bought a viola on eBay and tried to learn it in a week. Then I auditioned and Joe [Love] couldn’t even look at me in the eyes. But the other synth player was leaving so he was like ‘Can you play keys?’. Then I got in.”
The band now consists of Love, Hughes, Johnny ‘Doghhead’ Hutchinson, Morgan Wallace and Jacqui Wheeler. Eventually signing with Domino Recording Company, the home of the Arctic Monkeys, Wet Leg and Four Tet, the band knew they were in safe hands.
“They [Domino] came down to a lot of gigs. They sort of seduced us because they were like ‘We have a studio in Brixton and if you ever want to come down and make some tunes, do’. So, we did.”
While the label, for the most part, has let the band do their own thing, they did make a few small initial changes.
“Some of the early lyrics were so gross,” Hughes admits. “So, they were like, ‘Maybe you don’t want to keep that’. One of the lyrics that was eventually thrown out was ‘You’re so dumb, I should have cum on your mum’s bum’. I think the label made a good call there.”
The band also got to keep the odd name, which Love created on a whim after realising before a show that they didn’t have name.
Eventually, after playing around the London gig circuit, the band eventually began to gather a following. “We built an audience off live shows which is not something you see that much anymore.” This route, Hughes believes, creates a much stronger foundation than bands “getting famous off a seven-second clip of their songs on TikTok.”
“We’re so shit at social media anyway. Joe and I wanted to develop our TikTok presence the other day. But I don’t understand how that fucking app works. I had to uninstall it because it was too overwhelming.”
While the band might not be the best on social media, there appears to be no real need. After spending their summer tearing up the festival circuit including performances at Latitude, Glastonbury and Pukklepop, the band have made quite the name for themselves.
It’s all come at a perfect time too, in the lead-up to the release of their debut album, WOOF. After they started recording in February 2023, the band went on quite the nine-month journey to get WOOF finished.
“Joe spent a lot of time on King of the Slugs. He really wanted to put our best foot forward on that one. But the hardest one was Closer to God. You think you’re really cool making a song in an odd time signature and then you realise how fucking annoying it is to record it in a studio.”
Hughes calls Love a ‘benevolent dictator’ when it comes to the recording process. “Which is no bad thing if you ask me. He keeps it efficient. I also don’t like having to think. It’s a really solid album.”
Unlike most artists who would be tearing their hair out before releasing their debut album, Hughes could not be more chilled. “I’ve been getting way too hungover to have emotions about this album anymore. This is my tactic to deal with the stress.”
But Hughes better pace himself, as the next few months are set to be hectic. “We’ve got a million gigs. More festivals in Europe, a UK tour, an EU tour, a North American tour, then Hong Kong and Japan. Then hopefully, one day, Australia – in the near future,” Hughes contends.
With that, it’s time to let Hughes go home and get some sleep. It sounds like he and the rest of the band will be needing it.
WOOF is out now on all platforms. Keep up with the Fat Dog here.
