If your favorite genre of music is ska and you live in the UK, you’ll know Do The Dog Records well…To date, this small independent label have flung over 50 albums into the universe and you’ll be hard pressed to find a dud in their catalogue…

DoTheDog can boast a roster of bands that can & will, blow your socks off – Featuring the likes of Smoke Like A Fish, Cartoon Violence, the Steady Boys and Resolution 242 to name a few, this is one hell of a skankin stable..!

Kevin, the label’s boss and one and only employee, has consistently produced a long running skazine alongside the label work, as well as organizing the odd DoTheDog Birthday Bash..! As if that wasn’t enough, you can now stay upto date with all your DoTheDog news via the DoTheDog Podcast..!

www.dancingmood.net/musicaloccupation/category/do-the-dog-podcast

We at Combination13 hope that long may DoTheDog prosper & bring great bands to the attention of music lovers all over the world..!

We’ve had the pleasure to work with DotheDog on numerous releases down the years, here’s just a few..!

We caught up with Kevin Flowerdew and hit him with some questions…

1 – Blimey..! Up to 46 releases and going strong, did you ever dream of releasing that many albums..?

No not at all! When I put out the very first Do The Dog release, the “Rude Vibes” international ska compilation in 1996 it was only supposed to be a “one off” release to celebrate the 50th issue of the skazine that I was publishing. But I enjoyed putting out the compilation so much that I decided to continue with the label & release more ska CD’s. Even after the first few Do The Dog Music CD’s I never imagined that I would still be going as a label 13 years & 46 releases later! Its all a bit strange how I’ve survived so long really, I still don’t really know how to run a ‘proper’ record label & I pretty much make it up as I go along, ha ha!

2 – You’ve just released The Bakesys “Return To The Planet Of The Bakesys” live CD & received some great reviews. You actually co-founded the band playing keys, are there any calls for a one off reunion..? Fancy tinkling on the ivories once again..?!

To be honest all the great reviews & radio airplay that the CD has been receiving have come as a huge surprise to me & the rest of the members of The Bakesys! The wonderful reception that our 15 year old songs have received has indeed made us begin to think about the possibility of a Bakesys’ comeback. Due to the work & family commitments that members of the band now have I don’t think we would ever tour regularly again, but we have been talking about the possibility of a one off reunion gig sometime in 2010 & also writing some new songs for a second Bakesys’ studio album.

3 – Your brother is also a supremo independent label boss (heading up Rockers Revolt) and stars in Pama International (also on keys) – The Flowerdews have done a hell of a lot for UK Ska. But where does your brotherly love of the genre come from..?

We both got into ska when 2 Tone mania exploded in the UK charts in 1979. I was 12 & Sean was 9 so we were too young (& too scared, ha ha) to go to any proper ska gigs at the time, but we both started buying all the records by the likes of The Specials, Madness, The Beat & The Selecter that we could lay our hands on! Back then of course we would never have imagined that 30 years later Sean would have played keyboards onstage alongside various members of all of these bands!!!

4 – What’s up next for the Do The Dog, any new releases on the Horizon..?
Yeah we have a bunch of new Do The Dog Music releases hopefully coming out over the next few months & into 2010 including the debut full length albums by Jimmy The Squirrel, Captain Black No Stars, Dirty Revolution, Rasta4Eyes & John Player Specials, plus new albums by Smoke Like A Fish, Liam O’Kane, Rebelation & Cartoon Violence!

5 – Combi13 have designed many Albums/Gigposters/T-Shirts/SkaZines for DoTheDog – May we be so bold as to ask your favorite..?
Well I’ve really liked all the artwork that Combination 13 has done for the Do The Dog label & zine, that is why I keep coming back for more, ha ha! But my personal favourite of course  is the album artwork you did for my band The Bakesys!

Pleasure Talking to you Kevin, All The Best mate..!

www.dothedog.com – www.myspace.com/dothedogmusic