CHRISTIAN: The band name means melancholy. Fruit as in melon, Dawg as in collie. Not a Smashing Pumpkins reference, no relation to Snoop. Dawg spelled like that to be cool I guess. The band was initially my solo project to get through COVID dread. It was something I always wanted to do but never had the time or motivation. From 2020 to early 2022 it was just me in my basement in Jersey self producing everything. I’ve known Nelson since childhood but I met Dan and Luke when I moved to Brooklyn.
LUKE: Christian and I worked in the same facility and I said what’s up to Christian because he was wearing a Turnstile shirt in the office one day. He mentioned that he was looking for a drummer and we ended up jamming with Nelson a few days later. Everything fell into place after that.
Previous musical projects? How'd you first get into music?
LUKE: I was in a ska band in North Carolina that toured around a little bit called Corporate Fandango at least a decade ago. We played shows opening for bands like Balance and Composure, Arrogant Sons of Bitches, Fireworks and The Wonder Years before they all blew up. Christian mentioned The Wonder Years on the day we met and they were probably my favorite band when I graduated high school so I thought If Christian is into that shit then there might be some real musical chemistry here. I played in bands throughout high school and college in a bunch of different genres but stopped playing drums for something like 8 years before I started playing with Fruit Dawg.
NELSON: When we were kids Christian played at a party that my whole family was at which made my Dad buy his own son’s guitars so we’ve been playing together for something like ten years now.
DAN: My Dad is a guitarist so I picked it up as a hobby from him and just having guitars around the house. I wasn’t really into guitar based music until I started playing.
First concert that you ever went to?
CHRISTIAN: First show I ever saw was with Nelson, Trans-Siberian Orchestra at the Prudential Center.
NELSON: Mine was Def Leppard and Bryan Adams at Coney Island.
DAN: Not sure of the first local show I was at but the first big show I ever remember going to was Ozzy Osbourne at Madison Square Garden with my Dad when I was 10 or something like that.
LUKE: I saw Elton John when I was 5. My family was at the fair and he was playing at the coliseum next door so as we were supposed to be leaving my parents randomly bought four tickets from a scalper in the parking lot. Some of the earliest shows I remember going to on my own accord were things like Green Day, Taking Back Sunday and My Chemical Romance. In my small hometown in North Carolina they used to have punk shows at the Christian summer camp in the off season and I think going to those shows in middle school is what made me want to start playing music.
NELSON: I didn’t start going to local shows until I was in college but when I was at The College of New Jersey they had a bill with Dads and a local New Brunswick band called The Moms opened up. The Moms were fucking awesome.
What's your writing process like?
CHRISTIAN: It either starts with a riff or I lock myself in a room and write a full song before bringing it to rehearsal. Dan and I also link up to flesh stuff out before it gets to the rest of the band a lot too.
LUKE: It’s pretty much always music before lyrics.
CHRISTIAN: Once we start working on a song at practices there’s always a good amount of changes to try and keep it interesting. That’s where our progressive influence comes in. My favorite band when I was 14 was Dream Theatre so that’ll make you do some kooky things.
What other artists or songs inspire your music?
LUKE: When Dan first showed us the main riff for “Big Baller” I immediately thought of Balance and Composure. So they were a big influence for me on the drums for that track specifically. Fleshwater also has a massive drum sound that I’m trying to emulate. I was obsessed with Blink and Travis Barker when I started playing drums too so there’s always a bit of him in there I can’t seem to shake. My favorite drummer of all time is Levon Helm though.
NELSON: The first song I threw on the playlist is “Ornament” by Screaming Females. They were one of the other first local bands that I saw and I was like “Oh my god, rock isn’t dead its just in a basement now.” They’re the best live band of all time. Their bassist has the best tone I’ve ever heard and he writes bass lines that fit so well in the pocket which is a big influence on me. I also chose a song by our buddy Yahya who Christian and I play live with. He’s just an awesome rapper. Learning to play his songs is changing the way I think about writing bass parts.
DAN: I chose “Ghost” by Chon because I’m always drawn to two guitarists harmonizing with each other. Their guitar work is inspiring to me because it’s both very emotional and progressive. I also chose “Thrive” by The Contortionist for similar reasons. I’ve always liked the combination of emotional and intricate.
CHRISTIAN: I think it’s satisfying to hear stuff that has a lot of finesse but is also very musical and pretty. The two songs I picked are “You’re Gonna Hate What You’ve Done” by Greet Death and “Settle the Scar” by The Hotelier. I saw Greet Death open for Foxing last year which was one of the loudest shows I’ve ever seen. I was just starting to get into heavier shoegaze stuff and I thought Greet Death was the best band I’ve ever seen in my life. They have some “dad-rock” solos going on which I think is so sick. “Settle the Scar” is one of the first songs I learned in an open tuning which helped me learn how to play with other tunings. We included songs by our friends GAL and The Telling Time as well because they’re just two of the first bands that we befriended playing shows.
LUKE: They fuck with us.
CHRISTIAN: And we fuck with them.
LUKE: They’re inspiring because they’re just out there getting after it like us and it’s always nice to get positive affirmations from your peers.
CHRISTIAN: It’s really great when people you know make music that doesn’t suck so you don’t have to pretend to like it.
What's the live experience like and your philosophy on playing live? Do you think the music live should be identical to the recorded version or should it be it's own thing?
CHRISTIAN: I don’t think the music live should sound like the recording. I think the music recorded should sound like it’s live. If you’re going to do something crazy production-wise know how to emulate it live or know how to produce it. We try to have the same energy in both cases.
Has the band toured?
LUKE: No touring experience for this band yet. We’re just focused on launching the band in NYC right now but will probably play some out of state shows before the end of the year and might try to do some short touring stints next year.
CHRISTIAN: My favorite show was definitely the Brooklyn Monarch side room with GAL, Ramona Lane and Chenoa Tarin. The original venue we were supposed to play flooded, then we got pushed to a later time and we started like 2 hours late. We went on at like 1am and some of my closest friends were there and it was awesome for people to stick around so late.
LUKE: We played recently on the infamous Canadian wildfire smoke day in New York where the sky turned red and shit. We played great but obviously no one really showed up given the circumstances.
What's up next for the band?
LUKE: We’re currently tracking an EP that will release towards the end of the year.
CHRISTIAN: The first single “Big Baller” is streaming everywhere now and we’ll have another single out in a few months as well.