Interview: A Giant Dog talks SXSW, day jobs, & signing to Merge Records

By: Josh Terzino –

A Giant Dog.

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ustin, Texas-based band A Giant Dog’s sound encompasses an indie rock explosiveness (who’s live shows have been described as “watching Jerry Springer and then the TV explodes and suddenly the paragons of dysfunction in America are breaking apart your living room, pissing on your furniture, and making you the ham in a white trash sandwich”), along with influences ranging from The Coasters, The Stooges, and The Velvet Underground. We sat down with them at Fun Fun Fun Fest to discuss SXSW 2016, signing to Merge Records, day jobs, their upcoming third album (out in early 2016), and more!

Kurt Vonnegut has been a major influence on your band. He famously said that “music is proof of the existence of God.”That it is extraordinarily full of magic. What about music is magic to you?

Sabrina: Graham, you’ve got soul!

Graham: Man, it’s just really…When we’re playing and it feels really right. I don’t know what else to say about it.

Sabrina: When you get into the zone with your bandmates.

Graham: You can just feel it. Everybody has kind of the same attitude about things at the same time.

Sabrina: One of our dancers, Sam, mentioned that a lot of times she feels a lot of rage coming off the stage when we play. It’s not like we’re mad at each other, just everyone is angry inside and sometimes you get to play and go balls to the wall and let it out.

Graham: It feels good to let it out.

You’re known as being one of the best live bands in Austin. How do you capture that energy in the album-making process?

Sabrina: It was really easy with Mike McCarthy. We’ve had a long relationship with him and he really wanted to preserve our raw sound. He was adamant about it. And he’s a great engineer, all about capturing that huge, almost overwhelming live sound. He used a lot of old mics that made me sound really big, and present. So, it was not a challenge at all to carry that over into the studio.

Andy: We always record live, or in a live setup. I think that really helps us challenge that raw energy. The studio gives us a lot of creative freedom, though. And Sabrina and Andrew both take advantage of that.

Is Mike a pretty hands-on producer?

Andy: He’s a pretty hands-off producer. He’s pretty up front about how he just wants to capture the sound in the right way and get it through good analog gear. I don’t know what do you think?

Sabrina: I totally agree. And in the mixing process, everyone who talks to me about Mike wants to talk about how he maxes everything out. He really made a special style out of being as vibrant and big as possible. Almost to an uncomfortable level.

Did he ever have to tell you to back off a little?

Sabrina: He didn’t, but Britt [Daniel] [of Spoon] thought that the intro on our new album was gonna be too much. Too over the top. Unfortunately you won’t be able to hear that until May, but the intro is this kind of dark, dirge and it involves Graham on cello and a couple opera singers we brought in.

Graham: A violin player. Two violin players actually. A lot of what added to that was our friend Amanda who’s really good at singing in that operatic style and she was able to layer a bunch of things over it. It sounds awesome. A lot bigger than what I imagined it would sound like and I thought I would be the only one touching it.

Sabrina: That was the only time we were told that we were being over the top and maybe we should stick to a consistency of what our album was gonna be about. But the intro to the record was creatively really important to all of us because it sets this really serious tone. The pressure gets higher and faster and more intense until it just stops. But then the first song on our record that is actually one of our songs, that comes in with electric guitar, it’s even bigger than that. So that’s kind of what it was, like this crucible for the rest of the record. Let’s see if they can take this.

Punish them first and then give the pleasure.

Sabrina: Exactly.

Andy: The old bait and switch.

Just last month you signed to Merge Records for your upcoming album. Does it put more pressure on you to know that you’re representing a high profile indie label?

Sabrina: I’ve had to remind myself that this album is special because we sat on it so long hoping to get the right people behind it and we did. Merge was our top choice. They’re really straight up, artist-run company and they have been around that way for so long. So we’re really proud to be a part of that.

But we’ve been sitting on the record for so long that we almost, I almost forgot about the record and started thinking about A Giant Dog as a business venture. I started worrying like, oh my god we don’t have this we don’t have that, we don’t have a booking agent. We don’t have the modern conveniences of a band that’s signed to a record label. And then my boyfriend said “So fucking what? That record is awesome.” He’s like, “Just wait til it comes out. It’ll speak for itself.” But I totally forgot what our album sounded like and then I remembered and it’s so different from anything A Giant Dog has done and I’m very excited.

