Interview: Kane Strang of Office Dog - Auckland Show This Week

It is all go for Office Dog in 2026. Launching their keenly awaited second album Prime Corner on 19th June via Flying Nun Records, the Tāmaki Makaurau-based trio of Kane Strang, Rassani Tolovaa and Mitchell Innes are very soon jetting to the northern hemisphere for their first ever UK / EU tour. Playing a final Office Dog fundraiser gig at Saturday 2nd May before they boost it abroad, Strang hopped on Zoom for a catch up with Lucia Taylor...

Office Dog
Saturday 2nd May - Whammy Bar, Auckland
Tickets on sale HERE via UTR

Lucia Taylor: Prior to Office Dog, you had a prolific solo career. What was the defining moment in wanting to start a collaborative band, and how do the experiences with Office Dog differ from solo artistry?

Kane Strang: I think it was about the time I did my last solo tour, that you were at, I'm pretty sure! Was it Hamilton or something?

Oh, that's right. Yeah, then we went to that Indian restaurant!

Yeah, another life! The thing was, my biggest solo songs were already old for me, even when I recorded them. I wrote them when I was 19, 20 in Germany, and I guess when I did that last solo tour, I was on stage and playing songs that were almost a decade old, feeling pretty detached and almost like I was a totally different person at that point. It was still really nice to play them, and I love that people like those songs and were coming up to see me, but yeah, I had this gut feeling that it was time to do something new around then. And of course, Mitch drummed in that last iteration of my solo band. I remember when I called him about that tour, I said to him, “Hey, after this, what if we did a new band?”

As far as differences go, I think in general Office Dog stuff's just less isolating for me. I can't obsess over things as much, or kind of overcook things like I feel I often did with my solo project. Because I think the thing with that was, it was so tied up with me as a person and who I am... I put so much pressure on myself to try to be as good as possible and as authentic as possible and all that. Whereas with Office Dog it's much more about experimenting and just having fun and making music with my friends.

You're in Dunedin now, beautiful autumn trees behind you.

I know, this is a bit dramatic, actually.

No, I love it.

Looks like a green screen.

Of course, the Dunedin sound and all that is such a loved phenomenon in Aotearoa. With your solo work, you kind of brought a new generation to that sound. But since then, you moved to Auckland, and that's where Office Dog began. How do you think that geographic move impacted your sound?

Well, it’s kind of funny because I moved to Tāmaki and then just started a band with two people who are also from Dunedin. But for me, I think often when I'm home, I keep to myself quite a lot, or at least at that time I did when I was here. I would sort of be a little hermit. When I moved to Auckland, I started going to more shows again. It was a really good time to start something new, because lots of people that are adjacent to us were starting new bands, like Ringlets and School Fair. If anything, I think I was just going out and getting inspired by local music more up there, and I met a lot of really interesting creative people around that time — not that I don't know that sort of person here — but it was like there was a new wave of it for me.

Dunedin, I love it, but it can be very quiet, and weeks can go by where there's not a gig on or something. That's often because so many venues have shut down, things like that. Or I'm just completely out of the fucking loop. I don't know. That's probably more likely. But I think that's it, really. I was going out more and meeting lots of people and getting closer with people like Mitch. And all of a sudden I felt quite inspired and ready to try something new.

You mentioned School Fair, which is Dee [Stevens]’s band, right? Who you worked with for the albums. What's the process like working with him?

Oh, it's very easy now. For one, he is super talented. He's a musician first and foremost, I still feel, even though he spends about 14 hours a day in Roundhead. He has that musician's brain, which I think is important. We're incredibly close. He knows us, he knows me, he knows how I write. He and Mitch went to school together down here, so it runs deep in that way. We were also the first thing he did at Roundhead, and I think that was a really important thing for all of us. (Spiel) was his first record in the big fancy studio, it was me kind of turning a new leaf, and us recording songs we were really proud of. So even though it was only a couple days, it felt like a really huge moment for all of us.

It was really interesting with this new album, watching how much he'd improved in the studio and just knew his way around — it was just nice to see. It probably saved us thousands of dollars as well because he's so quick. Those are my absolute favourite times, when we're all in there and we're just going for it. I love Dee. He's actually going to meet us in Paris next month, which I'm very excited about. He happens to be over there; it’s crazy timing.

I was going to ask you about that tour, the first European tour for the band... Well, probably seeing Dee, but what else are you most excited for?

I'm really excited to go to places I've never been. I was lucky enough to go a couple of times when I was making my own music, but we're playing in Wales and a bunch of UK cities I never set foot in, so that's really cool. I’m excited to go back to Scotland, I love Scotland, it feels like parallel universe Dunedin to me. I felt very comfortable in that way. I lived in Germany, like I said, when I first was writing those early songs and stuff. So I'm going to get to see some friends I haven't seen in almost a decade, probably seven years. They're all coming to our Berlin show. Lots of friendly faces in Berlin, actually. Like Carla [CC(TV)] is going to be there, Gussie and Ezra [Earth Tongue], a few people over there, so that'll be nice. If no one comes, at least I'll get to see them.

A good reunion! So in 2024, Pitchfork gave your debut album Spiel a 7.5 and last month the single 'Front Row Seat' was named one of the five best songs of the week by Stereogum. How has this recognition from renowned publications felt as an indie artist from New Zealand, and what do you think it means for the NZ indie scene?

