PUPPY ANGST // TKO
The aesthetic of the Puppy Angst is steeped in vibrant color, specifically red. Is this attention to a certain hue a deliberate reference to the heart-on-your-sleeve emotions that are pervasive throughout the band’s music? How important is incorporating a specific look or style (as you often do in your performances) as a component of the band?
I never thought of it in those words, but that’s pretty spot on. Red felt like the right color for this record because it’s often associated with Scorpio (and Mars, one of Scorpio’s ruling planets). It feels intensely emotional, powerful, moody and brooding, both hard and tough, but with a quiet softness and romantic edge; all ways in which I would describe and perceive Scorpio as a sign. So it made sense to me to make the world for this record intensely red and tie it into the album name and concept; it was one way I was able to have our debut album feel more cohesive and represent the intense emotions behind many of the songs.
Visuals and personal style are really important to me and I’ve always loved seeing how other artists incorporate visual elements and fashion into their music. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do myself so it’s really cool to hear that it’s coming across, even with the relatively limited resources we have available to us right now. I love expressing myself through personal style and as an extension of that, I’ve recently started sewing. So far I’ve only made one dress that’s part of my current show outfit collection, but it’s featured in our press photo. Adding a visual aspect to the live show, even if it’s just via personal style and living in my red era helps me feel like we’re in the Scorpio Season album cycle. Aside from the ways it relates to our music, I think red suits me and it really feels like “my color”. I’m not sure what the future holds visually for future releases, but I’m excited to explore it and see what can happen.
You’ve been booking DIY tours and have been successful at doing a lot of self-promotion for your music. In the modern age of social media and the internet, how have you been able to continue to grow an audience and retain an authentic voice for the band?
Booking and promoting everything myself is definitely something I struggle to stay on top of so I’m glad it’s going well. I’ve definitely had a couple people say “Oh yeah I know your band, I see you on TikTok” (or whatever other app) which can definitely feel a little strange. My approach is that I just use my own voice and keep it genuine, but I try to only share as much of myself as I feel comfortable doing as far as “public persona” goes. Sometimes I feel like I want to dial it back when I feel I overshared so it’s been a learning process, but everything I say online on our band account is in the same voice I’d share stuff with on my personal profile for friends.
PUPPY ANGST
MIX
Thematically, a lot of Puppy Angst’s music seems to contemplate/navigate emotional complexities/insecurities, often gradually unpacking situations in real time. Do these songs represent a form of catharsis and do you find that finishing a song teaches you a lot (or at least something new) about yourself?
They definitely do. I tend to write lyrics in a very direct and honest way which is a little ironic since I’m someone who bottles things up otherwise; it’s something I’m trying to work on, but I’ve always been bad at talking to people about how I feel and confrontations like that. The songs feel kind of like my diary and it’s really weird to be so vulnerable and raw when sharing them with the world… I’m not really sure what makes me want to do that. In some ways I stay a little more guarded because I usually don’t share the songs with anyone, not even really my bandmates, until I feel like the experiences or emotions I was working through in the songs are less fresh. It can feel strange to bring those feelings back up well after the fact when working on the song and then releasing it. I guess that’s something I’ve learned about myself through this process of writing. I write from my own experiences and so the songs end up being really raw, about things that I still probably wouldn’t ever speak with someone directly about, but they’re kind of like a time capsule as well.
Your debut album was called Scorpio Season. Scorpios are some of the most magnetic, controversial and intense signs of the zodiac. I see a correlation in the way that a record can show all of the sides and facets of a band. What were the toughest parts of putting together your debut and what did you want to inherently shine through the most? And are you an astrology head?
It was really hard to muster up the courage to release this batch of songs. I think I was more vulnerable and raw than I expected to be or was maybe comfortable being, at least on certain songs. I touched on this in the previous response, but I hold back on just speaking directly about my innermost thoughts and feelings. I almost cut certain songs for that reason, but that didn’t feel right so I forced myself to be okay with being as real as possible and keeping the tracklisting the way I originally intended it. Being so open and sharing this work was really scary and hard for me to do, but I’m really proud that I pushed myself out of my comfort zone to do it. I wanted this album to be a departure from the first EP we put out and I think we achieved that, especially sonically. We spent a lot of time building up textures, and I put myself through the wringer working on the arrangements when I was coming up with backing vocals and synth parts that would serve the songs. I didn’t want to just add layers for the sake of it, I wanted to approach everything very intentionally. And it was really hard to step outside of the parts I normally played and sang to come up with something new. So hopefully all of that shines through and it’s clear that there was a lot of love and intention behind this release. The songs mean a lot to me and I put a piece of my soul into this album for sure.
I’d definitely call myself a casual astrology head; I don’t know everything about it and I wouldn’t call myself an expert, but certain things really resonate. People love to find patterns to make sense of the world and astrology is one way we do that, which I really love about it. It feels very human in that way. I definitely identify with being a Scorpio, and the themes that go along with the sign and season resonated for this album. Scorpio season comes during the transitional period from fall to winter; in a way, it signals death making way for the rebirth that comes in the spring. The imagery of death, rebirth, and reinvention was really powerful to me and seemed to come up a lot in the subject matter on the album, so it just made sense to me to go in this direction.
Tell us more about the recording process/inspiration behind this new track!
TKO came together really quickly! I basically wrote most of it on one of the last days of 2022 along with a bunch of other half songs after a very long writer’s block. We then spent about a month of practices workshopping it while preparing for recording. Our friend Johanna Baumann who worked on Scorpio Season recorded and mixed this one, too; she does amazing work and I feel like I can really get in the zone when we’re working on recording together. We have a good workflow. John had the original idea to drop everything out during those last two passes of “I can stand up for myself” and then Dan thought it’d be cool if instead of dropping everything out, we ran most of the tracks through a phaser. That specific part leading into Dan’s final guitar solo hook is probably my favorite part of the song.
This might sound a bit corny, but lyrically the inspiration for it came from being in therapy for a couple months and basically having someone tell me that I need work on speaking up for myself and placing importance in my own feelings rather than always trying to be a people pleaser. I view most of the lyrics as kind of tongue-in-cheek and poking fun at myself for not being able to always speak up about how I’m really feeling. Sound wise I think I was feeling kind of inspired by The Cure and Beach Bunny.
Any under the radar musical peers we need to know?
So Totally, Pine Barons, TVOD, Highnoon, Mandy Valentine, Pillow Princess, Doused, Bleary Eyed, and Velvet Graves just to name a couple!
What’s special about the mix you’ve made?
Dan put it together with song suggestions from everyone in the band so there’s a piece of everyone’s taste in there. I also wanted to highlight as much new shoegaze as possible, so after getting the base mix done, Dan and I added a bunch of songs by bands we’ve played with and have been inspired by so there’s some friends and peers in there, too.
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