How a much-needed breather helped Dr. Dog craft its latest record

In 2021, Dr. Dog announced they were done with touring. A lot of fans thought that might mean they wouldn’t get a chance to ever see the band again. Three years later, Dr. Dog has a new album out.

The Philadelphia band has also been performing again. Earlier this year, they played a big show at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre outside Denver, Colo., they played to a giant hometown crowd in Philadelphia, and in a stripped-down performance, recorded for a live World Cafe audience. Band member Scott McMicken says that was all part of the plan.

“We never had the thought that we would stop entirely or stop making new music,” he tells World Cafe.

In this session, McMicken and Toby Leaman talk about the new music they’ve made, and why taking a break from the band actually helped them sound better.

This episode of World Cafe was produced and edited by Kimberly Junod. The web story was created by Miguel Perez. Our engineer is Chris Williams. Our programming and booking coordinator is Chelsea Johnson and our line producer is Will Loftus.