With four albums under his belt as a member of German rockers The New Black, guitarist Fabian "Fabs" Schwarz decided it was time to take a shot at releasing a solo album following a potentially life-changing event. As an experienced musician songwriting wasn't an issue, but Fabs was concerned about having strong lyrics and enlisted the help of Carl Begai, Canadian heavy metal journalist at BraveWords.com and long-time supporter of The New Black. This would be no cut / paste project, however; rather than trying to fit lyrics to existing music, Fabs chose to create music written around the lyrics with the idea that no matter how they inspired him it would be rock-based. The only rule was no lyrics about Vikings, dragons and being brothers of metal, and no thrash or black metal riffs, no death metal vocals.  

The target was to write 10 songs for the album, dubbed Welcome To The Man Cave, and 11 were coughed up based on an unexpected chemistry between Fabs and Carl. What started as clear-cut rock album evolved to include elements of funk, jazz, blues and punk, and the final result defies being stamped as any one genre. As things developed Fabs decided he needed a solo project name, dubbing it Who Brought The Dog (if you're a nerd, you know where it came from). In addition, a drummer was required for live shows in the future as the songs were too strong to remain a studio work. The New Black's Philipp Klinger was welcomed aboard to fill the requirements of having a flesh-and-blood drummer on stage and at least one person in the line-up with a full head of hair.

Check out a teaser for the song "Mouth" from Who Brought The Dog's forthcoming debut. The official Who Brought The Dog Facebook page can be found here.