Music Q&A:
Candi’s Dog

The Tyneside folk-pop trio tell Big Issue North why their job is much like an eighteenth century cottage industry. Their EP A Light Has Gone Out is out on 25 November and they play the Greystones, Sheffield that night.

What informs your music and songwriting?
Our songwriting addresses themes of love, loss, mental trauma and the advantages of rail travel over other forms of public transport. The Candi’s Dog sound is created with laughable levels of technical skill, but with much love, in a shed on the North Sea coast.

How has the band evolved over the years?
Over the years Stephen went from not having a beard to having a beard and then back to not having a beard. Matthew flirted briefly with a moustache while Daniel ceased shaving for several months without any noticeable growth.

What are you up to artistically at the moment?
We’re off on a mini tour around the UK to promote our new EP A Light Has Gone Out, accompanied by long car journeys and incessant arguments about the pronunciation of British town names.

What’s it like to operate in the music industry today?
We operate much like an eighteenth century cottage industry – long hours working with your family in a cold wooden building, with a brief trip out now and again to sell our wares. Despite the doom and gloom, technology means we can record and promote our music more easily than ever without answering to anybody else. While most of our money comes from merchandise sales at our shows, our music is listened to by small numbers in far-flung countries which is encouraging, if not actually profitable.

What’s on you rider?
English breakfast and Earl Grey tea and an assortment of biscuits. As Candi’s Dog becomes more successful we intend to demand cake.

Tell us your most embarrassing or surreal experience.
Playing to small children while being accompanied by multi-coloured dancing gnomes. A case of not checking either the small or large print before accepting a gig offer.

What’s your worst lyric?
This question is impertinent and we decline to answer it. That line never really flows off the tongue that well when we sing it live.