Andy: I feel the same way. We’ve been really busy trying to get things ready for the album, and we’re gonna stay busy up until the release. Sometimes you forget about the songs and just put on the album and it’s good to re-motivate yourself.

A Giant Dog.

Did anything change from the last album to this one? Did the songwriting process change?

Sabrina: Yeah. Everything changed. Andrew and I wrote better songs, with better hooks. And maybe some of the songs were more meaningful to people that weren’t us. And Graham got to bring in his string work.

In addition we added some horns, we had some opera singers, we had a piano player. So we put a lot of energy into this hoping that it would appeal to people on a wider scale than our straight punk albums did. You can hear that more work went into it, but it’s not like it was with Merge in mind. It’s not like they were teaching us to do this, we were doing it on our own and then they were like “Oh yes this is something we would put out” so they’re putting it out. OH! You were asking if (signing to a big label) adds pressure to work harder…the thing is we’ve always worked really hard but in spurts.

We’ve been busy people in our lives, so we’ve had time of great inspiration and preparation and getting to be together and work together, and then we’ve had times where we don’t get to touch A Giant Dog for months.

Because you’ve all been working regular jobs the whole time.

Sabrina: We all work. We’ve got a graphic designer as a drummer. (points to Andy) What do you do? Some kind of DAT job?

Andrew: I just make noises at a desk.

Sabrina: (to Graham) He makes pizza. I make wontons.

So you guys can feed the band even if you can’t pay rent all the time.

Graham: We can make a house out of pizza.

With little wonton couches

Sabrina: I just have a feeling Merge is gonna keep us busy. The level of what our career CAN be with them behind us, its not that they’re pressuring us like (affected 1930’s journalist voice) “Look here, we’re gonna make you big stars!” They have expectations and it’s clear to us. I hear how it goes with other artists on their label who are our contemporaries now and it’s like “Wow that’s a lot of work!” But we’re all about that. We’d love to be able to play music a couple times a week, a couple times a day.

So it’s not daunting at all to know you might go out on the road for like five months?

Sabrina: There are loose ends you wanna tie up at home, and that is daunting. Or like we have five months at home now so you try to pick up extra jobs to earn some money in case the tour doesn’t go the way you expect it to go. You want to pay your house insurance and stuff. But that isn’t Merge’s fault, I’m sure they’ve been through that too.

You’re already scheduled to play SXSW 2016. Is it odd to be playing essentially a hometown show in the midst of the huge festival atmosphere?

Sabrina: What?? We’re playing South by Southwest? Oh My God! That’s amazing!!!!!

Graham: Yeah its weird because you live here, and it’s busy. You’re trying to do music, but the business that employs you also needs you to make money.

Sabrina: It’s a great conflict of interest.

Graham: SXSW here is everyone’s Christmas. It’s what everyone buys their Christmas presents with. Yeah it’s a little weird trying to balance both obligations

(To Andy): And your job doesn’t care if you take a lot of time off?

Andy: As long as I get the work done.

Sabrina: Andy has one of those Harry Potter clocks that stops time.

The name A Giant Dog puts you at the top of most bills you play. Was that a strategic move or just a happy accident?

Graham: I wish we were that clever. We are not that cunning, we got drunk one time.

Andy: Sometimes, though, they get weird and put us in the G’s.Because it’s an article.

Sabrina: That was the point with the article to be like “Do you want to go see A Giant Dog…play…a show?” Or “No I’m not drunk. A Giant Dog poured beer on me.”

Graham: They pee themselves on stage.

Sabrina: It was not a well-received name. Nobody ever said that’s a really great name, I think its going to bring you a lot of success.

A Giant Dog is Sabrina Ellis (vocals), Andrew Cashen (vocals, guitar), Andy Bauer (guitar), Graham Low (bass), and Matthew Strmiska (drums). Find them on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and at theirofficial website.