Dogstar played “Joy” on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon“, a track from their album All In Now.
Dogstar performed “Joy” on Thursday night’s episode of “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon“.
The song sits seventh on All In Now, the band’s fourth studio album, released on May 29 through their own label Dillon Street Records. Nick Launay, whose credits include Idles, Amyl And The Sniffers, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Midnight Oil and Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds, produced it. The video for “Joy” was directed by Carlos Garcia Medina.
Bret Domrose traced the track back to a purchase he made during the sessions. “Where does ‘Joy‘ begin? It begins with ethereal, dreamy reverb guitar that sets a tone. I bought a new guitar — a vintage Gibson ES335 Hollow Body that I brought in. It gave us some new tones to explore and opened a new avenue for us to explore.”
Drummer Robert Mailhouse described it as a “moody, creepy piece” that “opens up and becomes powerful”, adding that “lyrically, it’s certainly not about joy as you would see it defined in the dictionary.”
On the album as a whole, Mailhouse said: “The album really sets up the energy at the heart of this album and the fun that we’ve always had playing together.” Keanu Reeves put the band’s appetite for a follow-up more bluntly: “We couldn’t f**king wait. Personally, I loved it all. For me, the attitude was like, ‘let’s work hard and let’s GO.'” Domrose added: “It felt like our last album was our ticket into a party. And now we’ve shown up to the party — the three of us.”
The band point to their touring since the 2023 comeback as the thing that shaped the record. “Just seeing the smiles on people’s faces and feeling their joy on a musical level,” Mailhouse said. “Playing some outdoor festivals, and when it starts to rain, seeing nobody leaving.”
“Those festivals in Europe really made a big, positive impact on us,” Reeves said. “We loved playing to people in the afternoon who didn’t come to see Dogstar but connected with what we were doing. And that connected with us.”
Domrose continued: “You never know if people are going to show up, are they going to stay, are they going to listen? It meant a lot that people not only stayed but got into songs that they mostly had never heard before.”
Launay‘s name reached them through their management, and they assumed it was a mistake. “Our management put Nick‘s name on a list of possible producers,” Domrose recalled. “And we all thought it was a typo. Like this guy will never work with us,” Mailhouse added.
The producer’s own account: “Working with Bret, Robert and Keanu was extremely fun because it brought things back to why people form bands and make music. These three friends wrote some killer songs and wanted to push some boundaries in the studio. It’s all passion and no B.S. For me, it’s always a treat working with such capable musicians because the sky’s the limit when experimenting, and that’s exactly what we did, while smiling all the way.”
He added: “I love how Bret‘s voice and melodies soar above the solid grooves on this album. There’s something very honest about it, which I guess is why it’s called All in Now. I think this friendly trio is sounding HUGE and will turn some heads this time around.”
Dogstar began with a chance meeting in a Los Angeles supermarket in 1991, when Reeves spotted Mailhouse in a Detroit Red Wings shirt and asked whether he needed a goalie. The band released Our Little Visionary in 1996 and Happy Ending in 2000 before splitting in 2002. They announced their reunion in 2022 and released Somewhere Between The Power Lines And Palm Trees, their first album in more than two decades, in October 2023.
The trio is Domrose on guitar and vocals, Mailhouse on drums and Reeves on bass.
