Rex the Dog: Canine It

Rex the Dog is the age-old tale of a man (Jake Williams) and his dog (Rex) coming together to create exceptional dance music. Canine and human, truly a partnership as old as time when it comes to the creation of fine electronic wares. Hiding behind a mask of homemade animations, Jake aims to bury the memories of his days creating hits for the mainstream and produce the music that he was always capable of.

His debut album, The Rex The Dog Show, was released in September of last year. It features some excellent remixes (The Knife’s Heartbeats and The Sounds' Tony the Beat) as well as tracks penned by Jake himself, making up 14 tracks of light-hearted electro-pop interlaced with bizarre dog-themed soundbites have already proved a hit with critics and fans alike.

“The reaction has been amazing!” smiles Jake, “It’s an unusual album for some people because it contains a mixture of stuff that has been around for a while, and stuff that is brand new; but I’m very happy with it, and when we play the new stuff at shows, people are digging it!”

We ask about the strange clips of talking and noise that punctuate the gaps between each track. “They are mainly from movies,” he tells us, “ "but also we have a friend who has a kind of cute voice so we asked her to re-record some segments so that we wouldn’t get sued by some hideous conglomerate!”

The album also features samples from old eighties records and this, along with his passion for seventies musical equipment, means it is probably safe to assume that Rex the Dog is heavily influenced by early electronic and synth-based music.

“Oh totally. Early synth-pop, like Depeche Mode, Yazoo and Kraftwerk has been a passion since I was like 7 years old - honestly! The challenge now is always to make sure we’re not making a kind of pastiche, but to just let it feed in with other influences.”

If you think a debut album that sounds this good must mean Jake has done this all before, then you’d be right. In fact he previously achieved chart success under the moniker 'JX', responsible for hits like There’s Nothing I Won’t Do, and Son of a Gun in the mid-nineties. His new material, however, has a very different and more innovative feel, which at the same time sparkles with retro charm. Was this move away from the polished commercial dance sound a conscious decision or just a natural progression?

“Well, there was quite a big gap between JX and Rex The Dog, and some quite serious things happened in my life in between that stopped me making music for a while. It was really when Rex arrived that I felt renewed and started buying loads of records, especially German stuff like Kompakt and BPitch Control. I bought the Korg 700S synthesizer and just went down a new avenue I think… JX seems like another life away now and I don’t really go there much.”

This new avenue certainly seems to be leading him towards great things. 2008 was an extremely busy year, with Rex the Dog doing countless live shows and appearing on the line-ups for festivals the world over.

Jake, however, isn’t the only producer around at the moment with an animal alter-ego, he has competition from Deadmau5, who often takes to the stage in the guise of a giant red rodent. We ask Rex which of the two creatures would win in a fight.

“Deadmau5 is a mouse, so, while I don’t wish to seem competitive or uncharitable, Rex would kick his ass,” he replies, but then dashes our hopes for a new slice of musical controversy by adding “I personally love Deadmau5 so would do all I could to intervene.”

So who exactly is Rex then? A cartoon? Imaginary friend? Or is he based on a super-intelligent real life canine that helps Jake produce the music?

“He’s my dog! He is not imaginary, and he certainly doesn’t smell imaginary!” laughs Jake. “People wonder if he’s real because he only appears in cartoon form, but he is real, and together we are a team. One day soon we will do some photographs, but we want to wait until we have made a few more releases.”

Music is clearly not Jake's (sorry, their) only talent. Everything from Rex the Dog’s website to his album cover features colourful cartoons of himself and his canine companion carefully illustrated by Jake himself - even the press release for The Rex the Dog Show was written in comic strip form.

“I guess I do have an artistic background,” explains Jake. “ I went to art school in London while I was making the JX music and that’s when I started playing with animation. My degree show piece was an animated documentary about the development and demise of the hovercraft!”

His drawings have been brought to life in the animated video for his first single I Can See You, Can You See Me?. “For the 3D sections of the video I liaised with Eric the director and we went backwards and forwards with drawings until we made the characters look right. It took quite a long time and some delicate negotiation! There is a 2D section, and for that I did nearly all the drawing and another guy completed the animation. My animation skills are really quite primitive!”

Jake’s artwork also plays an important part in providing the backdrop for Rex the Dog’s live shows. We ask how important he feels visuals like these are to his performances and to the whole clubbing experience. “It tells a story that fits with the music. Rex doesn’t come to clubs and I’m not keen to show my face all the time, so it’s a good way to present our attitude. For traditional club nights though, when you want to lose yourself on the dancefloor, I think visuals can be a distraction if they dominate the room too much.”

After recently playing the Christmas Death Disco at the Arches in Glasgow, Jake speaks about his loves for Scottish crowds. “I always look forward to it! It wasn’t the first time for us in Glasgow, we played at the Art School one time, which was lots of fun. We love the Scottish, they seem inclined towards going mental at gigs!”

With a busy summer season now behind him, what were the highlights of the 2008 festival season?

“A big highlight were the trips to Japan. We played at Wire Festival in Tokyo and the response was just insane. Rex came onstage at the end of the gig and the crowd roared like the president had just appeared. And they loved the music too!”

Following the success of The Rex The Dog Show what are the plans for 2009?

“We're planning more and bigger shows, and to collaborate with more animators. We have just finished a stop motion video for Bubblicious with a French guy called Geoffroy De Crecy and it has turned out so well, it may be the highpoint of our career so far. That comes out in February 2009. And then of course, we might make some more music.”