Reg Mombassa and Peter O’Doherty have pretty much tied their Mental As Anything album output (especially counting the double album Medicated Spirits as two records).
‘Under Water’ is the new track from Dog Trumpet’s ‘Live Forever’.
Watch the Noise11 Dog Trumpet ‘Live Together’ interview with Peter O’Doherty and Reg Mombassa:
Dog Trumpet is the long-running musical project of brothers Peter O’Doherty and Reg Mombassa (born Chris O’Doherty), launched as a creative spillway from, and later an alternative to, their day jobs in Mental As Anything.
The pair started Dog Trumpet around 1990/91, initially as a low-key outlet for the brothers’ gentler, odder songs and their shared love of jangly psychedelia, skiffle, country, surf instrumentals and crooked blues.
Their debut album, Two Heads One Brain (1991), arrived with a spry trio of singles, “Made of Wood,” “I’m So Handsome,” and “Jean”, that set the tone: droll, melodic, slightly surreal pop with deadpan delivery and painterly imagery.
While still Mentals, the brothers kept Dog Trumpet quietly productive through the ’90s, turning it into a fully-fledged band by the time they left Mental As Anything in 2000 to focus on music and art. (Both are acclaimed visual artists; Reg’s Mambo iconography is part of Australian pop culture.) Their departure closed the original Mentals chapter and opened the door for Dog Trumpet to tour and record steadily on its own terms.
Across the 2000s and 2010s, Dog Trumpet honed a signature sound: bright, chiming guitars; elastic basslines; conversational harmonies; and lyrics that mix suburban poetry with cosmic asides. Albums like Antisocial Tendencies, Grandpa’s War Stories, Medicated Spirits, Great South Road and Shadowland show how naturally the brothers swapped lead-writer roles: Peter’s tuneful, humane miniatures balance Reg’s wry, sometimes apocalyptic tall tales. Interviews and radio sessions underline how the songs are built like their paintings—observational, slightly skewed, with a fondness for the handmade.
In 2025 they returned with Live Forever, an album they’ve promoted with intimate Australian dates and fresh press, sounding very much like a band that treats longevity as an aesthetic, not just a fact. The record extends their habit of bright melodies carrying bittersweet words—ageing, love, politics and the environment rendered with an eyebrow and a grin.
If Mental As Anything was a pop machine with many drivers, Dog Trumpet is the brothers’ cottage industry: self-steered, visually unified (their artwork is everywhere), and quietly influential.
For more than three decades they’ve shown that Australian guitar pop can be eccentric without being arch, literate without losing the pub. It’s a body of work that makes sense of their dual identities as painters and songwriters—songs as small canvases, canvases that hum like songs.
Songs written by Peter O’Doherty and Reg Mombassa for Mental As Anything
Get Wet (1979)
• Peter O’Doherty: “Semitrailer.”
• Reg Mombassa: “Business & Pleasure.”
• Co-writes involving Reg: “Ole Peculiar” (Plaza, Mombassa); “Pigeons in the Attic Room” (Plaza, Mombassa).
Cats & Dogs (1981)
• Peter O’Doherty: “Berserk Warriors,” “Got Hit.”
• Reg Mombassa: “Walking on Rails,” “Chemical Travel,” “Psychedelic Peace Lamp.”
Creatures of Leisure (1983)
• Peter O’Doherty: “Close Again,” “Brain Brain,” “Nothing’s Going Right Today,” “Let’s Not Get Sentimental.”
• Reg Mombassa: “Good Friday,” “Red to Green.”
• Co-write: “Spirit Got Lost” (Smith, Mombassa).
Standalone / non-album (era around Creatures of Leisure)
• Co-write: “Apocalypso (Wiping the Smile Off Santa’s Face)” (Plaza, Mombassa, Smith).
Fundamental as Anything (1985)
• Peter O’Doherty: “Big Wheel,” “Bus Ride.”
• Reg Mombassa: “Surf & Mull & Sex & Fun,” “Fancy Gals.”
Mouth to Mouth (1987)
• Peter O’Doherty: “Don’t Tell Me Now,” “Hold On,” “I Just Wanna Be Happy.”
• Reg Mombassa: “Calling Colleen.”
• Band co-write: “My Hands Are Tied” (Smith, Plaza, Mombassa, O’Doherty, Twohill).
Cyclone Raymond (1989)
• Peter O’Doherty: “Whole Wide World,” “Love Letter,” “Get You Back” (and the re-cut of “Berserk Warriors ’89”).
• Reg Mombassa: “Monster on the Playground,” “Zanzibar.”
Notable single authored by Peter
• “Close Again” (1982 single from Creatures of Leisure).
