Office Dog have just released a new EP and are about to fly to American for a tour. On his way to Auckland airport their singer Kane Strang called up to talk us through the last ten years of tunes and travel - including previous trips around Europe and the USA.
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Episode Transcript
Welcome to Radio hodarchis Off the Record podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
With Let's have a Chat with office Dog Curda Kane Kyoda.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
How's it going?
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Yeah, really well, thanks mate? What're abouts in the country
are you this evening?
Speaker 4 (00:15):
Just come up to Auckland from Dunedin where I've been
based on myself the last year or so. Again that's
where I'm from, so yeah, it's just been nice seeing
the fan and stuff. But yeah, before we take off
to the stats, I've been just doing some rehearsing the
rest of the band.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Who is still up here?
Speaker 2 (00:33):
You mentioned that you're from Dunedin. You're well known as
Caine String, but now you're in this new band.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (00:40):
Well, I made music under my own name for probably
a decade actually, which sounds crazy to me now, but
I mean I had some amazing experiences doing that.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
I got to tour a lot overseas.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Where'd you go.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
America for a headline tour, which was, yeah, a very
surreal experience. It was actually before my second record came out,
so yeah, the shows were pretty inconsistent to say the
least in terms of crowd sizes and things like that,
but it was unreal. It's just me and three of
(01:17):
my friends in a van. We played about, yeah, twenty
nine shows and thirty one days or something like that.
It was a real grind. Yeah, I definitely learned a lot.
And after that we went to Europe twice that year
and got to play some really cool festivals and that
was a really special time. But yeah, after a while,
(01:40):
I just I definitely got a bit burnt out of
doing the solo thing. I really wanted to try something
that was a bit more collaborative and yeah, just making
music with friends and having a bit more fun with it.
I think I started taking it all very seriously and often.
When I look back at those tours now, I realized
I was kind of more than I should have been. Like,
(02:01):
I wish I sucked it up a bit more at
the time, if you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Yeah, I do. There's a chapter about that sort of
thing in Matt Heath's Laders book, A Lifeliest posture about
just making the most of the moment. And you might
get angry about things, but actually, yeah, like you say,
take a look at what's going on around you and
actually think, you know, this is actually pretty cool.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Yeah, exactly, that's it.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Yeah, So you mentioned that you wanted to go back
to the high school days where you were jamming with friends.
The other people in office, dog, are they mates from
way back or new acquaintances.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
Rosanni Tolliver, he's a really old friend of mine. We
had a band way back in the day. See we've
been just friends and playing together a long time. We
lived in Germany together when we were like twenty one.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
I think so you and Rosanni from having lived in
Germany together, do you guys still speak a little bit?
Do you have your own little in house German jokes?
Speaker 4 (02:56):
Going on to To be honest, we were shockers.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
We barely learned the language.
Speaker 4 (03:01):
While we would I think like we actually lived in
a really small industrial town. Everyone just wanted to speak
English to us. So we like almost the practice, if
you know what I mean, because they actually get taught.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
They have to learn that, I think in high school
and things like that.
Speaker 4 (03:17):
So our friend's mum was an English teacher and we
like went to a class and I don't know, Brun
just asked us about Lord of the Rings and stuff,
you know.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
And so you got mitch on drums.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
That's it.
Speaker 4 (03:30):
It's just a three piece. So that's been another really
fun part of it. There's not a lot to hide behind.
We really just try to let each instrument shine. That's
been really nice for me because I in the past
I've been a shaker for spending months and months recording
and endlessly layering things. And with this all about recordings
(03:53):
lately start with just us three in a room playing
live together.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
And was it the case for the new song Intact.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
Yeah, it started just us through in a room and
Intact I think. I mean our first record was very
it was quite dark sounding and pretty angular and a
bit sad, I guess, And with this one I kind
of sat down and I wanted to write something back
was a bit more uplifting sounding.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Let's check it out.
Speaker 4 (04:22):
This is Kine Strang from Office Dog and you're listening
to Intact on radio.
Speaker 5 (04:28):
How that wo so well? No way?
Speaker 2 (05:05):
So were.
Speaker 6 (05:18):
The drinking about run so well?
Speaker 2 (05:50):
So it's already a heard arch. That's Bran new from
(06:39):
Office Dog. It's called Intact and we're lucky enough to
have the singer of that song on a zoom with
us now cured it Kane String, thanks for bringing us
that tune cure.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
Yeah, happy to be here and thanks for playing.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
That's part of a new EP.
