Go big or go home: not just a sentiment of daring encouragement, this is an attitude Puppy have lived by for a long time. Combining riffs brazen enough to rival the boldest metal acts with an affinity for addictive pop hooks, this is a band who make no apologies for who they are. With the release of debut album ‘The Goat’, their freewheeling sense of character has never felt clearer.
“We thought it was kind of funny calling a debut album the greatest of all time,” frontman Jock Norton introduces. Talking on a day off between tour dates, the group are in high spirits. With their long-anticipated first record on the rapidly approaching horizon, such energy is only natural.
“I don’t think we ever sat down at any point and went, ‘Right, album time!'” Jock recalls, laughing. “‘We gotta write a hit, boys!'” he proclaims in an American accent. “We didn’t really have that pressure. I think we try and keep it fairly constant.”
Arriving more than two years after their last EP, ‘The Goat’ is Puppy at their most vividly characteristic. “I think the time that was afforded to us – both leading up to recording the album and the process itself – kind of gave us quite a big pool of songs to choose from,” Jock states.
The result is a record that draws from everything they admire: from good ol’ fashioned rock’n’roll, taking in swirling sonics, powering through catchy chorus hooks and beyond, this is Puppy as you’ve always loved them and as you’ve never heard them before.
“I think you can hear us pushing out in different directions a bit more on the album,” Jock enthuses. “There’s elements of stuff that we like that we hadn’t really had a chance to explore in our songwriting yet.”
