The world is dogworld's

A distorted sample. An eyebrow-raising riff. The opening 10 seconds of ‘FISHSACK’ — the first track on dogworld’s debut EP RANGE — leads the listener down the path of intrigue.

Then dogworld come to life.

Ella Tinney’s drums kick into action. Jesse Dowley’s bass takes you for a swelling ride. The guitar of both Max Sturm and Yasmine Hosseini introduce a grungy garage rock sound, continuing for the opening verse.

The stop-start, dynamic pace of dogworld continues throughout the track — and the entire EP — traversing genres and sonic styles. 

‘FISHSACK’ totals just three minutes and 20 seconds but such is the assortment of sounds, you would be forgiven for thinking it was a five-minute behemoth upon first listen. It’s a trait that carries through RANGE, as the 22-minute project drifts from heart-racing to sobering, post-punk to alt-country.

It’s been just 15 days since the EP’s release when I’m joined by Yas, Ella, Jesse and Max at The Evelyn. Max offers us all a glass of water as we sit ourselves down behind the stage in The Ev’s bandroom, tightly packed in and surrounded by kegs, band gear and the ever-present hum of the pub’s kitchen.

The past 24 hours have been nothing short of hectic for dogworld. Supporting fellow Canberrans HYG the night prior in Thornbury, before opening for Armlock the evening I am speaking to them, followed by a headline slot in Snowgum’s Gig For Gaza on the Sunday, post-launch life is coming at the band fast.

But so are the plaudits. With shoutouts from the likes of Anthony Fantano, Nabihah Iqbal and Apple Music’s Matt Wilkinson, dogworld may have already surpassed the stage of being labelled ‘up-and-comers’.

When you consider that the four-piece have only been putting out music for two years, the maturity and polish of their work is all the more impressive.

“I was already good friends with Jesse (through The Australian National University’s School of Music) and I’d met Ella once before but it was a pretty unusual start — most people are good friends before they ever decide to have a rehearsal,” Max explains of the band’s early days.

“We all properly played together and met for the first time in Ella’s garage,” Yas adds. “We didn’t even have a mic. I was not comfortable enough to sing in front of everyone. It was a bit awkward.

“I was really nervous because everyone in the band had been jazz trained on their instruments and I had not been trained full stop. I felt like I was the worst musician by far… but once we played together, I felt like there was a place for all of us, musically.”

dogworld’s musical influences at the time almost led them down the path of neo-soul, but taking a pair of songs that Yas had previously written (‘Flower’ and ‘Clown’), as well as more collaborative track (‘Left’), the quartet headed to the studio to record their first three singles a year after forming.

In 2022, the tracks were released, prompting change for dogworld in multiple aspects in the two years since. 

The visual identity of the group turned a page, with long-time friend of Jesse’s, Nikola Jokanovic, being handed the reins. The group put trust in the Newcastle-based photographer and videographer to oversee the visual elements of RANGE, following the simple line of thinking of “everything you do is sick, so let’s commission you for the whole thing,” Jesse jokes. 

Max gives further context, stating that “all of the music’s fairly disparate genres so it needs a strong, cohesive element to tie it all together.”

Another big change since the recording of the initial singles was the band’s move to Naarm/Melbourne in early 2024 to pursue more shows and to gain access to a larger audience.

Perhaps the most notable change since the recording of the group’s debut singles, however, is the evolution of dogworld’s musical style. What was then a blend of indie pop/rock/folk has grown into a multi-layered, rich sound, with the band sharing lead vocals throughout RANGE.

‘777’ — the EP’s closing track and the band’s collective favourite — began as a demo of Jesse’s that “sounded like an Alex G song.” Initially, the bassist was originally hesitant to put in front of Yas, Ella and Max.

“I just randomly wrote lyrics as well — placeholder lyrics — and then never changed them… there was some meaning I found to them afterwards,” Jesse explains.

“This is the place I belong / But not the place I deserve,” the Newcastle-raised bassist nonchalantly recites in the opening line of the track.

 “There’s a crack in my head / It feels like medicine,” he continues. 

Following a similar formula, Max explains that the lyrics to ‘DASHCAM’ came about in a moment of haste, initially just “singing gibberish at the gigs” when performing the song.

“The lyrics came a bit later on, when we were recording the vocals. I just picked a topic and ran with it.” The topic being the pensive activity that is driving down the freeway. 

By the time the first chorus arrives, the track is at a raging pace, as Max assertively sings “I feel caved / Tired / Spent / Wired / Through.” The post-punk influences of this track are evident, particularly in the delivery of the chorus. That, along with a stellar riff, makes for a catchy, vigorous tune.

Upon ‘DASHCAM’’s abrupt ending, the listener is greeted with… you guessed it — a country track. Called… you guessed it — ‘Country’.

Fittingly, given that RANGE was written during a three-day retreat on a friend’s farm on Yuin Country, there was a collective pull towards that genre of music.

“I think we were all wanting to write what ‘Spud Infinity’ is to Big Thief’s Dragon New Warm Mountain [I Believe in You] — our own version where it’s just that one song that leans into a caricature of a country song,” Yas recalls of the creation of ‘Country’.

Being amidst the constant creation of “so much loud stuff,” in the words of Jesse, there was a desire to slow the tempo.

“We were like ‘let’s make a nice, chill one; 70s country kind of stuff… that one’s always nice to play,” he continues. 

Whilst not falling into the country genre, ‘The Wax’ also follows a similar mould, being one of the EP’s slower songs. Leveraging a riff of Yas’, the record’s third track was largely improvised from that point, which has carried through to its current form at gigs.

As Ella reflects on the song: “I like ‘The Wax’ a lot ‘cause there’s a lot of room for improv with the rhythm and the flow of it — it’s fun to play live.”

Playing live is something that dogworld have fully embraced since arriving in Naarm six months ago. As Jesse puts it, the quartet have “played more in the past few months than we have in the past three years.”

“There’s a lot more room for a bigger scene and for people to grow,” Yas adds. “In Canberra, it’s a small place, people don’t really go out as much as they do in Melbourne. The audience is pretty limited and there’s not that many venues… there’s a point that bands can’t get past that you can in Melbourne.” 

That said, the thriving DIY scene, buoyed by the likes of Gutwrench Records, which is run by a good friend of the band, is just one of the many lasting influences that the Australian capital has on the group. Near the top of that list is Jonathan Corcoran, the former sound engineer at the now-closed (although potentially soon-to-be-reopened) music venue, Sideway.

Corcoran engineered and mixed all of the tracks on RANGE, as dogworld sat in on all of the mixing sessions.

“We were there for everything… going over every sound, rather than just sending it off,” Jesse outlines, as each member of the band eagerly put forward their tribute to the “Canberra legend.” 

“We played [at Sideway] so much so he knew exactly what we sounded like live,” Jesse continues, with Yas adding “[Corcoran] gave us a lot of space like he spent so much time overdubbing and changing things. He really understood what we were going for.” 

What dogworld are going for next is yet to be determined, but the next release is already in the works, with a handful of new tracks up their sleeves. Will it be high-octane post-punk? Probably. Will it involve country, blues or funk? Maybe.

One thing that can be said with more certainty, though. At their current trajectory, the world is dogworld’s.

Keen to listen to and keep up with dogworld? Their Linktree should have everything that you need.