A Metastasizing Human Centipede: An Interview With NYC’s LOST DOG

By Dan Dellechiaie | July 17, 2026

Photo credit: Hell Gate

With so many punk bands repeating the same late 70s riffs and staid misanthropic lyrics, LOST DOG are a breath of fresh fucking air. They can scream like demons, thrash like goblins, and then coat your heart in emotional ice. And did I mention they have a great sense of humor too? If you haven't seen them gigging around New York, then you're not attending enough concerts. knifetwister records new york caught up with LOST DOG before their album release show.

It's hard for me not to see a Lost Dog poster and think about you guys. Where did your band's name come from? What's LOST DOG's origin story?

Adam, Dallas and Chris have been jamming for well over a decade, but the beginning of LOST DOG was Dallas, Chris and our former guitarist, Jules. At the time, they didn't know what to call themselves, and it's funny you bring up a lost dog poster, because that's exactly how Dallas came up with the name. He was out walking and saw a lost dog poster and his brain went: BAM! Band name. As far as the origin of the band, it's like any tragic love story with jilted companions and feelings of replacement and catharsis but also no that's not at all it. We've been buddies since college so it's kind of just a family thing.

Photo credit: Lia O’Toole

You guys play an unbelievable amount of shows around New York. What's your gigging philosophy? Talk to me about the New York scene for those readers living outside of our great city.

We do play a lot of shows. It's a lot. Our gigging philosophy has evolved as a strategy over the years. We think of it in phases. In phase 1, we took any gig anywhere: A mattress store, the street corner, a friend's house, a basement quinceanera, etc. We would describe ourselves as now being in phase 2, where we generally take any bar, venue or friend gig that's offered, especially when there's an opportunity to play with friends in other bands. Every time we play a gig we make a bunch of pals and that turns into people asking us to play their upcoming shows and it just keeps snowballing like a metastasizing human centipede.

Your first record GO!!! was punk as fuck. Your second record LOST DOG veered toward post-hardcore. What direction does your third record, Dark Sick Person, take listeners?

Yes, LOST DOG started in a more traditional punk place, then went towards a more hardcore, angular place. The third record will take that same angular, pointy feeling but also add more Midwest emo and introspective tones which we think mesh nicely with a kind of black metal insanity. Black metal, emo, garbage, psycho punk, if you will.

The lead single off Dark Sick Person, "Pantera", is a brick through a windshield. What inspired it?

A brick through a windshield is a good way to describe it. Is it too on the nose to say that the band Pantera inspired it? If that is in fact too on the nose, we can describe it as our dumbed down version of a caveman metal song, the Lost Dog-ification of heavy, chunky sludge riffs paired with mentally unstable lyrics about feeling alienated from your surroundings.

Last time I saw you guys play at The Broadway, you had a saxophonist accompanying you. Can you talk about what the sax brings to your sound? Can you also talk about the math rock influences I hear in your bass work?

Will is a brother we've worked with in a lot of different musical contexts. LOST DOG is the first time we've worked with him in a hardcore punk context. After lead guitarist Jules left, we thought of various ways to bring back the fullness and chaos and intensity that comes with a lead instrument. Ultimately, Will, who's a jazz saxophonist at heart, was the most deliciously insane addition we could think of. It is a delicate line to not end up making clown metal, but when you mix it in appropriately it adds a fullness and richness to the sound. And he can fucking rip when it's time for a solo. As far as math influences, we like to have fun, we like to give ourselves things to do, we like to count (at least some of us), we like to tell jokes and and we like to subvert expectations. So if we have a nice kind of poppy chord progression, we want to mix that up with some math and if we have some angular combination of rhythms, we might produce an unexpected feeling by making it sound more accessible to the listener in terms of melody. On bass work specifically, Adam is not a bassist. Adam doesn't play bass. He plays low guitar and you can hear that influence and what we end up with is kind of a surfy sound. Almost like the original bassists in the '50s playing with picks and just imagining themselves as low guitarists. If the guitarist plays a line with a whole bunch of notes, why wouldn't the bass also do that?

Photo credit: Lia O’Toole

I have seen you guys perform in various states of undress. Have you ever performed naked? How much beer/money would it take to get you to perform naked?

We strip down to our skivvies generally because it's really fucking hot on stage. Sure, sometimes we do it because it looks funny, too. We have never performed naked or seen each other's cocks. Promise. We would totally perform naked for any amount of beer or money if we felt like it would be an enjoyable performance and also felt like we wouldn't get arrested for it.

Who are your favorite bands to play with, your comrades, your day ones? Anyone you'd like to thank?

We've built up a solid community with too many pillars in it to thank everyone. But in no particular order, big thank you to Lynn, also Joy, Zoe and Kat, Jules, Emil, that guy in the crab suit, mystery, oboy, barbarian law, O'Laochra, Anti, Indeyevid, unruly collective, Katie, Kevin, Old Man John, Ghost Rodeo, Hands First, piss phantom, energy weapon, Butthole University, sui moto, Fine Life productions, wayward hairdresser, Dallas's friends in Long Island, drop dead gorgeous, bad timing, Twisted Wrist (RIP), all the people who have ever booked us for any performance, all the people who have ever attended a show and all the people who have ever listened to a second of LOST DOG music.

The band:
Dallas - drums
Adam - bass and backup vocals
Chris - guitar and vocals
Will - saxophone

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lostdog_band

Official Website (where there are also links to bandcamp / other streaming sites): https://www.lostdog-band.com/

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1FIthgWrFg1m8mgDTDdL9D?si=v_xuFSDmQZCJ9qdYR2EyPw