Dog Day Stick Close To Home

Dog Day's 2007 release, Night Group, came together under some unusual circumstances.

After the Halifax foursome were signed by Germany's Tomlab label, they stepped into a million-dollar studio to record, and singer/guitarist Seth Smith later flew to a hippie commune in Germany to work on the album's final mixes.

Dog Day returned to Halifax to record their newest full-length, Concentration, after two years of heavy touring to support Night Group. It didn't take Smith and the rest of the band — drummer Casey Spidle, bassist Nancy Urich and keyboardist Crystal Thili — very long to decide they wanted this recording experience to be a little more local.

CHARTattack got the scoop on Concentration from Smith.

CHARTattack: Why Concentration as the title?
Seth Smith: It's always a big fight about what we call these things, but we just thought that this name kind of suited the record — the mood of the record, I guess.

It's a little slower than our last record. It's definitely dreamy and maybe a little spooky towards the end, but has a very consistent driving force behind it. A lot of it is mental subject matter, like internal conflict.

Our first name [for it] was Peace, and we got some mixed reviews from our friends. There isn't an ounce of anything political in our lyrics, so we didn't want people to think it was a political record.

You built your own studio in a basement for this, right?
Our friend that owns a thrift store in Halifax let us practice in his basement, basically. It's pretty decked out because it used to be this indie, underground club. It's kind of a dark saloon environment.

We wanted to record this record ourselves, and it was only two houses away from my house, so it was really convenient to do it there, after hours.

Did that allow you a lot more freedom?
Yeah, and it definitely comes through on the record. We were able to be a little more patient with it.

We recorded the bulk of it within a month. We had been working on it for five months, but we were touring, so it just happened whenever we could fill in the gaps. We got to try out more percussive ideas and production ideas this time. Normally, when you're in a studio, you don't really have time to explore.

You guys spent a great deal of time on the road touring for Night Group, yes?
Yeah, we had an opportunity to tour the U.S. and Europe. We really like touring. For us, it's a vacation. It's paid for, and you get to play for people every night, so it's a good deal.

Did some of this new material develop while you were on the road?
Definitely. There are probably three or four songs that were almost fully recorded on the road. Our song "Rome" was written in Italy.

We were influenced by a lot of the music we encountered on the road. In Europe, it's definitely a different scene than Canada. People are really excited to see a Canadian band, so it was exciting for us as well.

When I listen to Concentration, I hear a lot of things that make me think of music from the '70s and '80s. Were there any specific bands or trends from those decades that inspired you?
Our last record, we were listening to a lot of Joy Division. This record, I don't know... When you go on a tour for three months, you basically listen to everything you've got on your iPod.

For this record, we listened to a lot of Beach Boys... and a lot of Christian Death, which is the complete opposite. We actually saw those guys play in Hollywood. It was awesome.

As far as the '70s thing goes, we're fans of warmer recordings and softer sounds.