A Q&A with James Studholme from Police Dog Hogan
Joyful pop – but with all the wrong instruments…
What’s the title of your latest release, and what does it mean to you?
Our album The Light At The Top Of the Stairs. Literally a place of safety. The light that’s stays on through the night. This is our most heartfelt and emotional record to date and speaks a lot to our mortality. The title suggests a few different interpretations.
What was the hardest part about putting this release together, and why
It took along time. We released another LP, Lightning Strike, in the middle of the recording process. Lightning Strike was almost a live record, recorded to tape. This one was much more considered. The hardest part is always deciding which songs to leave off!
Who produced the release – what did they bring to it? If you produced it yourselves what do enjoy most about producing your own material?
Our long time Production collaborator is George Murphy at Eastcote where we’ve recorded pretty much everything since the From The Land Of Miracles LP. He’s a wizard. You can hardly think of something you’d like to hear or do and he’s done it. It’s like every day magic. You start the day with nothing and chip away in an ‘all ideas are good ideas until they’re not’ kind of way. By nightfall a song emerges.
What do you want the listener to take away from listening to your music?
To be moved. To laughter and tears and all points in between. People tell us that our shows fill them with joy and yet we also look out from the stage and see folks crying. Deeply moved by ‘One Last Trip’ or ‘Devon Brigade’. I guess all you can hope for is that the music has meaning for people and finds a place in their lives.
How does a track normally come together? Can you tell us something about the process?
At it’s best it’s a kind of alchemy that defies description. There’s the songs that come in fully formed and just require appropriate decoration. The challenge is to not to do the obvious thing. That’s always tempting and usually wrong. There’s also the songs that take years because there’s a mysterious piece that you know the song needs but can’t find. There’s also the songs that come from jamming. The only thing that’s the same about the process is that it’s always different!
What band/artists have influenced you the most since you started this project, and why?
I would always say Steve Earle and Jason Isbell. Also been listening a lot to Gregory Alan Isakov, Josh Ritter, Waxahatchee, Big Thief and War On Drugs.
What countries would you like to tour? Are there any standout venues you’d like to play in?
We’d love to go to Denmark! I think they’d like us there. The Royal Albert Hall would be good or one of those big old joints on the South Bank. I did get to do ‘West Country Boy’ as a guest of Show of Hands at the Albert Hall and that was pretty special. If I allowed myself to go full fantasy it’d be Red Rocks in Colorado and the Hollywood Bowl.
If you could pick one track for our readers to listen to in order to get a taste of your music, what would you pick, and why?
‘Cage of Stars’ from Overground. It moves me.
What ambitions do you have for the band/your career?
To keep on keeping on. To keep writing, keep recording, keep touring. We don’t really have much of a metric for success. We’ve already gone past what we could have reasonably expected.
Finally, as you leave the stage, what are your parting words?
A very big thank you to everyone who has been on this incredible journey with us. We love you.
For more info visit: pdhogan.com
