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.

Who Brought The Dog have released two songs for free via Bandcamp. "I'm With The Banned" is an anti-bullying, anti-racism, anti-sexism, anti-Trump rant, "Three Days" is a cancer survivor song, lyrics written by Carl and Canadian rocker Bif Naked.

Carl explains how the lyrical collaboration with Bif Naked on "Three Days" came about:

"It was clear when I began writing the lyrics that one song would be about Fabs' cancer scare, which was in fact the catalyst for Who Brought The Dog. But, as I hadn't experienced being told "Hey, by the way, you might have cancer, we'll let you know..." I had nothing to relate to, and I didn't want to ask Fabs about it because if this was about the lyrics inspiring the music, I wanted to see what they would pull out of him spontaneously. Bif has been a friend for a long time, she's a cancer survivor, so it made sense to ask her what a person goes through when given such a horrifying diagnosis. She graciously came back to me with a laundry list of feelings and emotions when going through the process of dealing with cancer, and ultimately being given a clean bill of health. I never considered some of the things she told me, which made their way into the song. Without her help 'Three Days' wouldn't have turned out the way it did. The third verse of the song is a tribute to Bif as a thank you for her assistance; if you're a fan of her work you'll pick up on it."  

The Bandcamp download for "Three Days" is free, but anyone interested in supporting Deutsche Krebshilfe / German Cancer Aid (www.krebshilfe.de) can make donations on Bandcamp. Please add the code AK 49006511 to your PayPal transaction.

Check out the full album teaser for Who Brought The Dog's forthcoming debut. The official Who Brought The Dog Facebook page can be found here.