If you are one of the forty million viewers of Sex Education, then you have already heard and seen Year of the Dog play their original hit tune ‘Run These Streets’. If you haven’t, fret not – it’s due to release today (May 17th 2019).
The song itself is what brought the young band together for the first time last year – 2018 being The Year of the Dog – when Felix needed brass players for his original electronic version of the song. From there the six guys – all studying at the Royal Welsh College of Music in Cardiff – went on to form what is described by Gwdihw as ‘Cardiff’s hottest new band’.
The fellas / The Dogs who call themselves ‘a raucous six piece with an original brass blasting concoction of funk, ska, reggae and swing’ are composers Felix as guitarist and singer, Dan Hall on trumpet, classical instrumentalist Peter Richards on bass trombone, and jazz instrumentalists Jacob Prescott on bass, Luke Hartley, as drummer and Ollie Jenkins on sax.
The track was recorded in composer Justin Nicholls’ (One Born Every Minute, Numberjacks) studio in the Wye Valley, where Felix, Luke and Olly are from, and where much of Sex Education was filmed. The song will be out just in time for festivals this summer, so audiences will be able to re-live the live experience on Spotify, iTunes, Deezer and Amazon.
To date, the band have performed live on Heart Radio Wales twice, awarded funding by MAS Records, won Cardiff’s Student battle of the bands 2019, and appeared in Netflix Series Sex Education.
How the band got involved with Netflix
How did Year of the Dog get onto Sex Education and perform Run These Streets?
“I found out through a friend that Netflix were on the lookout for young Welsh musicians to play a swing band in a new series. So I got in touch and sent over the only thing we had – a jolty video shot on my phone of us playing Run These Streets at our very first gig last March 2018” says Felix.
Talking about their experience, Olly added:
“Sex Education was a fantastic experience and something we’ll never forget. We were in tears of laughter during filming when Music Teacher Mr. Hendrix was conducting us during the song we’d written. He is without doubt the funniest person we’ve ever met” says Olly.
There’s word that the Swing Band may be returning to Sex Education for series 2, so as the dogs often say: “Keep your eyes peeled, and your ears to the ground”.
What’s next for the band
The young stellar swing band “Year of the Dog” are about to hit the road for their first ever UK festival line-up. They’re kicking things off with a new release “Run These Streets” the song they wrote and performed for the hit Netflix Series “Sex Education”
In addition, you can see them perform “Hair of the Dog” – their first focused and furious ska rev sound recorded at Fieldgate Studios – take a listen at this location
Where can you see them jam this summer
- Noz Stock – 18-21July 2019 – Main Stage
- Merthyr Rising – 24-26 May 2019 – Main Stage
- Hogsozzle – 24-26 May 2019 -Main Stage
- Hay Festival / How the Light Gets In – Hat Stage – 24-27 May 2019
- Boom Town – The Flying Moustache – 7-12 August 2019
- The Big Cwtch – Main Stage – 30-31 August 2019
