When Chicago singer-songwriter and musician Sam Pirruccello started Dogs at Large in 2015, he meant it primarily as an outlet for his solo material, with a rotating cast of local talent backing him up. The group released a handful of albums in its first five years. However, the group’s lineup has solidified in recent years, first with their 2023 album County Line and recently with new EP Moonlight. Now, it’s very much a real, fully-functioning band.
In addition to Pirruccello (who also played acoustic guitar, electric guitar, piano, and organ on the album), the group’s current lineup includes Adam Gilmour (bass guitar, electric guitar, Rhodes piano, vocals), Chris Kolodziej (drums, percussion), Steve Malito (pedal steel guitar), and Jamie Yanda (electric guitar). Both the EP and County Line were produced and mixed by Doug Malone at Jamdek Studio in Chicago, Illinois.
Last year I interviewed Pirruccello for a profile in Chicago Magazine, where he talked about how the band had taken on a life of its own in recent years. Listening to Moonlight, it’s clear he continued that path of growth as a singer, songwriter and band leader.
On the Bandcamp page for the EP, he writes, “Within these songs are stories of cold-blooded killers, doomed love in southern cemeteries, fear of death by faulty medical equipment, reincarnation, poisonous nostalgia, drinking to excess, and home remodeling (in a sinister way). I didn’t realize how dark/sad these songs were until I typed all of this out, wow, but I think they are a little bit funny at times too.”
I recently caught up with Pirruccello to find out how he and the band have further grown on Moonlight as well as a track-by-track discussion.
It seems like you’ve been pretty busy of late.
Yeah, for sure. We worked on this EP in the first half of this year, and then we’ve been just doing shows here and there and getting ready to do some things in the fall. We got something going on at The California Clipper here in Chicago in October, and then we’re playing a couple more shows this fall to just kind of get out there a little bit after this EP comes out.
What music have you been listening to lately?
Well, we played with the band, the Cactus Blossoms in Springfield, [Illinois] recently. I’ve been liking their new record a lot. The new MJ Lenderman record is really good. My friend turned me out of this band called Ginger Root.
I just went to this folk festival in Evanston, which is nearby and saw this guy Willi Carlisle play. He is a really good songwriter and performer, and he just has these sort of monologues between songs. Really just keeps the energy up in spite of there not being music. Every song has a story, and he really is good at just keeping the energy going and telling a story between songs. And I saw Chaparelle there too, and they were really good. They kind of had a classic country vibe.
When I interviewed you last year for Chicago Magazine, you had described your last album County Line as one having an old road semi-isolated feeling with pastoral energy. How do you think your goals for this new record compare with that album?
Yeah, so there are some similarities for sure. It’s the same band that recorded the last one, with the exception of that we have Steve Malito, who’s our pedal steel player, back. So, he’s back full time and then we don’t have a keyboard player in the band anymore, but essentially, I wouldn’t say there’s a major departure from that one. We recorded it with the same person, [Doug Malone], who recorded half of County Line. We liked working with him for that one, so went back in the studio with him.
The songs are kind of up the same street in terms of, they kind of have a country rock, Americana sort of vibe. But I’ve been thinking about genre less because I feel like with the five instruments, just having pedal steel and playing the way we do it sort of intentionally or not intentionally sort of imparts on the songs a certain feeling or a certain energy. So, I don’t really think about genre as much as I was for the last one. It was more just thinking, “okay, we have these new five songs that we really like, and we have some time to go in a studio and knock ’em out, so let’s just kind of do it.” I wouldn’t say there’s a huge grand plan behind it.
You wrote on the Bandcamp page for the EP that the songs deal with darker and sadder topics, but that you were able to find humor in them. Why do you feel that?
I didn’t even really realize how dark the subjects were until the end of the process. And when I was looking back on what the lyrics were and the general energy of the songs, I don’t think the songs are necessarily dark, but sometimes darkness and humor can be really close together. And I find that if you’re writing a song about a heavy or somewhat depressing subject, if there’s no humor in it, it’s kind of too much. So those moments of levity, I think in part the songs another dimension which can help to lighten the mood or at least give you at least a little bit of a chuckle, because I don’t want everything to be so serious all the time. But then again, I also don’t want to write songs about everything’s so great and there’s nothing wrong with the world and there’s no problems and all that stuff. So maybe it’s kind of striking a balance between writing about things that can be considered a genuine conflict or problems in someone’s life or a sad story, but then also not wanting to be super serious with it and throwing a funny observation or something like that.
