Dogs in a Pile – an Interview, by Rob Smittix

Interview with Brian Murray – Dogs in a Pile – by Rob Smittix

RRX: You’re on the road right now?

BM: Yeah, moving right now actually.

RRX: How’s tour life been treating you?

BM: It’s been great! It’s been a big year for us. We’ve got like 130 shows so far, that are  booked. Between last year and this year we’ll hit about 40 states.

RRX: That’s it? Jesus!

BM: We’re flying to Iceland soon, which will be our first time really abroad. We did Jam Cruise which was technically out of the country but…

RRX: Iceland, wow that’s interesting.

BM: Yup with The Disco Biscuits.

RRX: That’s awesome!

BM: Yeah pretty crazy.

RRX: It doesn’t get much better than that! Obviously it’s all about music for the most part but I’ve been on mini-tours and such myself, not anything big but… what do you find yourself doing when you’re not actually on stage in your downtime?

BM: Well right now Jeremy (Kaplan), who is our keys player and our photographer are in the back of the bus writing a song, right now. We do that a lot we’ll write music. I like to go to different museums in cities and check out landmarks and all of that. Just exploring the country you’ve heard about your whole life but never actually got to see until now.

RRX: It’s nice when you actually have that kind of time. I find like when we were on tour that food was one of the main things we’d like to enjoy from different regions. Like finding the cuisine that represents the area.

BM: I like going to the coastal places that have seafood, that’s my favorite. We’re in the South right now in Alabama and we have some killer barbeque last night. Getting BBQ in the South is amazing. Colorado had some great food too. Getting great food on the road is a big part of it.

RRX: It is. What’s been a highlight of this tour so far?

BM: Recently we got to play in Ventura, California at the Skull and Roses Festival. We got to meet so many great people that we always heard about our whole lives. Like Phil Lesh from The Grateful Dead. We met Bill Walton. I actually went up to Bill Walton and I was going to say something but before I got to say anything he said “you’re in that dogs band, right?” I was like yeah! He said “you guys are f**king awesome!”

RRX: That’s incredible!

BM: Hell yeah, it was so cool!

RRX: And coming from him that dog’s band description is good enough.

BM: I also got to meet other people from The Grateful Dead world, like Trixie Garcia (Jerry Garcia’s daughter), Robert Hunter’s daughter and Dennis McNally (Grateful Dead publicist).

RRX: That’s pretty dam cool. Especially when you’re out there doing your thing and they actually pay attention and listen. That’s one of the things I’ve noticed playing with big names, a lot of time they don’t even listen to your set. They’re off doing their own thing but those few times when their acknowledge you and say that you killed it up there! That’s a reward that you could never put a price tag on.

BM: It’s cool!

RRX: Any horror stories from this tour?

BM: Not from this tour, not yet. It’s weird I don’t know what to call a tour any more because we just have multiple month runs with a four day break in between. So it’s basically like one gigantic year long tour.

RRX: It kind of all blurs in together.

BM: I don’t know we’ve had crazy trailer issues, where we are stuck on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere in Ohio or something, in the cold. Having to unload the whole trailer on the road with the risk of getting hit. Or the van will break down or something. We had to cancel our first show ever due to weather. We were in Steamboat Springs, CO going to Crested Butte the next day. There was a massive snow storm, I’ve never seen anything like it. Everywhere you looked outside of the van was just complete white, you could not see the road. We were following another car and we couldn’t even see the car. We had to cancel, it was like that for hours all the way to Crested Butte.

RRX: Well, better safe than dead.

BM: But no real nightmares.

RRX: Well, we’re glad your tour is going to lead you to Rye Bread Festival July 27-29. I’m not sure which day you’re playing on but… I was told I should specifically talk to you because of you’re important history with Rye Bread. Can you tell us about that?

BM: Yes, Rye Bread was one of the very first shows I played with Dogs in a Pile. The first time I actually ever played a show with them was January of that year and I think Rye Bread was in June. I didn’t see them for a couple of months since that January and they just continued as a four piece for a while. We didn’t really think that the five piece was something that was going to work. We played a couple of shows in Vermont in May and things were really starting to click. I was just going along as a friend to hop on with them to experience being on the road. I sat in a couple of times and you could feel something building. When June came along I did a couple of little small shows where I sat in for like two songs. But Rye Bread was the first time that I sat in for a whole set.

RRX: Ah, okay!

BM: I had just written this song ‘Can’t Wait For Tonight,’ which is a song from our first album. In the real early days it served as a theme of what was happening with the band. I wrote that about The Dogs before I was in The Dogs.

RRX: No kidding!

BM: I would go to see the band. I was a fan and good friends with them and I would make music with them all of the time. So Rye Bread was really special. I remember meeting Tony Markellis that day, he was playing for The Trey Anastasio Band. It was the first time that I really experienced… I don’t know I had this really magical feeling. I walked out into the woods as they were playing their second set and just had this moment of total awe and inspiration. I knew it was something that I needed to keep doing.

RRX: What year was that?

BM: That was June of 2019. It was Brooklyn Bowl shortly after that in July and every show since then has been full shows for me.

RRX: So cool well Rye Bread is in it’s 47th year and it’s going to be bigger and better than ever!

BM: Nice, Rye Bread! I don’t think there’s been a show in Upstate New York that we haven’t had someone scream Rye Bread from the crowd.

RRX: It’s like saying Aloha in Hawaii. It’s a greeting.

BM: It’s funny I remember walking to a pond at Rye Bread to go fishing and there were a bunch of giant loaves of Rye Bread floating in the water. I don’t know if that’s a tradition but I hope to see it this year.