Speaker 4 (06:54):
There's seven tracks on it, which is a little bit
long for an EP. It's not even called an EP
on Spotify. I've just noticed because it doesn't like fit
their rules for that or whatever. But we sort of
had these seven songs and felt like they just worked
as a group, and anything we worked on after that
just didn't seem to fit. So yeah, we kind of
(07:14):
just committed to the EP thing, which has actually been
kind of a blessing now. But it's called Doggerland, which
is maybe a bit of a strange title, but yeah,
dogger Land is this area sort of off the coast
of the UK between the UK and Europe that used
to be inhabited by people way back, a long long
time ago. It was eventually submerged by the ocean. And yeah,
(07:38):
I just thought it kind of worked because of those
themes and all the lyrics about feeling a bit submerged
and surfacing and that sort of thing.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
So it's got nothing to do with dogs, no, not
at all, which.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Is kind of funny.
Speaker 4 (07:52):
I actually had that title before Office Zog was even
a band, so and just a coincidence.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
You didn't want to call it Atlantis.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
That could maybe the next one. You know, if I
keep this going. The water thing, Yeah nice.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
And you're taking these songs on the road, not just
around New Zealand, but you're about to go overseas.
Speaker 6 (08:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:14):
Two days from now, I'll be on the plane through
New York, which is pretty surreal. As I was saying,
I did a bit of that in twenty seventeen, and
to be honest, in a lot of ways, I didn't
think it was something that would happen again. It wasn't
even something that we set out to do. Yeah, things
have really snowballed to this point, and yeah, I feel
(08:38):
very lucky. Definitely nervous, but yeah, excited.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
So when you say they have snowballed, do you mean
there's been an increase in interest in what you're doing
and people want you to come over.
Speaker 4 (08:49):
Yeah, no, exactly. It's just sort of one thing's led
to another. We were just going to chuck it out
and then Flying None Records got involved, and then New
West Records are label got involved in the band. We're
supporting Nada Surf there on New Wes. So it all
just kind of yeah, worked out.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Not a Surf I remember that song from the nineties. Yeah,
what was it called a popular popular?
Speaker 3 (09:14):
Maybe? Yeah that's the one.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
What a tune? Oh well you get to play with
those guys, so yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
It'd be very cool.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
We're playing some amazing legendary kind of venues like the
Troubadour in LA and things like that. So yeah, incredibly grateful.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Wow, So you'll be packing your bags at the moment,
or they already packed.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
They're all packed. I got that out of the waderned you.
Speaker 4 (09:36):
I've just been lugging them around various friends houses and
airbnbs and stuff now that I'm up in Auckland.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
But yeah, and how are the rest of the band?
They experienced in international travel.
Speaker 4 (09:50):
Res came with me in twenty seventeen, so he was
in that band then, Mitch I don't think has ever
played overseas, so it's gonna be yeah, new thing for him.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
And he's the drummer as well, so he's got the
most amount of gear to be lugging around exactly.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
Yeah, we might have to give him a hand, I guess. Yeah. No,
he's stoked.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Oh that's cool that you've got that previous experience to
call back on. You've got contacts over there, you've got
a record label. It sounds like things are going to
sort of fall into place quite quickly.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
Yeah. Yeah, now we just need some money.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
It's true. How ticket sales going pretty good.
Speaker 4 (10:26):
I think actually the first night of the tour we're
playing two sets because the first show sold out and
they've added an early show now, so yeah, we're going
to be thrown off the deep end a little.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Bit, so touring America and then back home for summer YEP, back.
Speaker 4 (10:44):
Home for summer and hopefully play a few shows around
the country and then yeah, really start to work on
our next OLP.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
So if we want to keep an eye on those
tour dates as they get announced, or even just go
through the EP that you've just released. Where's the best
place to find some information on you.
Speaker 4 (11:02):
Guys, Office Dog band on social media Instagram and all that.
And then yeah, there is a pretty limited vinyl that
people can get. I mean hopefully it's in most stores
around here. Otherwise you can order it through Flying None
or band camp.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Actually, kin from Office Dog, thanks for your time on
hidarchy and all the best for the US tour.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Radio hold Aches off the Record podcast. Why not subscribe
so they download automatically? And don't forget to rate us
five stars.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Thanks mate.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Find out more about this podcast and the people who
make it at hodache dot co dot nz.
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