What were some of the biggest inspirations for the songwriting? I know the last album was inspired by your road trips.
In terms of the inspiration, I would say it was more than any specific event or anything like that. The inspiration was more in terms of trying to write songs in a certain way and really trying to not necessarily have a narrative arc, but to paint a picture with somewhat defined characters in all the songs. So not all of ’em, I would say maybe “Moonlight,” “Louisiana” and “Back Half of A Bottle.” They have that dimension to them where I’m trying to write a character. So that was the goal of this, and some songwriters who I think do that really well have been inspiring to me.
So that sort of method and that style of writing was inspiring. And the other songs, we took some sonic influences and references from certain things, which ended up working their way into the tunes, especially the fourth track, “Back Half Of A Bottle.” I was really kind of almost trying to rip off a late seventies George Jones sort of style of song where it’s just almost one of those songs where it’s so depressing that it’s just kind of funny. There are various sonic references for different things in the record, but I wouldn’t say that the musical influences have changed too much other than what I’ve always been really passionate about and inspired by.
How do you think the EP showcases the band’s growth compared to the last album?
I would say it’s a bit more representative of how we sound live because the record before was kind of cut with two different setups in mind. We still had our keyboard player, who isn’t in the band anymore. And now this EP is fully the five piece band that we play with at every show. It was recorded mostly live. I ended up not playing guitar during the initial takes of the song sometimes just to give the other players a little more room to breathe and give the songs a little more space.
I think we figured out a style of recording that works really well to showcase the band, but also ends up sounding a lot like our shows, which is really nice because I think this is maybe the closest we’ve gotten to capturing the sound of the band live, although we did fool around and put on some percussion and keyboard overdubs and stuff. But try not to add anything that you’d miss live, if that makes sense. So, there’s some organ and some percussion in the background of some songs, a little bit of piano, but I try not to make it such a prevalent element of the mix that you’re going to wonder where that went if you see it live or whatever.
I know last time you talked about finding confidence in your voice. It seems like you’ve worked to continue that trend.
Yeah, I’d say so. We used a really good microphone for the vocals in this one too, which really allowed us to capture more detail. And I’ve been kind of afraid of capturing too much detail in the vocals for whatever reason. I’d always used a dynamic microphone like SM7, always my favorite, but glad to have kind of broken out of that and tried something new for this one because it really let the vocals sound a lot richer and more detailed. I was less concerned about going for a specific aesthetic and more just wanting it to sound really good. So maybe that’s an extension of that too.
Why did you pick Moonlight for the EP’s title?
Well, it was the title of one of the songs, and I couldn’t pick out a specific set of lyrics in this one that I really wanted to have as the title. And the songs to me feel a bit more nocturnal, kind of a bit darker. The moon is mentioned specifically in a few of ’em. I just kind of liked it as a title and it didn’t seem like a bad idea. Also, for the cover art, I used these historical images of Louisiana from the late, I think they’re from the late 1800s, or could you even get historical imagery at that time? I don’t know. But they’re from a long time ago, and I thought the kind of black and white satellite imagery sort of reminded me of the moon’s surface a little bit.
You talked a little bit about some of the tracks already, but I wanted to go through each of them and have you talk about either what influenced them or anything special that happened during the recording or writing. Did you have anything else you wanted to mention about “Moonlight”?
Yeah, we had it kicking around live for a while. We probably could have recorded it for County Line maybe. I don’t remember if it was that old or not. But yeah, this song is sort of like a murder ballad. It’s kind of about a killer and he is sort of bumbling around and doesn’t really know what he’s going to do with the corpse. Just a really sloppy murderer. And he doesn’t really even know what caused him to commit this crime. So, he’s just kind of like a reluctant character in a lot of ways. And there’s, but reluctant, but he kind of wants to be a badass. He wears a leather jacket, and he tries to be cool and tough, but then he gets into the situation and he’s kind of freaking out. He is like, “well, I didn’t think I’d end up actually doing this sort of thing.”
And it’s kind of a country rocker. Steve’s got the cool pedal steel lines, and Jamie’s got some cool riffs. We originally didn’t think we were going to have any acoustic guitar and just be a little more sparse and open, but then everyone thought it sounded good when I put the rhythm track on. So, we just kind of kept it and recorded this one. I think this one we got in a few takes, but I don’t really remember how the recording went. And then Adam added Rhodes piano at the last minute, which gave it a bit of a kind of nocturnal vibe.
How about “Louisiana”?
