sad films On the Making Of “Dog Day”
What was the creative process like for this particular "Dog Day?"
I am inspired a lot by narrative structures and visuals. With watching films for example, I find the process of taking in images and contextualising the meaning behind them in my mind a great springboard for lyrics. The first lyric that I wrote for this song was the opening line, “I love you so I went and took a gun in a bank…”. I was watching Dog Day Afternoon one rainy weekend and Al Pacino’s character simply, and desperately, loves someone so much that he takes a gun in a bank. I loved the simple distillation of that ‘act of love’ and the absurd foolishness that came along with it that I couldn’t shake it off. The simplicity of the sentence too really stuck with me. The rest came together very quickly.
What do you like the best about this track?
The melody I think, it’s a lot of fun to sing and I like the way that it’s an upbeat song with a dark subject at the core. There are a lot of songwriters that I respect that pull that off really well so it’s nice to have something that resembles that approach in my own arsenal.
How do you feel "Dog Day" represents your artistic identity?
If anything, this is the song that set ‘sad films’ sailing on the waves of the treacherous seas that is being an artist during late stage capitalism. The song was unfinished in terms of its final arrangement during most of the pandemic and I ended up being so frustrated that I threw caution to the wind and just went for it with rewriting it. I ended up having a song with lyrics I loved but I hadn’t shared any sad films music with anyone yet so I was also worried that people would think I was endorsing certain messages or language in the song. However, David Bowie once talked about pushing forward when something scared you a bit so committing to this song helped separate who I am as a person and who I am as an artist. That’s been a great boon to my writing ever since.
Can you tell us more about you as a band?
Well, sad films is a solo project and it’s all my own material but I do have a wonderful crew of musicians and artists that help jump start the car into life ya know? They form my live band but apart from fulfilling logistics, I think having a trusted bunch of co-conspirators can help challenge you and encourage you in equal measure. My self-sabotage is very strong so without them I’d have easily talked myself out of releasing any music. I’ve drawn a lot of creative strength from these relationships and I cherish them dearly.
Can you share an instance where you felt a strong connection with the crowd during a show?
The first ever sad films performance was just me, a laptop and my backing tracks. I had no original music out online anywhere and after being in a band for so long, it was a bit of leap of faith. I actually agreed to the gig without any songs being finished so there’s definitely something to be said about having the abject fear of being embarrassed onstage in your hometown looming over you as an anti-procrastination device. Luckily people were really into it and from that point I knew it was something that didn’t live in my head anymore, it was out in the open and now I have the burden of expectation to continue. At this moment that burden is working for me haha.