Dog Saints Unleash Debut Studio Single ‘Wrestlevania’

London-based shoegaze/post-hardcore newcomers *Dog Saints are back with their first studio release, the strikingly titled single ‘Wrestlevania’, alongside the b-side ‘Hornets’. Produced with Judwyn Rushton of thistle., the tracks mark a step up from the band’s bedroom recordings, balancing tender melodies with alt-shoegaze grit. Featuring members from England, Pennsylvania, and Malaysia, Dog Saints have quickly become a fixture on London’s grassroots scene and have already shared stages with genre heroes like They Are Gutting a Body of Water and Horse Jumper of Love.  

‘Wrestlevania’ takes its name from a failed Romanian GoFundMe for a vampire wrestling movie, perfectly encapsulating the band’s mix of absurdity, vulnerability, and storytelling. Frontman Will Goltz opens up about the track, their creative process, and the international makeup of the band in this Q&A.

“Wrestlevania” is such a striking title — half absurd, half intriguing. How did that failed Romanian GoFundMe for a vampire wrestling movie end up inspiring one of your most personal songs?

‘It’s still kind of amazing to me that we haven’t changed the title of the song but I guess that speaks to how strange and funny we all feel it is. I originally came up with the pun on my own after watching a lot of old wrestling documentaries in a kind of ‘how has someone not already come up with this’ way. When I looked it up online, I realised that there were a couple projects that had already tried to combine wrestling and vampires in media, including the GoFundMe I found. I thought there was something both absurd and tragic about all these goofy failed dreams and the phrase just became more real as a title to me. We tried changing it a couple times but we couldn’t find anything else that felt right.’

The lyrics touch on insecurity and masculinity, wrapped up in the imagery of wrestling and childhood memory. How do you balance humour and vulnerability when writing something so emotionally raw?

‘My approach, if I have one, is just to write from a perspective that feels as deliberately naive as possible. I like to write lyrics where it sort of feels like I’m a child asking questions with no sense of how useful or dumb they might be. I don’t really think that people understand themselves any better as they get older, they just get a stronger sense of the things that are supposed to be childish and excessively pure. I write about dogs and friendship and not wanting horses to have me on their backs. I want my songs to kind of read like Calvin and Hobbes set to really crushing guitars.’

You’ve gone from bedroom recordings to working with Judwyn Rushton of thistle. on your first studio release. How did that shift in environment and collaboration shape the sound of “Wrestlevania” and “Hornets”?  

‘For me personally, working in a studio with people who actually have some sense of what they’re doing was a really positive and calming experience. We had so much room to experiment with guitar tones and drum sounds and I never felt like I was doing anything explicitly wrong in the way that I did making songs on my own. Seriously, as much as I’m proud of that song, ‘Collar’ was recorded chaotically badly- Hafiz (our lead guitarist) nearly crashed out so many times trying to master it. I still love making music in my bedroom and I’ll always do it, but I had the clear feeling with these songs that the best thing for them was to record them in a studio where they could feel as big as possible. Judwyn was such a dream to work with and knew exactly what we wanted. And we got to use a slide guitar.’

With members from England, Pennsylvania, and Malaysia, Dog Saints have a pretty international makeup. How does that mix of backgrounds feed into the band’s sound or the way you write together? 

‘Honestly, the idea of us all having such different national backgrounds never feels that important. At its core, the music that we make falls in a pretty American tradition. At the same time, we all have quite different musical backgrounds that inform our playing, especially live. I am a self-taught guitar player and I rely on emo tunings to make my songs different from each other. Our drummer, Harry, is a crazy jazz player and one of these days he’s gonna put rivets in all his cymbals and we’ll all have to calm down. Until then, we’re an emo band.’

You’ve already shared stages with bands like They Are Gutting a Body of Water and Horse Jumper of Love — names that sit at the crossroads of shoegaze and post-hardcore. Where do you see Dog Saints fitting into that evolving scene?

‘First of all, I just want to say that sharing the stage with those bands was a dream and it was all made possible because Doug from TAGABOW was asking on his Instagram story for local openers. He is one of the realest guys in the scene and he put us in touch with Horse Jumper after our set. In terms of our development as a band, I’d just say that the future of the band for now lies in whatever is the next thing I can work out to do on my guitar. The goal I’ve set for myself is to write songs that are longer in form and capable of feeling a bit more narrative. I’ve been listening the hell out of the new Shallowater album and those songs just feel like stories that have so much space to breathe. I want to play a couple riffs real slow and look the audience dead in the eye while I play them.’