It’s kind of about a couple that meets in New Orleans and then they have sort of a fling, but it’s really one-sided where it meant a lot more to one of the characters than the other. And the one person leaves, they don’t see each other for months, and then they kind of have this awkward reunion at this bar where there’s a honky tonk dancing kind of inspired by the Empty Bottle near me, which has these honky tonk nights and Fridays. It’s not autobiographical at all, but there’s just elements that were inspired by that. So yeah, they just kind of had this awkward reunion. It’s sort of a one-sided romance sort, a tragically comic sort of situation where one person is like, “oh, this relationship meant a lot to me,” and the other person’s like, “I don’t even remember you,” sort of thing.
So, it’s very one-sided and kind of pathetic in some ways. I didn’t really know where it was going at first. I didn’t envision it as being sort of up-tempo and almost poppy sounding as it is, but the other band members thought it could have somewhat of a Belle and Sebastian sort of vibe. So, kind leaned into that a bit and the tambourine parts and the rifts and things like that. But then the pedal steel adds a little bit of that tanginess to it as well, which we definitely wanted. I wish I put a harmonica solo in there. Every time I listen to it, I’m like, “damn, I wish it had a harmonica solo.” And then I think my drummer reminded me that we almost did that and decided not to, and I was like, “shit, I wish I could go back in time, but maybe I’ll release a special version of it with an overdub or something.”
Do you find yourself doing that often? Wishing to go back and add something?
Oh yeah, wishing I could go back and change little things, for sure. I try not to think about it too much. But certain songs I just think about, “oh, what if I went this direction? What if I went that direction?” But then at some point it’s just like you can’t torture yourself by thinking about that too much. I don’t enjoy listening to older stuff, even if I like it. I’m always, I’m probably my own biggest critic.
What stood out with “Crow”?
This song’s the oldest one I think that we recorded for this EP. And the lyrics sort of deal with the idea of potentially being reborn sort of as a type of animal that’s more like an observer of the world around it from a vantage point. I just thought the idea of observing human society from a bird’s eye view is kind of an interesting thing to think about, especially if you’re a bird that had previously been a human and you’re kind of observing society, but you can’t necessarily connect with anyone by talking to them or whatever. And that’s partially why I chose a bird’s eye satellite view for some of the cover art. And this one was really fun to record. It was basically we did these harmonizing guitar lead lines, some of which were written in the studio.
We added some really nice sounding rotary speakers, like Leslie Organ on it, and got kind of a groovy thing going with the drums and the bass. I think Doug really helped us out with this one shaping it. I don’t think it would’ve turned out the same way at all if we’d just home recorded it or recorded it with a different person because I felt like he had had a lot of really good ideas for it. We also added some Nashville string acoustic on this one and on “Louisiana” too. I think just those two songs, in which the top three strings are just tuned higher. So, it has a chime-y sort of quality to it. It can be a little too Tom Petty if you’re not too careful. Not that that’s a diss or anything, but I thought it added a nice element in the verses for this one.
What stands out with “Back Half Of A Bottle”?
So, this one I was saying earlier was really, I was trying to go for sort of a down and out late seventies George Jones sort of country song where the vocals are really prominent. It’s got sort of the classic country instrumentation, and it is kind of a woeful tale about imbibing to excess and really poisonous nostalgia, wishing things could be the way that they once were. And again, it’s not autobiographical, but maybe like, oh, this is a version of myself I could see when I’m 50 years old if things go really bad. So, it was kind of getting into that headspace a little bit. And this one’s fun because the whole band gets to take a solo. So, in the middle of the song, you have a pedal steel solo and then a guitar solo and then a bass solo and then drums and piano come in.
And that was really fun. I see a lot of bands do that live, but it doesn’t necessarily end up on recording. We thought it’d be fun for this one to just kind of have everyone take a solo and make a little feature out of it. So yeah, it was a fun one to record. We recorded this really nice upright piano on it. And I think the take that’s on the recording is basically of me and Adam’s takes playing bass. So, we each kind of took a turn at trying to create some parts, and then I think they just kind of got cobbled together into one part, but could be misremembering, but I think that’s how it went.
The last one is “Not The Same.” Anything special with that one?
I think maybe it was the second one that I wrote that ended up on the EP. And this one’s really fun because I feel like it’s kind of a journey. It starts just solo with me on the acoustic guitar and then this one gets just bigger and bigger, and then there’s a really wild, loud part at the end. I’m really just proud of how this song progresses throughout all of its different parts and the way that the energy builds throughout. I think we did that in a way that we hadn’t really been able to achieve with other songs before. And it was fun to do a guitar part that’s more of a finger picking style. And I think at least in the first two thirds of the song, I kind of had a reference point of some Neil Young stuff where he is doing a similar picking style and then he is got the rhythm section doing something similar to what Chris and Adam are doing.
