By: Staff
Canine Wedding Captures Nostalgia with Their Latest Single "Just Like Home"
"Just like home" bursts with an instant infectious energy, driven by upbeat guitars and drums that create a happy vibe right from the start. This song literally sounds like fun, if it were a musical embodiment. The opening vocals grab your attention, showcasing a unique delivery that perfectly carries the lyrical message. It’s clear that this band doesn’t take itself too seriously, yet they bring a positive and intelligent outlook on life.
Sure, enjoying a song like this can sometimes feel like a passive activity where you listen along without truly connecting, but Canine Wedding invites you to dive deeper. The band’s name alone tells you so much about them, reflecting their playful expression of love and commitment. "Just like home" is all about celebrating the silliness of life, those moments that make you smile. The lyrical finesse is top-notch, elevating the song to iconic status.
The musical arrangement is fantastic; it’s old-school rock ‘n’ roll with a bit of grit, allowing the instruments to shine without losing that warm, leather-clad vibe real rock ‘n’ roll possesses. The drum fills and catchy guitar riffs stand out, keeping you locked in while you soak up the message. Every time I hear "just like home," I’m whisked back to my own memories, making it an instant win. The lyrics, “it’s just like home here, a cavalcade of things you desire,” beautifully capture that longing for familiar comforts.
There’s something special about the chemistry among the band members. They clearly understand each other's instrumentation and vocal strengths, letting each other shine rather than overshadowing one another. It’s a rare and delightful dynamic that truly showcases their talent. The engineering and mixing deserve special praise as well. The production is crisp and clear, ensuring every note and lyric resonates perfectly. This level of craftsmanship elevates the song, making the listening experience even more engaging.
This song can be the perfect soundtrack for cruising down the road or a heartfelt exploration when you dig into the lyrics. It really delivers that dual experience of feeling “just like home.”
Canine Wedding is excited to unveil "Just Like Home," dropping October 16th on all streaming platforms. This evocative track dives into the essence of nostalgia and belonging, reminding us that home is about the people and emotions we carry rather than just the places we occupy.
Review Highlights: Canine Wedding’s “Just Like Home” is packed with infectious energy, upbeat melodies, and introspective lyrics that evoke nostalgia. The band’s playful vibe and musical chemistry shine through, making this track a delightful listen whether you want to kick back or reflect. The impressive engineering and mix add to the overall impact, ensuring a captivating experience.
You can find this release on any major platform; see below for links to take you straight to some of the profiles. Make sure to playlist, stream, and share "Just Like Home" by Canine Wedding!
Powerful Quote from this artist:
“showing that humanity has always been fond of fun and stupid shit. And that’s what we are.”
Wait… there's more!
We had the chance to catch up with Canine Wedding for an exclusive interview in "The Cage" Music Blog.
Here’s how it went:
BEGIN INTERVIEW:
Hello Canine Wedding, we’re thrilled to have you for this interview! We’ve had a blast diving into your music and exploring your work, and now we’re even more excited to learn more about you, both as artists, and people.
Please tell us the names and roles of each band member.
Cameron Toy (they/them) plays guitar and sings the songs that they write, Cris Neglia (he/him) plays the drums, and Nick Duque (he/him) plays bass and sings supporting vocals.
Is there a story behind how you chose your artist / stage name?
There’s this hole in the ground in the Ozarks. It’s filled with water so it took a long time but somebody went down there and found the ruins of an ancient people; some kind of ceremonial site. It was theorized that the altar was set up for animals due to the slight concave of two raised platforms. If you google the phrase “canine wedding” you will see thousands of cute images of pets in formal wear (you will not find our band). But anthropology minors have argued that these communities would gather for similar bonding rituals between early ancestors of our fur babies, showing that humanity has always been fond of fun and stupid shit. And that’s what we are.
What emotions do you hope to evoke in listeners with your new single “Just Like Home”?
I think the feeling being conveyed and evoked is a bittersweet one. There’s a throughline of repeated experiences that will never feel quite the same, but I’m grasping for the original feeling regardless. Every activity is a drug; everything we do flips a switch in our brains. We watch the same shows over and over again and we sit on the same bench and eat the same sandwich and feel the ghost of an original sensation, and I suppose that’s what I’m trying to bring out. I want to mine the pieces of our mundane existence that make us real.
Can you elaborate on the writing process for “Just Like Home”? What was the collaborative experience like among the band members? As the songwriter, I really drill the other members of the band incessantly until all that remains is a shell of their former selves. Until they’re just machines doing my bidding. It’s my vision and they will adhere to it. We are also good friends.
In what ways do you feel your sound has evolved leading up to the release of “Just Like Home”?
The quasi-mantra for the songs of Canine Wedding is “Keep it simple” (see also: KISS, or keep it simple, stupid). If you come to one of our shows right now you’re going to see a three piece band playing one instrument each and we don’t want that to feel too disconnected from the listener’s experience of the music we put out. But I’m no stranger to cramming a bunch of shit into a tiny bag. The goal is for everything going into these songs to support their simplicity. There’s something special about a song that anyone could play that’s undeniable.
Can you share any specific memories or experiences that inspired the lyrics of “Just Like Home”?
I signed an NDA about the whole thing so not really. I think I made it vague enough in the song so that it adheres to the important clauses. The courts will have the final say.
How do you feel your previous single “Racetrack” and EP “Breep Death” paved the way for this new release?
