Fat Dog’s chaotic carnival is changing course, but still marching forward: “I wanted to make something I actually feel”

When Fat Dog supported Foo Fighters at Berlin’s Olympiastadion this summer, all vocalist Joe Love could think about was the other A-listers who have graced the 75,000-cap venue. He brings up Zinedine Zidane’s infamous 2006 World Cup Final headbutt and Jesse Owens’ legendary 1936 Olympics heroics, then nervously trails off as he pictures where a certain fascist dictator may have stood. “You don’t expect, in your life, to be playing in a stadium built in 1934 in Berlin,” adds synth player Chris Hughes. Similarly, you don’t imagine Dave Grohl will ever ask your bassist: “How does it feel to be in the fucking greatest band in the world?” “He did say he was going to go for beers with us,” sighs Hughes, who claims he hovered outside Grohl’s green room for three hours. “We got… jilted?” remarks Love, scratching his head for the right word. Instead, coffee with NME will have to suffice, on a muggy summer’s evening in the Brixton garden of a multi-coloured house owned by their label, Domino (Arctic Monkeys, Wet Leg). Love spent his weekend binging The Sopranos inside, while Hughes tended to his sailboat in Sweden. Nowadays, a weekend with no festival comes once in a blue moon for Fat Dog. L...