And then also there’s this Of Montreal record from 2013 called Lousy With Sylvianbriar, where he is doing a little more classic instrumentation again instead of all of his electronic stuff that he does now. So, I think those two vibes were sort of the inspiration for that. And then is really all Jamie’s stuff, I’m just playing the main chords. And then Jamie wrote that solo himself and he just kind of gets to go off and do his thing for a little bit, and then we bring it back down at the end and we have these tremolo guitars going, which is really fun to do. I think that one turned out really well. It’s one of my favorite songs that we’ve recorded. And I kind of wanted to put it first on the EP, but I decided to put it last instead. Another one of those decisions I’m going to overthink, but that’s how it goes.
What was one of the biggest surprises with the EP?
I think just how good of a job Doug did producing it, honestly. Not that it was a surprise because I knew he was a good producer. I mean, the stuff he recorded for us for County Line sounded really great. But I think maybe it’s just the different approach we took to mic-ing drums and vocals for this one or whatever. But I think we were all just really happy with the way that sonically it turned out. I think sound wise, it’s probably our best sounding recording we made. So that was nice, and it was kind of a surprise. I didn’t really expect that to be the case. I don’t feel like I need that. I mean, I would definitely record in a more lo-fi style or with less polished production. But I guess just how polished should end up sounding was kind of surprising to me.
Since you had worked together before I imagine you came into it with more confidence.
Yeah, it was definitely more dialed in this time for sure. It was more the first time you work with someone, it’s a bit of a getting to know you thing and not knowing exactly what the other person’s going for. But this time I think he kind of understood how to approach recording with us.
What’s one of your favorite stories from working in the studio?
I think just the way that “Crow” came together was really fun. That was probably my favorite part of the process, in that song in particular, seeing the whole band really sculpt that song together and the lead parts on it. Jamie wrote the one part before, and then Adam, my bass player, wrote the harmonizing part. And then just having them sort of work that out and just seeing the way the whole band contributed to making that song come together was really cool to me. And it was just really fun. The whole process of recording was really fun for me, especially. I did less than ever almost, at least when the whole band was there, because I was just singing scratch vocals. They were doing the takes, and then I ended up putting my own stuff on it later. But it was fun actually getting to hear the band play while the recording was going on. So before, if I’m playing guitar the whole time, I’m probably focused on my own performance a little too much. But taking that element out and then just getting to listen to how the band sounded together was just a lot of fun.
What are you most looking forward to in the months ahead?
Definitely looking forward to our release show at The California Clipper, which is October 17th, and then we’re actually playing at Fitzgerald’s [at the Side Bar]. It’s in Berwyn, IL and it’s like a really legendary club that we’ve never played before, and we’re playing two sets, two hours of music on a Friday night in November. So really pumped for that. That’s going to be a lot of fun and I’m looking forward to working on some new tunes as well. I got a few new ones written that I like enough to work on with the band and looking forward to getting going on that.
And I’m thinking about my approach to recording in the future and trying to build out my ability to mix and do overdubs at home. Recording in the studio is great and it’s fun. I’ll probably continue to do it for bed tracks, but I want to develop my ability to finish the recordings at home just so I have more control over it. And I think it’s more fun too. It makes me feel like I’m actually doing something. If you’re in the studio, it’s like you’re playing and you’re singing, but then someone else is kind of doing the rest of it, and I kind of want to do all of it.
Do you think I’ll add shows outside of Chicago?
Yeah, we want to get back to Milwaukee and Madison and maybe get to the Quad Cities. I heard there’s a good venue out there that bands with sort of our sound or that are in our zone have been playing it a lot. I don’t think we’ll do any major touring or anything anytime soon, but we’d like to get around the Midwest. We like to do little trips out of town, and catch the places in the region.
You can follow Dogs at Large on Facebook and Instagram and listen to their music via their Bandcamp page.
Joshua is co-founder of Scummy Water Tower. He’s freelanced for a variety of newspapers, magazines, and websites, including: Rolling Stone, The Boston Globe, Chicago Sun-Times, Guitar World, MTV News, Grammy.com, Chicago Magazine, Milwaukee Magazine, MKE Lifestyle, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, A.V. Club, SPIN, Alternative Press, Under the Radar, Paste, PopMatters, American Songwriter, and Relix. You can email him at josh@scummywatertower.com.
