The Stool Pigeon

Scott McMicken, aka ‘Taxi’ to his bandmates and fans, is a complex individual. He spends a lot of time thinking. For 25 minutes of our interview he discusses the message of Dr Dog’s last album, which goes by the pregnant title of Fate. In the (infuriatingly) abstract terms of a philosopher, he considers the feelings and emotions of the record, and confesses to the misery and depression that motivated him to make the album one of catharsis.

“I’m interested in overly-romantic or embellished ways of looking at the past,” McMicken says. “I have never been able to look back at my past and, to be perfectly honest, I don’t think I could identify any point in my life and suggest I was happy. But as I get older it’s important for me to reflect on my past with a sense of peace. I have to accept everything that has gotten me to this point in order to move into the sort of future I’m hoping for.”

And there you have it, kind of. Fate is about submitting to the things you can’t control, which is in itself a kind of freedom. I think. The Philadelphian five-piece’s fifth album is easily their best, combining McMicken and fellow songwriter and “best friend” Toby Leaman’s (‘Tables’) rather special songs with a reverence for classic production and reference points that McMicken is quick to agree with - The Beatles, The Beach Boys and The Band. “Of course this idea of the past blends with us being a retro-sounding band,” he says.

Despite their penchant for vintage rock, their name has caused them to be mistaken for a hip hop group in their home city. Indeed, perhaps never before have critics dealt out the phrase “great band, terrible name” quite as much as when addressing Dr Dog.
“There are so many bands that I’m a huge fan of whose name I remember hating,” McMicken says, “but the more that you get familiar with what they do and see things through their lens, you realise how it makes sense.”

Predictably, McMicken couldn’t care less about their name. This could be a sign that the therapy of Fate has worked. That is, he’s pretty good at being less sad now.

“Who am I to say I deserve to be miserable?” he says. “It’s a joke if I’m walking around unhappy. There are people on the planet who know suffering that I can’t even scratch the surface of. It’s such a waste of life.”

Popularity: unranked [?]