Doss embrace absurdist Americana on explosive EP standout “YOUGOTSTYLE”

Between relentless DIY touring across the UK, Europe and US, gaining support slots alongside Fat Dog and DEADLETTER, it’s been a breakout year for vocalist/guitarist Sorley Mackay and drummer pal Chilton Fawcett. It’s at Edinburgh’s Wide Days where BEST FIT catches the pair in action, a lairy and aggressive set at La Belle Angele fires up a young crowd of angry tweens looking to mosh. Later conversing with Doss on Zoom reveals an immediate contradiction of their intense stage show presence. “I’ve been doing a bit of gardening today, a bit of landscaping,” laughs Mackay on Zoom. “I don’t know if it’s projection, but I always thought we had a reputation of being cunts. I don’t know where that came from, ‘cause I think we’re really nice. But I always got that feeling, ‘Oh, we’re like the arseholes of Glasgow.’”

The inception of Doss dates back to COVID, where after breaking his wrist, Mackay made the transition from jazz and blues soloing to making beats and “writing angry wee songs in a Scottish accent”. When lockdown lifted, he recruited family friend Fawcett on drums before a French tour, later convincing bassist Mark Black – who had “never played bass in his life” – to join the band live on a Slovakia run. Initially operating as a punk-inflected, rhyme-heavy hip hop outfit, it’s around this time of expansion where the Doss project evolved into rougher territory. “We’re trying not to be too sceney, Glasgow’s kind of got that, you can fall into that quite easy,” says Fawcett.

Coming up at a time where Scottish working class students occupied a “weird amalgamation” of genres, Doss notes the clique-ification of wildly different music scenes. “We played, obviously, lots of gigs in the city, and I’ve got people who I would consider pals in cliques because the music has never been genre specific,” explains Mackay. “We just went and did our own thing. Now it kind of feels like it's come full circle, where we are getting on well with a lot of people again, and people are realising we're not total cunts. We're slowly becoming, I would think, more business orientated. We've got management, a booking agent, and it's been good. Trying to smooth out the rough edges, so to speak.”

Today, they share an ethos of choosing collaborators and support acts based on relatability, not sound. People putting in the same kind of drive and effort, “it’s like inviting folk into your flat,” Fawcett describes. “You just want similar minds, come on in the gaff, let’s get to know each other.” Sharp social commentary is a distinct marker of the Doss soundscape. Through thick layers of deranged, funk punk distortion and frenzied electronics, abrasive lyricism tackling themes of gentrification and generational trauma shout for an independent Scotland. There’s a real hunger right now for invigorating contemporary art fronted by young bands rather than “old farts”. Mackay and Fawcett are, of course, passionate with strong views, but both are wary of becoming just another preachy caricature in a politics-heavy musical climate.

“The EP is political, I don't know how well I've done it, but I was purposefully trying to get away from outright writing stuff about politics,” admits Mackay. “I think that trope, which was probably popularised by Sleaford Mods and IDLES, all that post-punk like ‘Boris Johnson is a fucking wanker,’ it's been done, and I think it needs to be more nuanced now. So many bands do that now, I think I did that with the early Doss stuff, and I'm kind of trying to get away from that.”

“It gets a bit much sometimes,” Fawcett agrees. “We don’t want to pigeonhole ourselves as staunch political haters, obviously there’s undercurrents of it. Its head will poke up now and again. We’re all for community, in whatever shape or form, we always see the benefits in that.” Doss’ self-titled EP, out today via Alcopop! Records, aligns with the duo’s approach to the act of performance as an already inherently political medium. Their new 4-track assembly is a sign of more insinuated development in the display of politics, using dark comedy and “strong, hateful characters” to tell a story. “Continuing that method into hopefully an album one day,” shares Fawcett.

“Moving forward, the way we write is going to be less on the nose,” says Mackay. “I kind of want to start writing ballads or love songs. I feel that politics, with phones and social media, you’re pummelled from every angle with how fucked the world is. It's nice to have a wee bit of escapism. If there is any political stuff in these songs, it's tongue-in-cheek because it's entertainment, after all.”

Following in the sharp footsteps of previous singles “BIGFELLAFUNK” and “SUPERSECRETAGENT”, “YOUGOTSTYLE” is the absurdist result of a morbid fascination with Americana. After the duo’s first successful US tour playing for hardcore crowds, both Mackay and Fawcett caught the bug of pursuing peculiar character studies in Bad Lieutenant with Nicolas Cage, Paris, Texas, and David Lynch films. “It’s less kind of urban sprawl, and feels more like the Midwest,” Mackay says of the EP. The pair describe becoming obsessed with cowboys, Tom Waits, and what Mackay calls “capitalism turned to, like, a million.” “Dennis Hopper, that man can mould into anything and just pop up anywhere as different characters,” Fawcett asserts.

What makes “YOUGOTSTYLE” stand a cut above the rest is its ironic, razor-edged execution of its foreboding influences. Mackay recites just some of the lyrics on his long list of notes: “Skulls, blowjobs, threesomes, strip clubs, monster trucks, corn syrup, shoes, dildos.” The track, which turns out to be the pair’s favourite on the EP, nearly fell apart entirely during the last day of recording in January with producer Iain Stewart. An exhausting process to finish, it first sounded too much like a lame rock cut for the band’s liking. “We fucking hated that tune, we were so gutted,” Mackay confesses.

Delirious and running on six Red Bulls at 5 a.m., Mackay attempted to steer the track into overt political territory. “Like a pure Rage Against The Machine tune,” before the songwriting process took a completely different turn when a friend of his dismissed the predictable idea. “That song’s definitely a happy wee mistake. The last bit in it, the wee outro section, I'm just shouting stuff. That was probably my first time not trying to be super cerebral, relinquishing the ego a bit and then writing just dumb lyrics that are funny. I think that kind of works for America anyways.”

“YOUGOTSTYLE” began as a failed studio session, though it’s improvisational final form is undeniably one of Doss’ most thrilling numbers. On the abandoning of self-seriousness, Fawcett expresses: “The whole process and our pal stepping in, being that mind that’s outside the box, it just shows you how sometimes in the pit of despair, all you need is somebody to come on and change the whole fucking thing.”

Adding to the momentum of Doss’ EP release is an instore tour at every Assai Records, and a launch show at Glasgow Art School set to sell out. “It’s full throttle now,” Fawcett declares, eyeing festival season and another wee tour of France on the horizon. “The world’s ending, it’s circling the drain, and we’re going full throttle. We’ve got to get in while we can.” In classic Scottish pessimistic fashion, Mackay adds fuel to the fire: “We have this running joke. What's going to happen is we're going to be on the cusp of getting really big, about to sign a deal with, like, EMI, and then it's just going to be World War Three.”