Song Premiere + Artist Interview: Doggy Daycare – “(forgetting) sarah marshall)”
Posted: by The Editor
Photo by Mary Riley
Wilmington, NC, shoegazers Doggy Daycare began as an outlet for Adam Bastug, and earlier this year he dropped a solo record called I Love My Friends under that name. By now, though, the project is something different. The lofi slacker rock vibes Bastug cultivated on I Love My Friends are gone, and guitarist Joshua Sullivan, bassist Ethan Jenkins, and drummer Connor Simpson have helped him flesh out the project into a gazy alt rock outfit. To demonstrate how much they’ve grown, they’re releasing a rewritten and rerecorded version of that record’s highlight “sarah marshall.” It’s called “(forgetting) sarah marshall,” and it dresses up the original in pristine reverb and washed-out vocals. The band shouts out projects like My Bloody Valentine and Starflyer 59, and they’re apt comparisons. It’s a really pretty song, and it’s an auspicious step for them. We spoke with Bastug about the band’s new direction–and we’re stoked to premiere “(forgetting) sarah marshall” before it officially drops July 28th through Fort Lowell Records.
This version of “(forgetting) sarah marshall” is very different from the one on your debut LP from earlier this year. How did the rewriting process work?
That song was written before other cooks were in the kitchen, so when we were working up full-band versions of those songs for live shows, Josh sat down with the original recording and wrote the new guitar parts and came to practice with the vision for a bigger shoegaze version. The boys each added their own pieces from there, and over the next couple months we played it slower and slower each time until we got this new version.
Should we expect more rerecording of previous Doggy Daycare material?
There are a couple we love playing live — “this is about summer” has a dancey, heavier vibe to it. But for the most part we are trafficking in all new material that fits the sound of “(forgetting) sarah marshall.” We’ll re-record the whole album if given a lot of money though. I just want to make sure it’s said that we will absolutely 100% do that for a lot of money.
What can fans expect from Doggy Daycare for the rest of the year?
A couple more singles from our upcoming album. We’ve been woodshedding for a minute, writing and recording, and have amassed a pretty hefty new album that we’re close to putting the finishing touches on. Fans can also expect probably like a music video or two, southeastern US shows, and really stupid Instagram posts.
Do you have any dogs, and if so, what are their names?
Josh’s dog Darla is our mascot — that’s her rocking the sunglasses in our logo.
Are there any Wilmington bands you’d like to shout out?
There are so many stupid good bands here, it’s like Athens in the ’80s/’90s, just more slept on. First off we’re shouting out Jacob Adams from Blue Karma who produced the song and our upcoming record. Ridgewood is about to take over the world, same with Louis. and RizzyBeats. Pleasure Island is new beach royalty. Lawn Enforcement makes ’90s-inflected bangers. Tracy Shedd has made her way to Wilmington and is making the town all the better. Owen Casey is making modern dirtbag country-ish music that is too smart for its own good. And even though he moved to New York, we’re still claiming Color Temperature. We’ve got a Spotify playlist of hits, too.
“(forgetting) sarah marshall” will hit streaming on July 28th, and you can pre-save the track here.
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Zac Djamoos | @gr8whitebison
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