THE STORY BEHIND THE SONG EARTH PLC

Earth plc

Dogman explains his song was inspired by REM

The song Earth plc was written almost 10 years before it was first recorded as a demo and included in the first Dogman album, The Whisperer, released in 2010. It was a family ‘front room favourite’ at parties which sometimes included a novel and rowdy female backing group (I-Phone Girl, her sister Legal Eagle Suzanne and the Lovely Lesley, his brother in law’s partner) for its chorus:

‘And we know - when the world - is spinning around. We know  -  when our world  - is going to down and we know - when our feet  - are touching ground.  We know, we know - we know....’

Dogman used to play REM covers at house parties and gigs, including Man in the Moon and Losing my Religion, and announce that Earth plc was his own REM-inspired song.

In the song, we are all invited to take care of our planet – a sentiment plaintively heard in the lyric – ‘It’s you and me - we’re earth plc  - Buy shares buy shares - this is - our universe’

Dogman says, “We don’t know everything about our world and how the mind works yet and it would be fair to say we don’t always look kindly on others!”

David aka Dogman has long been convinced that we should probably stop looking for aliens and going to other planets and start looking after our own world. He even asks in the song that even if aliens were ever found would we even know how to deal with them. 

Earth plc is from the new Dogman album,‘The cat that solved the String Theory’, released by Expat Records in May 2011.

The superb visuals, created by the wonderful Swiss videographer 

Brigitte Norman can also be viewed on YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jLcQVvAl-w

On VIMEO: http://vimeo.com/28066068

EXPAT RECORDS http://www.expat-records.com/Dogman/

http://soundcloud.com/drdavidsands/spotlight

Dogman on myspace: http://www.myspace.com/dogmandavesands

http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/the-cat-that-solved-string/id438076388

CRACKING REVIEW OF 'THE CAT THAT SOLVED THE STRING THEORY'

THE CAT THAT SOLVED THE STRING THEORY 

(AND OTHER STORIES)

I recently acquired the UK limited edition CD as a present for my wife who, on listening to it, demanded to know how she could not have heard of him before when he had such a wonderful voice. Hopefully, this new album will ensure fewer people are faced with this question in future.

The author of this beautiful album, Dogman Dave (aka Dr David Sands) is, for me, a musical bridge between folk and rock music. His vocals are often favourably compared to those of Neil Young, though I think they are less reedy and nasal than Mr Young’s. With the strength and clarity of his voice you wouldn’t be surprised to hear him knocking out a folk classic or two, but in this album the tracks are all his own creations. They range from the gentle and romantic “Valentine Light” to the more rocking “Wolves of Winter Hill”. His lyrics, flowing mostly from his own life experiences and beliefs, sometimes carry a message, such as in “Earth Plc”, but are never formulaic. In “Spitfire” he uses the clever allegory of a World War 2 dogfight to describe the sometimes combative nature of personal relationships – but it is written with a loving, rather than bitter, feel.

His fellow musicians in this enterprise, Matt Pawson, Andy Penney and Mr Smith (who also produces) do these songs great justice and the recording quality is beautifully clear and rich.

One of the outstanding tracks on this album for me is “It’s a Love Thing”. I would defy anyone listening to this track not to find their toes tapping and their spirits lifting by the end of it. Not even Monty Burns, that notorious old curmudgeon of “The Simpsons” fame, could resist the uplifting feel of this track. Load this into your MP3 and play on the way to work and your day will surely be improved.

WE KNOW HOW IT ENDS - DOGMAN'S HAPPY TUNE

We know how it ends (Let’s make a film of our lives)

Dogman explains how the happiest song from his new album turned into a fun studio session

“Camera’s rolling - come on friends

Lights - action - we know how it ends!”

So starts this popular Dogman song, appropriately, the last main track on the Dogman album ‘The Cat that solved The String Theory’ has attracted many ‘happy track’ comments on Soundcloud. The banjo introduction was first brought into the arrangement in a Dogman-Mikans (The Crossbreed) demo when Mikans suggested a Sufjan Stevens feel to the song.

The song is again about Dogman’s love affair with his wife, “ You be Bergman I’ll be Tarantino,”  and playfully singing, “Who plays me - who plays you and who rescues who?”

