PUPPY FINALLY RELEASE THEIR DEBUT ALBUM
...but what took them so long? Now signed to a major label, Jock Norton tells us how they’ve been perfecting their new music
It’s apt that one of the oddest, most uncharacterisable bands to grace Hammer’s world in the last few years have taken the ‘scenic’ route to releasing their debut album. Melodic, alt-metal trio Puppy started playing shows in 2015 and put out the EP Vol. II, but this year they will finally release full-length The Goat. We do wonder what took so long, though…
“Yeah, even we just want to get the thing out at this point,” laughs vocalist and guitarist Jock Norton. “But to be honest with you, we’ve had some really good advice from our label, Spinefarm. When we were saying, ‘This is it! It’s done! Let’s just get it out!’ they would calm us down and tell us to go back and change a few bits here and there. It’s actually really worked out; some of these songs are two years old, and we thought we knew them inside out, but we listened to outside advice and it’s actually been the best thing that we could have done.”
Much of this is down to the fact that Puppy have graduated from being a small band doing things from their own pocket to having a label that really believes in them making sure they can fulfil their potential.
“We’ve always just done things in our own DIY way,” Jock explains. “Which essentially means getting in and getting everything done as quickly and as cheaply as we possibly can. This really is the first time where we’ve been able to go into a studio and actually explore our ideas and expand on them, and get everything sounding just as we would want them to. The gap has actually helped us a little bit as well, because now we’re all excited to hear what people think of it. There is this feeling that you can get a little blasé about what you’ve created, but it’s been so long that we’re kind of re-energised by the reaction from the people that have heard it.”
With The Goat poised to hit eardrums soon, 2019 could be the year that Puppy follow in the footsteps of their UK peers. With Marmozets, Creeper, Black Peaks and Employed To Serve all making great strides over the last 12 months, could Puppy be the next band to challenge America’s stronghold on our scene?
“I mean, it would be nice,” shrugs Jock. “I think the cool thing about all of the bands that you’ve mentioned is that they don’t really sound anything like each other, so it feels less like a sonic or regional connection and more like a group of individuals from the same country all inspired to make music to feed their own passion. But we really can’t comment too much, because we feel quite outside of it all. We’re basically inspired by the kind of bands that we grew up listening to, and that’s sort of still where our interest lies, so we don’t have much knowledge of where ‘the scene’ is right now.”
Jock might sound nonchalant, but Puppy do have the ambition to grow in 2019. He hopes this’ll be the year they develop a proper, dedicated following.
“I feel like before, people might have heard our name from someone else and might just be coming to see us out of curiosity or whatever”, he says. “This is the year where we want to have people coming along to see Puppy. To actually turn up and know what we sound like. I’m getting sick of having to explain our sound to people; I hope we’re close to a point where people know the words to our songs. Every band wants that, don’t they?!”
THE GOAT IS OUT ON JANUARY 25 VIA SPINEFARM
“I’m gettIng sIck of havIng to explaIn our sound”
Jock norton