Dog Fashion Disco may have one of the wackiest names in music business, but their multifaceted style shouldn’t get discredited because of that. The sextet’s new offering, released 8 years after the seminal Adultery, epitomizes exactly what made their music unique in the first place. Sturdy metal-centered arrangements are augmented by jazzy woodwind instruments and spooky keys taken straight from a horror movie. The allure of the record lies in how effectively these divergent influences are combined. Even though Sweet Nothings is certainly a helluva lot of fun to listen to, there’s insidious darkness loitering beneath the surfaces here, implicit regardless of whether the sextet are rolling at full tilt or holding back. Here’s a brief interview with the group’s singer, Todd Smith.

Sweet Nothings is a worthy follow-up to your amazing 2006’s release Adultery. What motivated you to come back as Dog Fashion Disco?

We are all good friends and we have a great time creating and performing together so we figured, why not?

Although Dog Fashion Disco broke up in 2007, you continued creating music with such groups as Polkadot Cadaver, El Creepo and Knives Out. Did your work under these monikers influence your creative process for Sweet Nothings in any way?

No, those other projects have a vibe and feel that’s all their own in my opinion. When writing the new album we just wanted to give people a diverse and fun album to rock out to.

Adultery was a concept album unlike Sweet Nothings which seems to be based around looser themes. What was your songwriting process like this time around? Did it differ in any way from your previous album?

There wasn’t an underlying thought process besides “not sucking” lol. I guess we wanted to create an album that was a retrospective of all of our previous albums.

Sweet Nothings captures your sound really well. It’s stylistically all over the place, which makes it so exciting. I can hear a lot of Faith No More and Mr. Bungle. Some older listeners I recommended your music to point at Frank Zappa. What are your major influences music-wise?

We dig all those bands you just mentioned. I also love all different styles of music from Clutch to Burt Bacharach. We pull a little from all of our influences.

Sweet Nothings may be your darkest endeavor thus far, which neatly connects the music to the twisted cover art. Could you tell us about lyrical themes behind the album? Is there any central idea that connects the lyrics together?

There is no underlying theme. Perhaps at this point in my life I’m trying to say, be nice, be generous, be loving and enjoy what short time you have here. You know, hippy shit.

You once again use a myriad of vocal styles on the new album, which I’m sure isn’t very easy to pull off live. What singers inspire you and why?

Mike Patton, Thom Yorke, Beck, Neil Fallon, Sinatra, Scott Weiland, Chino Moreno, Layne Staley and Maynard to name a few. They influence me because they’re all amazing.

The new album has been entirely crowdfunded. What pushed you to use this form of funding in lieu of taking the money from the label? What do you consider the pros and cons of crowdfunding?

The label wasn’t offering any money so we had no choice. Crowd funding was a positive experience. Our fans rule!

You’ve been creating music for at least 18 years now. Which is the most interesting aspect of being a musician for you: writing, recording or touring?

It’s all interesting. I love and hate it all equally.

What are your personal favorite tracks from the new record? Which are the most fun to play live?

I honestly love every song on the new album. Favorites to play live are War Party, Pale Horse, Down the Rabbit Hole and Tastes So Sweet.

What do you think the future holds for Dog Fashion Disco? Is the new album, which comes out next year, going to be similar to Sweet Nothings or completely different?

I have no idea what the next album will sound like. My immediate goal with all of our projects is to build them bigger and be completely self sufficient once we are free from Rotten Records as of June 2015. Libertad!

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Sputnik’s review of Sweet Nothings