Martyn (studio producer) kept a small camera rolling throughout the various booth recordings and for the group-singing for the chorus, “Let’s make a film of - our lives - we can dream it in colour - or dream it in black and white. Let’s make a film - of our lives.  First love, Happy - Tears - it’s our lives!”  The cast are listed in the video [http://youtu.be/jvZvX1vawuY]. 

It is Matt Pawson, ace guitarist in the Dogman, who shouts ‘It’s a wrap!’ at the end of recording.

VALENTINE LIGHT - THE STORY BEHIND THE DOGMAN SONG

Valentine Light

Dogman explains how this new 'tradional style' folk song is the favourite of live audiences and band members alike

This song is the name of this painting I made from my wife on Valentine Day in 2003. In subsequent years I have photographed many different flower arrangements that she has placed before it on our fireplace shelf.

Valentine Light was born out of my self motivated challenge to write my own new, ‘traditional sounding’, folk track instead of singing one that was long established like Lucy Wan. At first, my opening verse lines were repeated, ‘Walk with me in the Valentine Light’, which made it sound very ‘folky’ indeed but as I played it live the song evolved into more Ryan Adams vibe. 

Lines like ‘Dance with me in the Valentine Light, don’t catch a chill my Lilywhite, watch our reflection in the river’s flight’, nicely roll off my tongue when I am singing it now. The almost erotic line,  ‘Lie with me on this Valentine Night, under the willow in the twilight’, is traditional 'English' in the quintessence sense and could even be a sub plot for a 18th Century landscape painting.

The mandolin riff was put it by producer Mr Smith using my own instrument which he borrowed without informing me of his idea.

It’s a true romantic song that is dedicated to my wife at every gig and I can imagine in years to come it will become one to play for lovers on Valentine’s Day. Dolly Parton would probably make a fine job of singing this as a cover I’m sure. Members of the band love the song and so do many of my friends who are also musicians.

The final song lines, ’and remember this, every Valentine night, every single night’, is now repeated over and over in a rocky folk style by me since the original recording was made in early 2010.

A video with many of my atmospheric cloud photographs used to set the scene can be viewed here: http://youtu.be/JuQ1oBA8V4c

THE STORY BEHIND THE SONG 'IT'S A LOVE THING'

It’s a Love thing

Dogman tells the story behind the song that is the band favourite and the easiest for him to compose

LOVE BUTTERFLIES IN THE DOGMAN HOME GARDEN

‘It’s a Love Thing’ is possibly going to be the most universal of Dogman songs. Two London DJs announced on first hearing that a dance remix would take nightclubs by storm (coming soon).

This song came to being as I was playing around with alternative capo setting. The lyrics came into my head as though they had been given to me by a higher being. That may seem ridiculous on first reading but it’s honestly true. I love singing, I love the birds singing which is a good thing as I live in a rural village in Northern England and the dawn chorus is deafening! I was a Green Peace member long before it was fashionable and still have my original jacket buttons.

‘I believe a Higher Being wants us to sing, wants us to sing, wants us to feel the beat, to tap our feet; wants us to sing; wants birds to sing, wants the day to break, help us to wake for singing’s sake - wants the Whales to sing, wants the oceans to ring.   It’s a love thing’

Mr Smith, my producer, used to take his sheepdog, Tod, into the studio often working late into the night. When he began mixing my vocal and guitar track with his percussion and Andy’s bass line together with Matt Pawson’s ace lead guitar the dog was beginning a downward path that would eventually lead to him passing away. On one night, Mr Smith and Tod sat together working right through into morning daylight and found some kind of peace with my song. It was an emotional period in the making of my album, 'The cat that solved the String Theory' that will forever be associated with ‘It’s a Love Thing’.

THE STORY BEHIND THE SONG 'GALILEO GALILEI'

Galileo Galilei

Dogman tells the story behind the song that became his bass player’s obsession

LIGHT ORBS CAUGHT BY DAVID SANDS AKA DOGMAN

This song came from an instrumental piece I had been playing around with for a year or more. I remember getting into a ‘round’ sequence of the chords and the name Galileo as a sound ‘popped’ into my head. I scribbled down a rough lyric and the song was finished in a flash. I just wanted to be expressive and, secretly, 

falsetto like Sufjan Stevens.

