Denver-based art-soul band DOGTAGS’ music feels like being embraced by someone who feels like home, their arms wrapped around you, pulling you in tightly, closely, their warmth becoming yours. It’s safety, refuge, a community long searched for and finally found. It’s music meant to fill night air, to be danced to by people who know what it is to lose love, who are all too familiar with the silence that follows the shattering of a heart. DOGTAGS couple a unique sonic richness with lyrics unafraid to face pain head-on to remind those who hear it that love does still live in this world, the silence does not last forever, and, even when it feels like the world is falling apart, you will always have a home to return to.
303 Magazine recently spoke with DOGTAGS founders Regi Worles and Michael Merola about their recently released single, “Knorr,” how they have found refuge within each other, how DOGTAGS came together, how a band can become a community and so much more.
Music has been an integral part of both Worles’ and Merola’s lives since they were very young. For Merola, a Colorado Springs native and DOGTAGS’ lead guitarist and supporting vocalist, it all started with his father, who was a guitar player. Merola and his sisters would “gather in the living room and watch him play everything from Bach to Led Zeppelin.” Merola recalled that when he was “about ten,” he decided he wanted to learn to play, too, and picked up one of his dad’s guitars. “He handed it to me, then taught me how to play the King of the Hill theme song,” Merola said. Soon after, Merola found himself learning “Stairway to Heaven” and knew that he’d found his calling. “I knew then that I was meant to be a guitar player,” he said.
Worles, DOGTAGS’ lead vocalist, grew up in Memphis surrounded by music. He remembered being raised on his mother’s Whitney Houston records and other “oldies but goodies,” as he said his mother called them. When he was around third grade, he joined the choir and had to fight against getting discouraged. He said he had a teacher who he felt didn’t like him or his voice much, who passed him over for a certain prestigious showcase and it devastated him, made him unsure of himself and want to give up singing. However, he recognized his talent and his love for singing on his own and became determined to keep with it. This led him to the piano, which he thought would allow him to understand music better, but it was choir that he kept coming back to through the years, his voice his instrument of choice.
College eventually came around and brought with it a time of confusion. Merola said that he didn’t play much his first year at CU Boulder. He tried to study music, to join the jazz band, to produce for other people but nothing was really working for him. It wasn’t until Merola studied abroad in Tokyo the summer of 2019 that the idea of being in a band really took hold. He’d met some British expats who were playing gigs in the city and Merola would sit in with them on drums and write songs with them and open for them on occasion. These experiences ignited something in Merola and, when he returned to the States to face the prospect of graduation, he knew he needed to keep playing.
Worles always had the choir, fortunately. He recalled taking a semester off and “hating it,” before eventually forming a small group with his roommate at the time, a drummer who taught himself acoustic bass and guitar while he and Worles lived together, something Worles said he respected but that also “drove [him] nuts.” Eventually, however, the roommate moved back to his hometown to pursue music full time and left Worles with broken hopes and a lot of ideas for songs.
Merola and Worles met in 2020, right around the onset of the pandemic. They said they started out “just going on cute little dates, getting to know each other, whatever.” Merola described himself as shy, willing to keep Worles at arm’s length for a time. “I didn’t really know if I wanted a boyfriend, then. But eventually, I was like, ‘You have a great voice, and I play guitar. Let’s do something with that,'” Merola said.
Not much longer after first meeting and beginning to build their relationship, Worles and Merola went to a friend’s to write and work on music. At some point, the two left the house to go sit on a curb and work independently from the others. They came up with an early version of what would become “Sumn Bout Roses,” released last year. Worles said this is around when their relationship began to become truly romantic. He said he felt “clever sitting on that curb, coming up with lyrics that were basically ‘This is how I feel about you.'”
Worles described this experience as a “portal that opened up and led to us writing together.” He and Merola began collaborating frequently, meeting up to write and play, and their personal relationship deepened as their professional one grew. It bears mentioning that love really radiates from these two, the respect and care they have for each other evident in each glowing look, each nod of agreement and fond remembrance. They didn’t speak over each other. They let one another talk and fully finish their thought before jumping in. Their music overflows with love and it’s easy to see where that stems from.
Around this time, Worles had just gotten a dog and during these songwriting sessions, he and Merola would hear the dog’s tags jingling around the house. One time when recording, they accidentally captured this on tape and decided they liked it. They’d been looking for what to call themselves, so Worles suggested, “What if we just call ourselves DOGTAGS?” and the project was truly born.
They soon found themselves playing shows around town at places like Your Mom’s House and Stella’s, where they’d play rough versions of their original work and covers like “At Your Best” by the Isley Brothers. They hit a wall pretty quickly, however, with promoters becoming interested in their talent but were unwilling to book them as just a duo without drums or bass or anything else. They decided to open themselves up to finding new members and DOGTAGS quickly grew from a duo of burgeoning lovers into a whole community.
DOGTAGS now has nine members: lead singer Worles, lead guitar and vocals Merola, Aaron Dooley on bass, Heather Hunt on backing guitar and vocals, Gavin Solaski on trumpet, Micah Cheng on cello, Kelsey Hodge on backing vocals, Ben Kane on keys, and Tyler Hamlin on drums. Having so many members allows DOGTAGS to achieve this richness, all these elements blending together to become something that the listener can wrap themselves in, all encompassing and so very warm.
Worles also described it as his “refuge,” a community that he holds on to and invites all who need it to join. He said this particularly means a lot to him, given that he came to Denver knowing nobody, being lost and afraid, his family and hometown left far behind him. He calls his band his family and makes sure that he’s able to provide a safe and welcoming space for all who join his found community. He describes himself as the “people director,” while Merola is the “music director.” This means that Worles takes on the responsibility of making sure everyone is okay, talking it through with them if not, and generally just being a warm and empathetic person who cares about the people in his life.
DOGTAGS is a testament to the Denver music community as a whole, a beacon celebrating all that’s so unique about the scene here. In addition to making some just damn good music, they wish to share in experience with those that hear their music. The band has gained quite a reputation for their live shows, playing with other beloved Denver artists all over town as well as celebrated sets at the Underground Music Showcase. Both Worles and Merola said that they want those who see them live to feel everything from joy to sorrow to loss to redemption. It’s not uncommon to see a person in the crowd at a DOGTAGS show bawling tears of simultaneous happiness and despair. Their shows are deeply communal and therapeutic in this way, catharsis put to a beat.
The band is able to distill these feelings into their studio work. The recently released “Sasori EP” features nearly every emotion imaginable. However, their most recent single, “Knorr,” which dropped on May 14th, is their most dichotomous tune to date. Musically, it has this brightness to it, a bouncing propulsion that keeps the track moving and you alongside it. Lyrically, it’s quite dark and dismal, angry even, a collection of heartbreaks and disappointments that deliberately doesn’t match the music. This creates this strange alchemy and serves as a great example of DOGTAGS’ ability to capture human emotion and all its many complexities. It’s a beautiful song that, like all of DOGTAGS’ music, reminds one that they are not alone, no matter how much it may feel like it.
DOGTAGS are the kind of band you carry with you, that makes you feel better about the world because you know they exist within it at the same time as you. It’s music to dry your tears, to look out at the sun raining through your window and propel you to step through your door and back out into the world, where home is waiting in the arms of those who love you. You are not alone and never have to be again.