In all honesty, I made “Breep Death” because I had time to do it, and wanted to have a way to reserve the band name Canine Wedding. Not a great reason! But it was fun and I’m happy with how it turned out. I sent a bunch of tracks back and forth with our drummer Cris, and my friend/collaborator Ana Ryden (aka ROAMS). I had been working on weird art rock/electronic music for years, but had been listening to a lot of folk-adjacent music by dead guys (Silver Jews and Songs, Ohia to name a couple), and wanted to try that out. Something that I could do the campfire test with (seeing if a song is as effective with just a guitar vs. all the bells and whistles).
Then Racetrack, of all the songs we were working on for our set as a band, just felt like the most natural and finished product. Like, “Here’s something we can put together quickly that’s simple and expresses what we do”. We did preliminary tracking for this and Just Like Home on the same day, and I felt like I knew exactly what to do with Racetrack from there, whereas Just Like Home would be a more complex process; an augmentation of our established sound.
What do you hope listeners take away from the message of “Just Like Home” when they hear it for the first time?
In my heart of hearts I hope they cry. If I can get someone to relate enough to something I’ve done to cry I’ve done the fuck out of my job. I had an inkling when I first wrote Just Like Home that it was kind of my “best song”, and then when I played it for someone for the first time they cried. Huge ego boost.
How do you believe your performances at venues like Bar Freda and Arlene’s Grocery have shaped your music and audience?
We love the spots in New York we’ve had the privilege of playing. Spending time at these intimate venues and talking to people at shows and meeting musicians in a similar place as us has provided a great forum for feedback. We’re taking things slow right now; we have a lot of music but we’re recording and releasing on a song-by-song basis, so it’s a great barometer to use for say, what song we’re going to put out next. When someone asks “Where can I hear that last song again,” we can say, “Nowhere right now but probably somewhere soon based on this conversation”. So yeah, come see us and tell us what you want. We’re playing October 16th at Our Wicked Lady in support of this release.
Can you describe the theme of this release's artwork and what the inspiration and intention were for the observer to absorb from it?
The photo in the single art is from a newspaper article about my dad and his parents when he was adopted from Hong Kong in the late ‘50s (not a common practice at the time). There’s this whole narrative of him being taken from his bio family, dropped at an orphanage, being adopted, dropped back at the orphanage, then readopted and brought to the US, which I won’t get into too much detail about because while it’s a part of my history it’s not really my story to tell. It does feel on theme though, and while this story isn’t apparent from the image itself, it felt more striking than anything else I was coming up with for art. I guess what I want to express to the observer is that this song, like certain points in an individual’s life, feels like the beginning of something for us as a band; a sort of reintroduction partially defined by history. The present is inextricably linked to the past.
Where do you create your music—at home in a recording studio or with a producer? How do you finalize your work—self-mixed and mastered or through another source?
This is a home studio deal - or like four different spaces to be more precise. I’ve done the whole studio thing and I get why people do it, and we’ll probably do it as a band at some point. I just felt very particular about what would go into this track, and the time I wanted to take with it. It’s an amount of time that wouldn’t lend itself well to the ticking clock of a studio experience. And then I mixed/mastered it because I'm a cheapskate control freak.
Shout out of course to my spouse Kaela Mei-Shing Garvin and friend Bee Begley for recording backing vocals several years apart from each other.
What was the most challenging part of bringing this project to life from the initial idea to the final recording?
This particular song has been kicking around the ether for years. There are multiple demos, and a few pieces from these ended up on the final record. I think there’s a part of me that was reticent to record Just Like Home for real because it’s structurally my most traditional track; the most ‘song’ song I have, and if nobody likes it I’m not sure my ego can handle it. But that’s life, right? A series of ego checks that give you the opportunity to try something else or give up?
What part of the music-making process is the most stressful—for example, the creation, the actual release date, etc.?
The mixing process kind of turns me into an obsessive goblin. If you see me around town doing goblin shit that’s probably why. Let’s just say if I were a sculptor my apartment would be a fucking mess.
There is a lot of technology available today. Some artists have described it as “overwhelming” or “too much.” The current climate of music is growing with computers being more prominently used for both creation and correction. Do you feel this has a positive or negative impact on the end result for music?
If technology can help to translate the artist’s vision into reality I’m for it. Especially if that technology is otherwise inaccessible? Gimme.
If we’re talking AI assisted music, have you heard 10 Drunk Cigarettes by Girly Girl Productions? If this is the vibe of the robot overlords I’m here for it.
Do you follow a process or ritual before a performance to manage nerves or performance anxiety?
We’ll generally rob a chain convenience store or break open an ATM before a gig, so we’re not concerned when we don’t really make a profit on a show. The thrill is better than speed and we bring that energy directly to the stage. The closer we do it to showtime, the more legitimate the alibi.
Most people love or hate social media—where do you land?
The more I use social media as a creator the more I hate it. As a passive observer it’s fine, even fun sometimes. But I’m definitely in the party of olds that say shit like, “Remember when posting on instagram was fun?” The amount of curation that has to go into a post at this point, and how much it feels like is riding on that post as a result of that effort is fucking draining on a daily basis. Like I don’t give a shit but also I kind of have to give a shit. And I pretty much exclusively use IG.
Canine Wedding, thank you so much, we appreciate you taking the time to talk to us!
Thanks for having us Ms. Cage! See you next time.
End Interview
We’re happy to have shared Canine Wedding’s exciting journey with you and uncovered such inspiring insights about their creative process.
Now, click the links below to experience their incredible work firsthand!
Check out this latest release and listen to more of Canine Wedding on Spotify & YouTube.
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