This week's guest is Alex Stoitsiadis from Dogleg. The Detroit-based band has earned oodles of listener attention and critical acclaim with the release of Melee, their debut album that had the unfortunate distinction of coming out the same day the world essentially shut down. After 18-plus months of pandemic-related inaction, Dogleg is finally ready to get out there to play in belated support of that outstanding record.
A few days after turning heads at the Pitchfork Music Festival and a few days prior to setting out on a lengthy U.S. fall tour (including a Sept. 24 stop at X-Ray Arcade!), Stoitsiadis spoke to My First Band host Tyler Maas about the long road to the breakout record's release, the surprising response the album received and some exciting things that are on the horizon for Dogleg now that they can actually play live again. Of course, the conversation also turned to Stoitsiadis' musical past, including the role video games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero had on his musical exposure, meeting his future bandmates at a School of Rock camp, drumming in a duo called Sleeping Pilots in high school, and his decision to start a solo endeavor the world now knows as Dogleg. Along the way, Stoitsiadis and Maas also talked about their shared love of the band Bear vs. Shark.
My First Band is sponsored by Mystery Room Mastering and Lakefront Brewery. The show is edited by Jared Blohm. You can listen to My First Band on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify and wherever else you get podcasts. You can also listen to rebroadcasts of previous My First Band episodes on WMSE every Wednesday from noon to 12:30 p.m. CST. Music used in this episode comes courtesy of Devils Teeth ("The Junction Street Eight Tigers") and Dogleg ("Modern Language").
