Chosen by Monk
We kick off the new week with this bunch of Bristol punk ‘n’ rollers asking ‘And What?’ with this first slice of kick-ass high-voltage musical mayhem from their upcoming second album, due later this year.
Guitarist Mil Martinez popped into the Singles Club to explain a bit more about the background to the song:
It’s a total embrace of working-class British seaside culture, I grew up in south London and in 2016 relocated to a small coastal town in the southwest. The song highlights the frustration of living and working in a seasonal holiday resort all summer with no holiday whilst the world around you has theirs. I’m also poking fun at myself for being grumpy and using some of the outdated British phrases my dad used to say to me as a kid. On your bike son!
The band wanted the video for ‘And What?’ to have the same optimistic British candour of classic sitcoms like Only Fools And Horses and Benidorm with big nods to documentary photographer Martin Parr. The band’s drummer and video director, Chris Hugell told me:
We wanted the video for ‘And What?’ to be Split Dogs on a proper British summer holiday; fish and chips, ice creams and tattoos! Without blowing our own trumpet we think we hit the nail on the head. Big up the locals and the seagulls.
The band have just finished work on their new studio album with more info and a release date coming soon. What we can tell you is that it was recorded live, direct to tape, as vocalist Harry Martinez elaborated:
The new single and the rest of our upcoming album has all been recorded on 16 track tape with no computer in sight, it gives the album a sound that can’t be replicated with a modern recording system. You feel like you’re in the room with us, like your part of the song, the first time you hear it, it already feels familiar.
- Split Dogs play The Fleece in Bristol, supporting UK Subs, this Friday (24 May) and then the Bearded Theory fesitval on Sunday (26 May).