The Rockpit is getting ready to go street-level with Trench Dogs at Mayhem Festival, a band that blends punk spirit with rock ‘n’ roll grit in all the right ways. Their no-nonsense approach and high-octane delivery have made them a standout on stages across Europe, and they arrive in Nottingham ready to make their mark. Expect a set that’s loud, fast, and packed with attitude—exactly what a festival like this thrives on. We caught up with drummer Martin ‘Martini’ Andersson to find out more…
What does playing Mayhem Festival mean to Trench Dogs?
– We always love to play in the UK and Nottingham is a city we’ve had the pleasure to play in only once before so we’re very happy to be back!
What first put you on the path to rock and roll?
It’s different from everyone in the band but i was just going through my uncle’s vinyl collection and found a Sabbath album, put it on the record player and off i
went!
How has your sound evolved recently?
I think our sound has become a bit more… mature? That might make it sound like we’re loosing our edge but i think it has more to do with us just evolving as
musicians as time goes on. It’s still very much rock n’ roll and we still enjoy both seriousness and silliness, but maybe musicianship has gotten a bit more
important for us as we’ve gotten older.
What drives your new material?
Trying to up ourselves! And telling the stories that we haven’t told yet.
How do you define your identity as a band?
A little too glam for punk, a little to punk for glam, and a little to old school for the current times!
What inspires your punk-glam fusion?
I think a lot of it is based on the energy and simplicity of punk and of the power of catchy hooks and earworm melodies of glam.
What’s your songwriting process like?
We usually write most of our material together, we don’t have a ”main” songwriter really. Our lead guitar player Mattias is the driving creative force for a lot of
the songs but we all pitch in ideas and concepts. Andy usually writes most of the lyrics but we all have inputs all trough the process.
What’s your most chaotic live experience?
We had a fight with one of the attendees of our show once, he was some stupid drunk guy that was heckling us in between songs, so Andy started making fun of the
guy on stage. The guy then tried to take the microphone from him, so Andy hit him with the microphone stand and then they started fighting, our rhythm guitarist at the time got in on the fight and fell into the drum kit. The guy got thrown out and we kept on playing!
How do you approach festival audiences?
We usually don’t make that much of a difference from audience to audience, but ofc when you play a festival you expect to play for more people that haven’t heard
of you before or at least haven’t seen you live before so i guess that might subconsciously make you give it a bit more energy to your performance.
What song best represents you now?
Out of our own catalog? Maybe ”Forgotten Melodies”, because we haven’t really rehearsed that much lately!
What bands shaped your early sound?
Hanoi Rocks, Dogs d’ Amour, Faster Pussycat i would say are the foundation of our sound.
How do you keep energy high live?
Different for everyone i guess, Mattias usually has like 12 beers before the show, Andy is just naturally high energy (untreated ADHD will do that), Me, Stone
and Daniel usually just need a good night sleep beforehand and we’re solid.
What makes your shows unique?
We don’t really plan anything ”show wise”, we don’t do choreography, we don’t have rehearsed lines of crowd work or live banter. It’s all off the cuff, which
means that some shows can be more chaotic and than others but that’s part of it i guess!
How do you balance grit and melody?
I don’t know if we do haha! I think we probably get some of the grit just naturally from how we play and with Andy’s vocals. But we are suckers for a good melody and i think we all can get into a new idea much easier if it starts with a great melody.
What’s your favourite track to perform?
Personally i think it’s “Colourfull” but i know that we all have different favorites. Which sometimes makes it hard for us to decide on what songs to have and
not to have on a set list.
How has touring changed you?
I think we’ve just gotten more used to it, so the more you do it you kind of learn what works and what doesn’t, so we’ve learned to give each other space when
you’re out on the road for a longer period. We know what to do logistically to make it a bit easier on ourselves.
What’s next after Mayhem Festival?
We’re focusing heavily on writing new material for our third album so for a while now we will just lock ourselves in the rehearsal studio and try to write as much as
we can. We got some shows coming up later in the year. For example, we will be playing together with the UK’s very best ”The Quire boys” on a cruise ship from
Stockholm in November.
How do you define success now?
Being able to travel around and play and having people coming out to see is us all that we want, ofc you’re constantly striving towards doing bigger and better
things but in the state of the industry today and with a lot of bands having a very hard time getting tours to work, every opportunity to just get to play is something
we see as a sign of success. Also if we can actually break even on costs that’s a big win!
What keeps your creativity alive?
I think we’ve always written about our own experiences and drawn a lot of influence from our own lives and our own states of minds so the creativity kind of comes with just living our lives. We’ve never been one of those bands that write about the kind of cliché ”cool things” that you’re supposed to write rock songs about. A lot of our inspiration and creativity just comes from traveling, love, loss and the occasionally binge-drinking session.
What does Trench Dogs stand for today?
We’re just having fun and want to give people a break from all the shit that’s going on. As well as giving ourselves a break from the shit that’s going on. We’re just five guys that love to play and are happy to have people enjoy what we do. It doesn’t have to be more complicated than that i think!
What is the meaning of life?
The meaning of life is to try and figure out the answer to that question.
If you could be a fly on the wall anywhere in rock history, where would it be?
That’s a tough one. Just because i can’t think of a serious one i will choose the Hanoi Rocks show in Israel (i think?) where Andy McCoy got a bucket filled with
piss thrown at him from someone in the crowd. That would have been interesting to see, also i don’t know if that has ever happened to another performer ever!
What’s the biggest misconception about the band?
Hmm. I don’t know. We get mistaken for being women quite a lot, usually when we try to walk in to the men’s room at airports or restaurants, there’s usually someone trying to stop us and point us to the ladies room instead. (on a personal note i think that’s why some of our members have turned to growing facial hair, but I don’t think they would admit to that being the reason)
What should Nottingham expect from your set?
We’re running a 40 minutes set at Mayhem so for those shorter ones we usually go for more of the high energy fast songs. We will probably be playing one or two of
our new unreleased tracks as well! It will be a fun one for sure!
Thanks for a fun interview! Hope to see some of your readers at Mayhem in Nottingham!
