Doctor Tongue Gets “Higher” with a Funk Rock Anthem That Shoots for the Stars
Hamilton’s most lovable weirdos, Doctor Tongue, are back with a brand-new single, “Higher,” out now via Jetpack Records. Blending funk rock, alternative, and soul with a poet’s heart and a glam-rock glint in the eye, the track is both a celebration of fantasy and a hard stare into the mirror. It’s seductive, surreal, and surprisingly heartfelt—like if Prince, Parliament, and the ghost of Carl Jung all split a cab home from band practice.
“We can get high, we can get high, we can get higher,” sings frontman George Panagopoulos, as the band launches into a full-bodied groove laced with cinematic flair and off-kilter sensuality. But this isn’t just about getting lit—it’s about rising, about claiming joy, about choosing wonder over numbness in a world designed to flatten you.
“It’s a big sweaty hug of a song,” says George. “But it’s also about those strange moments when you’re standing in the shadow of a dying star, wondering who you are.”
“Higher” is the band’s seventh single and a defining piece of their upcoming debut album, 3D House of Mayhem, arriving June 2025. The lyrics play like a series of fever dreams: “You can Kama Sutra, I can instant cream / We can find each other on the silver screen / You’ll be Cleopatra, I’ll be James Dean…” It’s chaotic, cinematic, oddly romantic—and completely Doctor Tongue.
Formed in the twilight of the COVID era, Doctor Tongue made their debut in 2022 at Come Together Music Festival in Durham, Ontario. Not long after, tragedy struck when founding guitarist Dylan Matthews passed away. Many bands would have retreated. Tongue doubled down.
“Dylan’s death was shattering,” George reflects. “But he’s become our fuel. Everything we do now is in his honour. Every gig, every groove—it’s for him.”
The current lineup includes Mark McMaster on drums, Tom Bigas on percussion, Johnny Nixon on guitar, Liam Brown on bass, and co-writer Jethro Mann on guitar and vocals. Each member brings a kaleidoscope of musical influences, from hip-hop to soul to gritty garage rock. What ties them together isn’t genre—it’s energy, raw and real, and a shared refusal to play by the music industry’s algorithmic rules.
“Doctor Tongue is a flagrant revolution against the Plinko board that the music industry has become,” the band says. “While algorithms try to isolate and define you, we’ve evolved to break free.”
And it’s working. With six previous singles and over 300,000 Spotify streams under their belt, they’ve built a cult following the old-fashioned way—song by song, show by show, soul by soul.
A band built for the stage, Doctor Tongue has earned a reputation for sweat-soaked, euphoric live shows that blend musicality with theatricality.
“They’re the real deal,” says six-time Grammy-winning producer Ross Hogarth. “People are going to fall in love with this band.” And that’s not just industry hyperbole—the band’s last club gig sent Corktown Tavern’s bar sales through the roof, according to staff. “It’s a strange energy that takes over,” they say. “Everyone wants to celebrate.”
“Higher” was recorded with the same ferocious spontaneity that the band brings to their live sets.
“We don’t overthink it,” says George. “We let the song lead us. We let the weirdness in. We let ourselves be real. ‘Higher’ came together like a dream you don’t fully understand but somehow remember forever.”
Hi George! Good to see you again! Care to introduce yourself to the readers for those not familiar with your music?
Sure, I’m the lead singer, keyboard player, and co-producer of the project.
How would you describe “Higher” to someone who’s never heard Doctor Tongue—using only movie titles?
Pulp Fiction threw a house party with Almost Famous, but Fear and Loathing crashed it and got everyone Dazed and Confused. Why?
Because “Higher” isn’t just a song — it’s a chaotic history of humanity’s need to evolve, be it through wine, enlightenment, drugs, or God. We all need a way to connect. It’s groove-heavy like Pulp Fiction, sentimental like Almost Famous, and just unhinged enough to feel like Fear and Loathing smashed through the door and dosed the punch. There’s soul, distortion, and a lot of heart — like a party you didn’t know you needed, but now you don’t want to leave.
Which street in Hamilton best captures the energy of “Higher”—and why?
Mountain Brow Blvd. The edge of it all.
The place where Hamilton stops pretending.
You stand there and the city unravels beneath you —
light and shadow, steel and smoke, dreams half-built and hearts still burning.
From up there, you’re not in it — you’re above it.
And that’s what “Higher” is.
It’s that feeling of rising just far enough to see your life for what it really is…
and realizing it still matters — maybe more than ever.
What’s the strangest thing that’s ever happened during a live Doctor Tongue show?
Every show is strange —
We cast spells without warning. We call out to Jesus with whiskey on our breath.
There’s gospel in the groove and the devil in the downbeat.
We bleed for it and sweat until we leave pieces of ourselves on the floor.
And when it’s done, it’s like we all woke up from the same hallucination.
Nobody knows what to say — we just look at each other like,
“Did that actually happen?”
That’s the ritual.
That’s Doctor Tongue.
Your sound is hard to categorize—what genre do you wish people would invent to describe Doctor Tongue?
Doctor Tongue doesn’t fit — and we like it that way.
Trying to label it is like trying to name a storm while it’s wrecking your backyard.
It’s funk, it’s rock, it’s soul, it’s hip-hop, it’s Dylan’s ghost riding a wah pedal through a spaghetti western.
Genre turns music into product.
We’re making something — not some thing.
And whatever it is, it’s alive, and it’s ours.