Last year, at Firefly Music Festival, was the last time I saw Dirty Heads live. Besides the undeniable manifest of sweat, jive, and beer bottles—love and musical lustiness also commenced the first lyric heard. The whole set stood on stage, in front of synched waves of fingertips that were stretched to the sky. Since then, Dirty Heads has been writing, recording, and getting ready to tour with Sublime With Rome, TRIBAL SEEDS, and Bleeker. The awesome matchup comes as no surprise, as the dudes are friends with Sublime With Rome—even have released some songs together.
Dirty Heads released the first single off their new self-titled album (to be released July 15), “That’s All I Need,” in May. While spreading visions of black Lincoln Continentals with suicide doors, and palm trees whisking the skyline, the band taped the video with tons of their hometown fans. Now, we are in one of the most densely populated areas in the country. Other than Newark Airport’s traffic constantly shooting jet fuel into our air, and the crumbling of our infrastructure—there’s also no such thing as rush hour (because it is all hours of the day). However, Dirty Heads never fails to make music that sends over chiller vibes, and the salty air of Huntington Beach. I can only imagine the incredibleness the new album will deliver.
In an interview with The Aquarian, Dustin “Duddy B” Bushnell shared some news about what to expect from him and the rest of the band, including Jared “Dirty J” Watson, Matt Ochoa, Jon Olazabal, David Foral, and Shawn Hagood. Duddy assured me that the new material goes full circle; it allowed the band to go back to the roots of Dirty Heads. So, you can bet that the 11-track anthology is going to be kickass. The band has said that their fifth installment will be pure Dirty Heads sound—aged to perfection, yet combined with all influences. If you’ve never heard of Dirty Heads, I can guarantee that you’ve caught yourself vibing to “My Sweet Summer,” or “Lay Me Down” in passing. They’ve been sharing live streams of rehearsals on their Facebook, and even offering super cool giveaways coinciding with their album release. Check out more excerpts from Duddy’s interview below. Summer only started a few days ago, discover and immerse yourself in the flare Gods.
What has Dirty Heads been up to?
We’re done recording new material. July 15th, the new album comes out. That’s kind of what we are doing right now—promoting the new single, “That’s All I Need.” We’re getting ready for the new album to drop.
Love the new video on the West Coast with a bunch of people. Did you do an open call, everybody come party with us?
We did it in our hometown. We grew up in Huntington Beach, and we haven’t done that kind of video yet—like a party-vibe with friends in our hometown. We felt like that song called for it. It has that vibe of just hanging in your neighborhood on Sunday with your buddies. We just thought, “Hey, let’s do a song that represents our hometown.” We just shouted out to the fans the day before like, “Hey. Meet here at this time if you want to be in the video.” A bunch of people showed up; it was so cool.
Alright so the new album is coming out soon! What can we expect from this album that’s different than the last?
We always go somewhere a little different with each album, not that we get bored. But, we just grow, we like to try new things. We’ve tried so many things in the past that we kind of went back to where we started. And it’s for a lot of hip-hop inspired songs. [It’s] very vibe-y and mellow. But on this album, we broke it up into two playlists. We did a daytime and a nighttime. First half of the album are songs that you would listen to in the daytime, and then the songs start to get a little darker—the songs you listen to at night. Let’s give the fans some playlists.
Like a work of art, one piece, an orchestra. Day to night.
We didn’t even plan it that way to start. As we started recording, we were like, “Wow… these songs we are writing have like two different vibes. [It’s] split into two.” We felt we had that vibe, and we went with that idea. That’s what people do today, anyway… like on Spotify. [People] want a “relaxed playlist,” or an “afternoon playlist.
Like coffee mood.
Exactly. That’s how people want to listen to music—a mood, a playlist. So, there ya go.
Your albums always include amazing different elements from a range of music genres. Along with songs we can listen to relaxing by the beach, we have some tracks we can blast at a summer block party. Would you say with every album progressing your sound, that the new self-titled has captured the most matured voices of Dirty Heads?
Definitely. That’s the reason we self-titled our new album. This is an elevated, true sounding Dirty Heads. New sounds with old roots. The fans from the beginning are going to find similarities in songs they previously loved, and new fans can follow along without missing a beat.
You mentioned that the album is sort of a half and half—daytime playlist into night. You also mentioned that people love listening to music based on moods. In writing the album, was this something you tried to achieve beforehand, or did it just come into play in the writing process?
We just wanted to write songs that make you feel good. This whole process for us at the end of the day was just…fun. It didn’t feel like ‘work’. It recaptured the pure feeling you’re supposed to get when you listen to music and I think it translates to whoever is listening how much we actually enjoy what we do.
As far as touring, are there any places like a country, or even venue that you want to discover.
I really want to go to Australia. I feel like I really want to go there, not only on a personal level—but I feel like our music would go well over there. It would be another region we could tap into. It would be good for our band.
Are you performing anywhere yet?
Not performing yet. We are at home. [We are] starting rehearsals for the upcoming tour. We just got done recording. Now, we got to go to the studio and start practicing them! Haha… [Got to] practice new songs, so we can play them this summer. [We are practicing] for the next week or so, and then we fly off.
I love asking bands about their “babies”—my name for instruments. Any favorites that play key sounds into your music?
My Taylor guitar and Ernie Ball.
Your music has been great in showing us sides of the West Coast music culture. Is there anything different that you take from the NYC-NJ area when you visit?
There’s an electric energy you get on the East Coast. It’s this old school vibe where cool has history behind it. We love playing in the NYC-NJ area because it’s so opposite from where we live in California. Not to mention our fans there are the best!
Dirty Heads will be performing at PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, NJ on July 8, Festival Pier (at Penn’s Landing) in Philadelphia on July 9, and Nikon at Jones Beach Theater on July 10. Their new self-titled album will be released July 15. For more information, visit dirtyheads.com.
