Can’t Wait for the Dog Days of Summer? Here are the Dog Days of Switzerland

In the grand tradition of Karma to Burn, QotSA, and taking the re-bar solidness of the Swiss rock/metal scene (think everything from Celtic Frost, Bloodstar and the Young Gods to Knut, Zatokrev and most of the Ocean) as irreverent artistic influence, comes instrumental/power/stoner trio, Dog Days. Their debut record, Heat is set for release in almost exactly a month’s time and we liked what we heard of the advance promos so much that we wanted to share some of the band’s energetic, sun-and-tumbleweed kissed rock with ye denizens of the Deciblog. But first, a little bit of an introduction to the band courtesy of bassist Marie Riley:

“Vincent [Yerly, guitar] and I met in 2014 when I was playing in a band called Jim The Barber. He was playing the guitar and we instantly matched and became more than friends, we are like siblings. At that point, I was playing the double bass but always had the intention to play the bass guitar in a band that would be a bit heavier than what I was used to do. Vincent had played the bass and the guitar in several bands for more than twenty years now and he really wanted to create his own project. So, I bought my first electric bass and he taught me for hours and hours. Then, when he decided I was ready, he built me a custom P-Bass. I love the sparkles so it is covered with blue ones, but most of all, that bass has the precise sound we were looking for.

“We found a drummer [Julien Vonlanthen] and started to work, create and write a kind of music that wasn’t concerned with singing. First, because we wanted to be a power trio as it is our favourite format, and also because we wanted our music to be as radical as it could be. When you play in an instrumental band, the difficulty is to catch the audience and make them forget the classic layout of a guy asking them how they’re doing tonight. The guitar has to lead the band but not in a classic way. And then the bass has to be heavy enough to make your stomach ache. We worked hard to create that sound and now we can admit that we are satisfied even if the pursuit of our ideal sound remains one of our main goal.

“When we got into the studio to record Heat, we needed a trustful person to be able to reproduce exactly what we had in mind. Sacha Ruffieux did the recording and the mixing and then we sent our songs to another friend in Tokyo and he did the mastering. Aobaprod Studio is our secret weapon. Jacques, the engineer, usually works with electronic music and we knew he would go beyond the rules. He actually doesn’t care about how a stoner instrumental album should sound like and we loved that. The result is exactly what we imagined and we are now very proud to present it. For the next few months, we would like to travel the world to prove the Swiss rock scene not only exists but is ready to kick your ass, too.”

And there you have it. And here you have a track from Heat called “Saluki.”

Website

Bandcamp

*photo credit: Christophe Dutoit