Meet Dog Tags | your friendly neighborhood neo-soul band

We had the good fortune of connecting with Dog Tags and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Dog Tags, we’d love to hear what makes you happy.
We find joy in community. These past few years especially taught us that as healing and important as it can be to stay in your own space and work and work at your gift until you can’t do it any longer, sometimes you need friends. We’ve found joy in returning to friends, finding community, and making Denver a place that we are proud to call a home. We cook together, we throw little kickbacks, we can even find community in just sitting in a room and talking together.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Dog Tags is about community and lovers and friends and homies and boos and even sometimes frenemies. You can find that all over our Instagram because that is the message we want people to get from our music and shows, that these relationships you have in life are important and are worth speaking bravely about. We want people to know that even in this age of mysterious internet identity that you can be out and open about the people who make your life special. We want to also remind ourselves that in all the millions of dreams that we have that music is something best served with and to community.

We started at as a duo (vocals and guitar), and at its core, Dog Tags is still a duo, but we’ve grown. First with a drummer, then a bassist, then a second drummer and another bassist. That of course meant we could give a bassist a chance to play guitar and then we added trumpet. Our configuration is certainly something that sets us apart from local bands. We are proud to be a band with the capacity to shift styles, people, songs–all with a purpose to grow ourselves and grow the relationships within the band. Our biggest accomplishment has been this Summer, just a year in, and we’re already playing nearly a show every week, polishing our set, and writing a bunch of new songs to add more life to the set. The greatest lesson that I think we’ve had to learn is that getting seven musicians anywhere at the same time is hard, but we also learned that a great part of the music business is the trust and faith that you in your fellow musicians to have your back. Honestly, that is something that we know is a big part of who we are as a band. We are artists who are willing to stop our art in order to be good friends to one another. Not every artist can learn how to share the light and shine as a unit. That is what makes us special.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Monday we have to find a good local shop to chill in–maybe the Noshery in Northwest Denver.

Tuesday we’d have some brunch from Sassafrass American Eatery, then we would probably head to my fave plant shop Planted. Then maybe settle in for a home made dinner because let’s face it, we’re artists and can’t really afford to be eating out like that.

Wednesday have an at home breakfast, then we’d head to Cheeseman Park for a bit, after which we’d muster up the strength to walk to City O’ City for lunch making sure to save room for a sweet potato cinnamon roll from Make Believe Bakery. We’d go home for a bit then re-emerge to go to Wednesday night jazz jam Off the Cuff hosted by one of the best artists in Denver, Enman (@namebackwardss).

Thursday we would chill at home all day because you know you don’t leave the Meadowlark until at least 1 or 2 when there’s music.

Friday we would leave the house for brunch at Jelly and then rest, work, or write until we got ready to go out. Our fave club in Denver is Milk because there’s just so many options and sometimes it feels like you can’t get out with its maze-like halls and everything.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
We want to dedicate our story to one another. The band really wouldn’t be the way it is if we hadn’t have found a way to come together and be friends. Dog Tags is really the product of people who needed community–even if we was just a 2 hour rehearsal every other week. This one is to Heather, Diego, Gavin, Aaorn, and E. We love y’all and could not do it without ya.

Website: https://ffm.bio/dogtags

Instagram: @ddogtagss

Image Credits
Main photograph (Ian Singh @ian_singh23) Other credits go to Adrian Rincon and Motherfunk Events @motherfunk_events (Maddy Stegman)