Office Dog • Spiel Album Tour • AKL

100% good & Undertheradar are stoked to announce a nationwide album release tour to celebrate the release of Office Dog’s debut album Spiel. After a blistering July debut at Auckland’s Whammy Bar, the tour will see the band perform headline dates in Auckland, Dunedin, Christchurch and Wellington.

Sept 22 – Thirsty Dog – Auckland
Oct 14 – Dive Dunedin
Oct 15 – Space Academy – Christchurch
Oct 19 – Meow – Wellington*

Tickets available from Undertheradar.co.nz, or *Moshtix in Wellington

Office Dog formed at the end of 2021. Amidst a busy solo career, Kane Strang sought a new musical outlet, this time desiring a more collaborative approach. Strang reached out to drummer Mitchell Innes, who played in his live band on his 2021 tour, as well as in the live bands of Violet Hirst, Vanessa Worm and Juno Is, to embark on the new project together. Innes had just moved to Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland, and the two of them had their first jam at the back of a barbershop in Parnell. Rassani Tolovaa (Fazed On A Pony, Juno Is), who played in Kane’s band from 2015-2018, was still residing in Ōtepoti, but with some gentle convincing, joined the others up north. Moving between Mitchell’s shed in Ponsonby, Rassani and Kane’s place in Manurewa and the basement of a church across from the Powerstation, the trio began writing together. Over the next year, fragments began assembling into songs, ultimately culminating in the creation of Office Dog’s debut album, Spiel.
Prior to the band’s current composition, guitarist and vocalist Kane Strang found himself constantly shifting between Auckland and Dunedin due to a series of significant personal events. These emotional upheavals pivoted the original direction of the musical project, Office Dog, transforming it from a lighthearted endeavour into something deeper. For Kane, Office Dog became somewhat of “a ladder out of a pretty rough spot”. The long car journeys between cities became a blank page for the songs’ lyrical content, which journal the interplay between light and darkness and reflect his emotional passage.

Office Dog linked up with and began spending a lot of time with musician producer De Stevens (Marlin’s Dreaming, School Fair), who had just accepted a job at Roundhead Studios, and the band recorded Spiel over the course of two days (sometimes tracking into the early hours of the morning) until the album was complete.

In 2022, Office Dog released their first string of double singles — ‘In The Red / Tightropes’ and ‘Big Air / Warmer’ — which both garnered instant success across Aotearoa’s Student Radio Network and beyond, ‘In The Red’ and ‘Big Air’, charting on the Official New Zealand Music Hot Singles Charts, the Radioscope Alt Charts and various Top 10’s, including 95bFM (Auckland) and Radio One 91FM (Dunedin), as well as spins on BBC Radio 6 show Parallel Universe Tonight, hosted by Marc Riley (The Fall). They were invited to perform at Eyegum’s multi-venue festival Great Sounds Great in late 2022, where they had their live debut, placing them further on the indie radar. Since the announcement of their album, they have released two singles, ‘Hand in Hand’ and ‘Gleam’, both of which have had airplay and charting success, the former shooting to #1 on both the Radioscope Alternative Charts and the SRN Top 10 and charting on the Official New Zealand Music Hot Singles Charts, as well as receiving support from the likes of Undertheradar, Coup De Main and more. ‘Gleam’ has received significant support from Apple Music in Australia and the USA, making it onto official editorial playlists such as New Music Daily, Breaking Rock and New In Rock.