There’s something very Hollywood about the story arc of Dogstar — and not just because Keanu Reeves happens to be the bassist of the band.
To start, there was a Meet Cute between Reeves and drummer Robert Mailhouse at a SoCal supermarket back in the early ’90s that started it all. As the story goes, Mailhouse was wearing a Detroit Red Wings jersey, which attracted the actor/hockey fan to spark a conversation and eventually led to jam sessions in Reeves’ garage.
Soon enough, the band — completed by singer/guitarist Bret Domrose — had some plot-twist rockstar moments, like signing to a major label (Zoo Entertainment), releasing two albums, opening for David Bowie and touring with Bon Jovi. And though Dogstar disbanded in 2002, the band re-emerged after 20 years this past May with a reboot that in many ways bests the first edition.
“It’s been a really nice reception. We’ve having fun playing and touring … in a way it feels like the first time,” said Reeves in a recent Zoom conversation alongside Mailhouse and Domrose. “It’s much better than we anticipated,” Domrose added.
All three are dialed in from their homes around Los Angeles while taking a short break in Dogstar’s ambitious 35-date tour. It’s just one of the many banner moments of the past year since announcing their surprise comeback with a wildly well-received set at the BottleRock Napa Valley music festival, a performance that “was really something special,” said Reeves. “It really kind of set the tone for everything that has followed after.”
“I’m not sure what would’ve happened had we not just gone [and put ourselves] out there,” Mailhouse added.
Keanu Reeves (from left), Bret Domrose and Robert Mailhouse decided at the “Matrix Resurrections” premiere to resume writing songs as Dogstar.
Ross Halfin
Truthfully, Reeves, Mailhouse and Domrose never truly broke up. They continued jamming together “maybe once a year or twice a year,” according to Mailhouse; he and Reeves even had another side project, called Becky, in the interim. But conversations about recommitting to Dogstar took up again when the three friends were at the “Matrix Resurrections” premiere in San Francisco in late 2021.
“Being together in that same room, we were talking about equipment and … about wanting to play together again,” Reeves recalled.
“I think that’s when we really decided — after the premiere — to huddle in the studio and try to write,” said Mailhouse. “It felt like a new band … very familiar but different.”
Since reuniting, the band has graced the cover of Spin, made appearances on late-night TV (like recently taking over “Jimmy Kimmel Live”) and entered the Billboard charts for the first time in their career, thanks to the material from their new album “Somewhere Between the Power Lines and Palm Trees,” released in October on their new self-contained label Dillon Street Records.
It’s a record that Reeves said “ended up being kind of an emotional journey concept album,” but adding, “We didn’t set out with that goal in mind. It was really just about playful creativity.”
Dillon Street Records
Across 12 tracks, it weaves in a tapestry of lyrical narratives and sonic styles from the noir pop of “Lily” to the ’90s riffs of “Overhang” and the total heavy assault of “Breach,” all of which fit in with the milieu but feel modern and a bit left-of-center. It’s a brand they’ve always kind of ascribed to while never fully fitting into the grunge scene that circled around them in the beginning.
“The ’90s were, to me, punky nursery rhymes, but I always thought Bret was [writing] more like ’60s/’70s storyteller stuff with that tone underneath,” said Mailhouse, noting the band of course still loves the decade; he even recently took Reeves to see the Pixies for his birthday. “But I always felt like we were sort of out of time, and I feel like we fit in now moreso than the ’90s.”
Reeves added, “We had distorted guitars but we didn’t sound like the other ‘grunge’ bands at the time. We were something other, something that I could just simply say is Dogstar.”
When the bandmates return to Chicago this weekend for a gig at Thalia Hall, it’ll be their third visit to the city, following a 1996 gig at Metro and a 2000 show at House of Blues.
And, in a way, Chicago will always be a “home away from home city for us,” said Mailhouse who recalls writing much of the band’s 1996 debut “Our Little Visionary” at a local warehouse while Reeves was in town filming the movie “Chain Reaction” that same year.
“We had a blast [in Chicago]. I’ll never forget it,” said Mailhouse.
Coming full circle in 2023 had been a pipe dream, says the band, and there’s quite possibly only one other thing the trio would need to toast this successful year. On Dec. 1, they got just that, partnering with California brewery Frogtown to release their own ale, Frogstar.
“Last night I held it in my hand and felt like a successful man at that point,” Domrose joked. “Like, wow we really did something here.”
