Meet Couch Dog of North Hollywood

Today we’d like to introduce you to Couch Dog.

Hi Couch, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Couch Dog got its start as a cover band performing at house shows in San Luis Obispo playing renditions of Peach Pit & Surf Curse. Over time as we practiced more and began writing songs together we slowly introduced more and more original music into our setlist like a musical ship of Theseus. We recorded our first EP “Bad & Better than Ever” out of the RV lead singer Max Ferrer was living in at the time, and released it in November of 2021 before a short Arizona weekend tour to support it.
We met our long time producer and full time friend Griffin Breshears soon after and things really started to take off for us as a band. We recorded our first studio album, “How To Ruin Your Life Fast” in 2022 and released it in May 2023, with another larger headlining west coast tour following that put on by local promotion group, “Free the Youth”.
Couch Dog has since continued to record and write music – our recent EP “HTRYLF B-Sides” was a collection of songs we felt either didn’t get the chance to shine on the album or didn’t quite make the cut.
Since our move to LA we have signed with Arrival Artists and are preparing to release our latest EP “UNRAVELER” with plans to support it with our second ever headlining west coast tour as well as an AZ leg. This will be our first time making our way all the way up to the PNW so we are very excited for those shows in particular. HIGHLIGHT: We’re playing an LA show at the Echo on 7/12 to tour our new project! Would love to see you there

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The largest hurdle we’ve faced in pursuing music so far is being able to balance our band duties with everything else we have in our lives. We put in a lot of effort to be ambitious with our marketing and branding, which results in us extending our to-do list well beyond practicing and writing music. We are completely self-funded yet have the privilege of each band member being multi-faceted and talented in visual arts and business, so we are able to do most things ourselves in true DIY fashion (such as graphic design, animation, merch production, stage design, etc.). Despite the inherent struggle of balancing a full time job, band responsibilities, and general life stuff, we have found a way to effectively delegate tasks amongst ourselves and work together really well to achieve our dreams. I think without really meaning for this to happen, the band became just as important to us as our day jobs are, and that makes it easier to feel the intense drive it takes to get the work done – especially with this new EP coming out.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
We make music for dancing, crying and kissing. Not only are we lucky enough to tour and play in live settings on a regular basis, but also record and put out studio records/EP’s with a multimedia emphasis. One of our specialties is harnessing all of our talents as individuals to put out multimedia experiences for our fans. This has included videos, photoshoots, skits during shows, our own video game, a phone hotline, and most recently world-building animations.
We’re lucky to have amassed the community we have over the years, that certainly has to be one of the things we’re most proud of. We’re lucky enough to have played 100+ shows, and continue to do that at a larger scale while partnering with Arrival Artists.
We’re probably most known for our song “Punch Drunk” from our album “How To Ruin Your Life Fast”, just because that track has gained a lot of traction, but we’re also well known for our creative direction and live show experiences. We always try to aim for a visually compelling element to our rollouts, shows and marketing. At concerts, we try to have a skit, or gimmick of sorts. A few examples of things we’ve done in the past: stage boxing matches in the mosh pit (ps: there’s always moshing at Couch Dog shows), dress up as Walter White/Jesse Pinkman/Gus/Saul from breaking bad and made blue rock candy to pass out to the audience, made sandwiches during an elongated bridge of a song and passed them out to our audience, premiered our Not My Night music video by projecting it before the show, brought piñatas. For the future, we’re planning on dressing up like our characters from the upcoming EP “Unraveler” during our upcoming tour.
Though the live side of music has always been really exciting and a place for us to celebrate and connect with fans, we also really enjoy the actual process of recording and producing our music. Making time and space for writing, jamming, brainstorming, setting a creative direction and executing. Getting on that groove for creativity to flow freely is always an exciting part of what we do.
We’re super proud of all our released music, especially our upcoming EP, “UNRAVELER”, it has truly been our most ambitious and creatively strenuous endeavors and we couldn’t be more excited to share it with the world.

Do you any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
Tasha – one of my favorite childhood memories (completely unrelated to music) is making homemade Halloween costumes with my dad. These were the first of many projects we have worked on together through my life, and I feel like I can attribute a lot of my creativity and interest in the arts to these moments.
Max – one of my favorite childhood memories is going to the RC race track with my dad. He would always take me to the dollar store beforehand and let me pick out a tech-deck, and then while he raced it was my job to be his pit crew, changing tires, soldering new batteries etc. It was always super fun and made me feel special cause he would let me have soda.
Pablo – I had a really sweet childhood, shoutout mom and dad <3 Hard to pick one memory, but I remember being more excited than ever when I got the news that we were moving to California from Guatemala (I was 12 when I found out, and my dad took us out to eat at Chili's). It was an impactful moment, full of excitement, fear of the unknown, and strong bonding for my family and I. We took the adventure on as a team, and stuck together through it all. Change is hard but beautiful and eventually blooms, that was the moment where I first embraced that philosophy.
Liam – one time, on my birthday, I choked on a grape

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.wearecouchdog.com/home
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wearecouchdog/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/COUCH-DOG/100076427282159/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@wearecouchdog/videos