What was more important to me at the time was Galileo became a ‘test song’ that I chose to record at Mr Smith’s ‘Audiofile’ studio, a modest unit hidden within a large industrial building in East Lancashire. The enigmatic Mr Smith - I have since named Nighthawk because of his nocturnal habits - previously had only ever been a telephone conversation. I heard a track on MySpace he had recorded and produced for another artist (Teaspoon) and thought I would see if we were compatible (bit like a blind date).

The opening of the song, which he surprisingly kept in the recording, has me announcing ‘out loud’ what all neurotics ask – “Why do we put ourselves through this?” I was feeling tense about getting the recording right on a cold Winter’s night exactly a year before my album ‘The cat that solved the String Theory’ was released. 

This gentle song is just me, strumming my Martin Dreadnought acoustic Guitar and singing solo. When I finally heard the result a week or two later I was quietly pleased. A bass player friend of Mr Smith - Andy Penney, later to become an integral part of the Dogman band, was soon driving around with a premix version playing on continual repeat.

The song sentiments are about how zealous religious belief can distort reality. Andy and Mr Smith felt as strongly about that and it could be said to be very relevant today. “Did they get you say that black was white and were the stars your shining light?”

I enjoy playing Galileo live when the audience quietens to listen.

A video can be found here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJEj9A7-19Y&feature=player_profilepage

THE STORY BEHIND THE SONG ' WOLVES OF WINTER HILL'

The Wolves of Winter Hill

Dogman tells the story behind the song that gets the audiences ‘howling’

This song was ‘born’ of a comment I posted on MySpace. I wrote on my music page that: ‘Dogman was a feral child, raised by the Wolves of Winter Hill’. This sentence has an element of truth in it because, alongside my brother and four sisters, I was raised in a home after the disappearance of our mother and father before her. We initially lived together in a 'Family Group Children’s Home'. From here we could view what seemed to be me to be vast moorlands, including Winter Hill, Bronze Age sites and a Napoleonic Beacon used to warn of the invasion. We often picnicked there because it was a local tradition for thousands to go up the hills. This was especially undertaken on 'Good Friday' and on every Easter Monday when an exciting fair was held there.

I wanted to write a ‘rock song’ that would contrast against my own gentle folk melodies and that I could hear every other person with a guitar singing at open mic events. So, I had the opening line to the song and used major chords to blast out a strident melody, ‘I was raised by the Wolves of Winter Hill and shared their kill and learned to use my wits and use my skill’. I don’t know where I first used the howling but when playing a cover of ‘All along the watchtower’ [Bob Dylan] and I often howled to emphasise the line – ‘ A wild cat did howl’ . My sudden ‘howling’ at the beginning of 'Wolves' at gigs and in the album recording may have subconsciously come from that. Comments have suggested that my 'howl' is 'Bono-like' and that the song is a stadium rocker! 

My epic chorus, ‘I came to sing for you and sing my songs’ , is a truism in that I have always enjoyed singing, an experience that came from being chosen for the school and church choir as a boy. The second verse, ‘I never understood, your dog-eat-dog eyes, when you’re supposed to be so civilised’, is my stab at how some wealthy (and greedy) members of society can stand by and watch other people suffering. 

My original lyrics were extended and more complex than the recorded song is now. This came from ‘fine tuning’ the lyrics by playing the song for more than a year at my gigs. I currently play small venues, pubs and bars and enjoy the kind of intimacy it is possible to get with people who are live-music orientated. Some members of the audiences are even howling when I start playing the opening chords to the ‘Wolves of Winter Hill’.

Finally, Mr Smith, my studio producer, suggested Dogman should ‘twin’ with a ‘Winter Hill’ in the United States from a fun media publicity stand point. When I ‘Googled’ the place name and was first amused and then aghast to discover that the area was infamous for being associated with an Irish-American gang who, it would appear, have broken every law from First Degree Murder to kidnapping, money laundering extortion and rape. At that point it was an easy decision not to request to twin.

One of my dreams is to play live on the Later, Jools Holland Show, like so many emerging artists. However, there is so, so much music out there that I do worry how my songs will survive. However, I know that one Dogman song played on BBC Radio 2 in the UK or on a leading American radio station – maybe playing ‘Wolves’ and you never know.....

DOGMAN IS WAITING FOR DELIVERY OF HIS LATEST CD FOR UK FANS

This is the video for SPITFIRE, the opening track on the new album 
'The cat that solved The String Theory'


Released on i-tunes 13th May 2011. A limited edition digipak CD with booklet out for UK fans.