Dog Chocolate - So Inspired, So Done In *Pre-Order

After 7 strange years of relative silence, and 13 years of being a band, Dog Chocolate have
returned with ‘So Inspired, So Done In’. Their fourth album is their most focused, cohesive and
song-y yet. They still sound like a bin full of wasps, but now the bin has double-cream or a
Viennetta or something at the bottom. While many of the 16 songs on here barely make it past the
3-minute mark, each one is bursting with all the textures and colours of an office cupboard: full of
old sweets, fluorescent markers, and multiple ways to fix paper together.
Thematically, a lot of ground is covered, with songs tackling subject matter as diverse as
overheard conversations, healing fungal toenails, the Rogerian concept of the Actualising
Tendency, bronze age living conditions, dreaming songs into being and human-plant relations.
Work (and anti-work) is a recurring theme, as is artistic inspiration and burnout. Dog Chocolate
revel in the mundane and incidental, to explore bigger, existential questions. Recorded and mixed
by POZI’s Toby Burroughs and mastered by Sofia Lopes, ‘So Inspired, So Done In’ charts a
long and confusing period in the band’s collective life, marked by major life changes, losses and
shifts, colouring the band’s trademark frantic, daft and anxious energy with a contemplative glaze.
Dog Chocolate continue to investigate their internal and external landscapes with playful curiosity,
frustration, silliness and empathy.
Pre/history of the band: In the early 2000’s Andrew (vocals), Rob (guitar, vocals) and Matthew
(guitar, vocals) played together as teenagers in South-East London-based maximalist, costumed
surrealist punk band Yeborobo. They met drummer Jonathan playing with his instrument-

swapping masked band Limn at art space Utrophia in Deptford. Later, when both bands had split,
Dog Chocolate formed with a shared desire to make a band that was simpler than their theatrical
past: small amps and light guitars, no more than 2 drums at any one time, a keyboard no longer
than a ruler and a shared ethos… “it’s about giving a shit, but at the same time not giving a shit,
but not ‘whatever’, not giving up never!”. The band floated the term “pencilcase punk” to describe
their jumbled, colourful, dense and instant music.
Dog Chocolate built on this early scrappiness, bedding into their sound over several albums. Their
first “Or” (2014) was a split with Ravioli Me Away, soon followed by “Snack Fans” (2016) and
“Moody Balloon Baby” (2018). Along the way they played gigs with bands as wide ranging as
Deerhoof, No Age, Dry Cleaning, Palm, Daniel Wakeford, Shopping and Pozi.
With a tendency to converse with each other both lyrically and musically cultivated over many
years, the members of Dog Chocolate bounce off each other, respectfully disagree, try to make
each other laugh and share some of their most vulnerable feelings with each other. ‘So Inspired,
So Done In’ is their own unique offering during these unsteady times: a language of friendship
translated into songs.
Track listing:
SIDE A 01. Infinite Nuggets 02. Fun is Always Brilliant 03. Employee 04. Springfield Library
Haunting 05. Drumming on a Tree with FM 06. Potatoes in the Basement Bin 07. Fungal Free
2023 08. Green Stuff
SIDE B 09. Architecture Days 10. Munchies and a Pen 11. Guildford Awkward 12. No Pavement
Story 13. Worst Jobs in History 14. Unfinished Rock ‘N’ Roll Tattoo 15. A Bit of Paper 16. So
Inspired, So Done In