Rockezine.com interview with Blind Dog on Mar 13, 2002

with Joakim Thell on Mar 13, 2002

After hearing their great debut album “The Adventures of Captain Dog”, and having seen two great shows in The Netherlands, it was about time for me to have a brief chat with the band. Guitarist Joakim Thell took the time to answer some questions exclusively for your REZ reporter.
		How are the reactions to your debut album “The last Adventures of Captain Dog”? We have received mostly good reviews, and also some very good reviews. Here in Sweden the interest in the album has been very poor. We have hardly received any press at all. I don’t know why.
		I read a story about the former band name, and a hairy back of a former (extra) guitarist, tell us about it. That would be the lower back of the former extra guitarist. The band was called “Hairy Bottoms” and I think it was I (Joakim) or Tobias who came up with the name. It must have been Tobias because I can’t seem to recall how it happened. The guitarist had a very hairy bottom though.
		Don’t you miss the additional guitar? Especially live you have to have a very good sound engineer to put down the heavy sound, with just one guitar. In the beginning we really missed the second guitar, especially in the guitar solo parts. But now we write the songs in a way so that it won’t sound thin when we play. I think we all became better musicians when the rhythm guitarist got canned.
		What’s the story behind the album title? When we recorded the album we said to ourselves that we would give the recording some time to get picked up by a label, and if it didn’t it would be our “last adventure”. “Captain dog” was the name of the sound engineer’s dog’s plastic toy. Luckily we did get signed by Meteorcity perhaps a year later. Many thanks to Peter Högfelt who wrote a very good review of the album at Stonerrock.com.
		Actually this is the second release of your debut album. At first you tried to get a record deal, which didn’t succeed.
		So you recorded it yourself (at the studio where Spiritual Beggars recorded their first album), released it, and then the record deal came through. Isn’t it a bit frustrating when you have to do all the work, and take so many risks? Yeah, it’s frustrating, and that was also the reason why we would make it our “last adventure”. We wanted something to remain after all the years together as a band, so we thought a record would be good way to call it quits. We always thought that we were good enough to get signed but it’s not easy to make yourself noticed when there are so many bands out there. We also thought that it would be easier to get signed if we already had the album recorded, and it was.
		What was it like to play abroad, and are there any special things while touring worth mentioning? Playing our music in The Netherlands was a very good experience for us. The interest in live music and stonerrock is way bigger there than it is in Sweden. I don’t know if there are any special things worth mentioning, except that it’s hard to stay normal (whatever that is) when you’re drinking all night and then sit in a bus the next day with a hangover. It’s a lot of fun though.
		Joakim and Tobias used to play in a punk rock band, before starting Blind Dog. Seeing you live is as if the influences come from a different direction.
		A visible urge to expand songs and jam, psychedelic episodes, and very convincing Black Sabbath covers. Where are your roots and why the change? Personally I don’t like punk at all. But aren’t we all punk rockers in the beginning? When we started out we were very bad so it sounded like a punk band whether we liked it or not. It’s easier to say you’re a punk rock band than “No, I don’t play punk rock, I just can’t play the guitar properly.” I think Tobias was into the punk scene for a while though. I was into more metal oriented music like Ozzy and Metallica.
		I also liked Soundgarden a lot. From these bands it’s not a very big step to end up with Black Sabbath as your gods. Influences vary a lot over time. We listen to bands we like for a while, but then it’s time for something new.
		What are the future plans; trying to reach more people with your debut album and go touring? Or are there plans for the second album? We’re planning to go on tour this summer, but nothing is set yet. Of course we would like to go back to The Netherlands for some gigs at summer festivals. We’re also writing new material, but even though it’s been three years since we visited a studio we don’t have a lot of songs yet. It takes some time to give them the right “Blind Dog Groove”. There are no plans as yet to enter the studio.
		(Cor Schilstra)