Singled Out: Krooked Tongue's Dog Days

08-11-2025

Rock trio Krooked Tongue just released their new single 'Dog Days", and to celebrate we asked Oli Rainsford to tell us about the inspiration for the song. Here is the story:

I think I was in Solva sometime last year, surfing. And on one of the evenings, my body glowing and covered in the salt from the sea, I began mulling over the premise for 'Dog Days'. Thinking about the crudeness and lack of perspective that we had when it came to teenage love. How good everything always seems when we look back on it now through rose tinted glass. The sun always shining, our periphery filled with a constant stream of friends and family. Everything felt like the 'now', and in a lot of ways, it was. We didn't hold the responsibilities that we do in our twenties. Yet, our first loves seemed to be all there was and all there ever will be. It was a new feeling, one never before experienced and so, it WAS everything. I think it's fun to look back on now with the perspective of having lived. All of that stuff is so trivial, but still so important in shaping who we are in our teenage years.

The line;
'for the weekends are gonna be strange
Our Dog Days are numbered'

Harks on the cataclysmic nature of the end of the summer holiday. Back to school. You might not see them this much again for a while, especially if they're at a different school.

'Punch-drunk,
Creeping up on lovestruck
How could such a young buck
Feel such pain'

Is a verse that holds the hindsight of knowing that that boy has the whole world ahead of him, but still he's caught up in heartbreak. He doesn't know how good he has it. 'Dog Days' is kind of an age old story. We've all broken hearts and we've all had ours broken. Ultimately, it's what makes who we are.

The actual bedrock for 'Dog Days', lyrics, chords, melodies, structure etc began on the acoustic. If you listen throughout the track, there's acoustic all the way through just filling out the mids. It only felt right to include as it pays homage to the way the song was originally written. I wanted the 'vibe' for Dog Days to reflect that 'all or nothing' nature of being 'in love'. The two of us against the world, standing on the outskirts of the galaxy, at peace with having found 'the one'. How we put it on a pedestal, how life can't get any better, how we'll never find anyone else ever again. Then you realise that the feeling you were romanticising when you were 15 only exists when you truly feel it, later in life.

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen and watch for yourself below and learn more here