That’s an interesting one. I try as much as I can to not care about that stuff too much. When I was younger, I was never one of those people who really checked in on those things, and I think it's a bit ingrained in me to try to block it all out and plough on. But at the same time, I know they are very respected publications in the music world, and obviously, it means a lot to be recognised in that way. Especially recently, it seems like Stereogum genuinely care, they didn't have to post about our Whammy show and stuff, you know? Things like that really mean a lot. For me it's a matter of figuring out who's just regurgitating the press releases and who's actually listening and thinking about it. That's what's important to me. But, yeah, I'd be lying if I said I didn't wake up and kind of think... that it made my day. Because you work so hard on this stuff.

A lot of time being over here, you do feel really removed from things like that. It's impossible to not see bands getting that recognition and stuff, so it can be hard feeling so far away from it. Even with the new record, those are things that I touched on a bit — like being here on this island and being from a city that's at the bottom of the country, at the bottom of the world. It's tricky to navigate sometimes. Everything is more difficult; touring is more difficult. That's essentially why we got dropped from our label last year, because we couldn't tour as much as they wanted us to. So to have things like that happen and then still get acknowledged by these kinds of publications, it's exciting, and it's exciting that it's happening sort of quite early on in the rollout. Because for me, all my favourite songs are not singles. I really struggle with this time when it's only singles coming out.

What are some of your favourite ones we can look forward to?

Sort of the middle patch, to be honest. It's a wee run of 'Reins', 'Permanent Day', 'To Slow To A Walk' and 'Lesson'. I really like those four. And yeah, the last one, the title track, we worked really hard on that. I forced everyone to record at least the end section like 20 times more than we probably needed to do. I remember Dee saying “No, we've got it,” and I was just like “Please, Dee, one more, this has to be right.”

You mentioned the themes of being at the bottom of the country, the bottom of the world. And I read — regurgitation of the press release right here — that the album was written whilst house-sitting in West Auckland and named after a real estate ad. I kind of expect some themes of the home as well. Which, of course, is kind of interesting in our little post-lockdown lives. Are you able to speak more on that theme and further themes on the album?

At the time of writing Prime Corner, I was really feeling how differently I live [compared] to a lot of my closest friends and kind of struggling with that. I'm in my early 30s now. A lot of the people I know and love are buying houses and having kids and all that sort of thing, and here I am sort of slogging away at the old music thing still. I think through writing the album, I was trying to get to a point of acceptance, you know, accepting that this is just who I am and what I love. I'm probably going to do it forever, and I'm probably always going to live a different kind of life to the people around me. I guess the phrase "Prime Corner", I'm not really thinking about literally, like “That's what I want. I want a really nice house and in the best spot on the street.” It's more it represents for me clarity and peace, and the record's kind of a journey to that. If that made any sense at all.

I think it does. Looking around and being like, oh this is a very different lifestyle to my peers, and grappling with what that means for you and your future and all that. Definitely relatable.

Totally. It's like the grass is always greener kind of thing, you know?

Yeah, 100%.

Because probably as soon as I had that, I'd be like, “Oh my fucking God, get me out of here. I need to go back to Scotland and play my little songs.” It's really about the push and pull of normal life and that sort of thing.

Speaking of push and pull as well, what my favourite thing about Office Dog is, is the super highs and lows, the heaviness and softness, and Prime Corner is said to have your heaviest and your softest songs so far. What do you attribute those extremities to? And what else can listeners expect from the album?

I think Office Dog will always have a heavy side that's quite prominent. We love being loud. It's as simple as that. But at the same time, my interests have changed a lot, even in the last few years. I've been listening to a lot more instrumental music and movie soundtracks, and I even made my first soundtrack for a friend’s short film and things like that. So all that stuff kind of reshaped how I was approaching music, and naturally I just started wanting to write things that were gentler and prettier. The other thing was. I started trying to work out how the hell open tunings work on a guitar, and often so many of them are so pretty, I didn't want to drench them in distortion this time around. So the record has a purely instrumental fingerpick thing and even a song where there's no drums aside from a cymbal swirl.

We're trying not to restrict ourselves too much and make Spiel 2 essentially. I guess that's kind of the reason. Or maybe I'm just getting old and I can't handle all the riffs anymore, I don't know.

One last silly question. In your opinion, what breed would make the best Office Dog? And if you, Mitch and Rassani were dogs, which would you each be?

Well, definitely not my parents' dog that I've been staying with. I'll tell you that. He's a psycho, he’s been waking me up every morning barking at the TV. He wouldn't go down well in an office, I don't think. The best office dog, maybe just a good old golden retriever, can’t go wrong with that. You can't look at one of them and not feel good. Speaking of which, Mitch is probably one of them.

Oh, definitely, yeah.

So that's easy. Ras... I reckon Ras is like a beagle. I don't know why, it's just the first one that came to my head. And, me... shit, that's tough. Probably a border collie.

Yeah, cute.

Busy brain. Doesn't like to be locked up too long. Loves sheep. All that.

'Prime Corner' is out on Friday 19th June via Flying Nun Records, you can preorder the vinyl LP edition HERE and via good record stores.