'Fever Dog' headed to transcontinental tour

By L.J. Gambone
Apple Valley Review

When musicians Danny Graham, Joshua Adams and Nathan Wood met while attending Sycamore Rocks Elementary in Apple Valley, chances are none of them ever dreamed where their friendship would lead them.

At the age of 11, the boys set out on their musical path together in a garage band called Snot Rocket.

They are all 20 years old now and still perform together under the name Fever Dog.

On Monday, things really began to heat up for the guys when they embarked on a tour of a lifetime to several countries in the United Kingdom. According to Graham, guitar/vocalist for the group, his psychedelic rock band has never played two shows in a row let alone a string of them in foreign countries.

While Graham says he and his friends are excited, he admits going into the unknown is a bit unsettling for everyone involved.

“This is literally the first time we will tour and we’re a bit nervous,” said Graham. “Going overseas is kind of scary but we’ll power through it.”

According to Graham, Fever Dog was discovered in Joshua Tree while they were attending a concert by Fatso Jetson, a successful American desert rock band from Palm Desert. Graham said he and his bandmates struck up a conversation with members of Fatso Jenson and the next thing you know, they were invited to open for them on their upcoming European tour.

Between now and the end of the month, both bands will play numerous dates in Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Italy and the Czech Republic.

“We have a show almost every night,” said Graham. “Thankfully, all of our lodging and meals will be taken care of, so with merchandise sales, we’re hoping this will be a profitable trip for us.”

Over its career, Fever Dog has released two CDs, “Volume One” and “Second Wind.” Graham said the latter has a professionally produced sound and features the band’s finest work to date.

The group is currently writing songs for its third CD, which it hopes to release next year.

“We all write songs and work them out together,” said Graham. “A lot of our creativity comes out in long jam sessions where we just improvise. And we also get a lot of our ideas listening to old Pink Floyd records.”

Graham said most of the themes in Fever Dog’s tunes are of an abstract nature. In addition, the band tackles subjects about space travel and fantasy. Along with Pink Floyd, its influences include Led Zeppelin, Heart, Kiss, Yes and Jimi Hendrix, to name a few. Today’s groups hold no interest for Fever Dog, according to Graham.

“Pretty much everything you hear today is overproduced and sounds like everything else,” said Graham. “Classic rock has a much more raw sound and you can tell a lot more time and creativity was put into it. And the bands back then took a lot more chances – especially Pink Floyd.”

Graham said he, Adams and Wood are betting on a bright future and the European tour is only the beginning of what they hope to accomplish.

“We’d all like to continue touring and have our music be our main source of income,” said Graham. “We feel we have a lot of potential to be a successful working band and we seem to be off to a good start.”

Visit www.fever-dog.com for more information.