Dirty Heads vocalist/guitarist, Duddy B, called in & spoke with DJ Robin Roth of San Diego, CA’s 91X Alternative Rock Radio Station last Tuesday, July 8th. Here’s a recap of the call that includes Duddy discussing new album, Sound of Change, the haters, new music video & touring to Europe…
Yes, the new Dirty Heads album, Sound of Change is a bit different from what you’re use to hearing from them. With the July 8th, 2014 release of Sound of Change, that marks 3 albums in just over 2 years from the Dirty Heads! There’s the 6/19/12 release of Cabin By The Sea as well as the 10/29/13 release of their all acoustic album, Home Phantoms of Summer: The Acoustic Sessions. So why wouldn’t Sound of Change be something outside the box of the previous 2 albums? But that wasn’t necessarily the plan.
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Duddy explains to Robin: “We didn’t really have an idea of what we wanted to do for it, we didn’t have a direction, we didn’t have a name. Nothing! We didn’t have one song written!”
The group linked up with friend & producer Rome Ramirez of Sublime with Rome and magic struck while writing with Rome! Duddy continues, “The first 2 songs we did within the first 2 days, we were like: ‘WOW!’ One of them songs was ‘Sound of Change’ and we were like: ‘This is so different, this is so big… Lets just run with it! Lets name the album ‘Sound of Change’, lets just try new things, lets try & get out of our comfort zones… And at the end of the day, we’re just super proud of it!”
Of course with change, comes resistance from longtime fans who have become use to associating a certain sound with their favorite band. Some longtime fans have voiced their disappointment via the social networks & Duddy has read every bit of it! The group knows that there will be some resistance when they try something different, but that doesn’t mean that the online chatter isn’t amusing.
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When asked how he responds to the online chatter of hate or misconceptions about the band “selling out”, Duddy says: I laugh my ass off… Honestly, it’s one of my favorite parts of the day once I started seeing people hating on it and then people fighting against the people hating on it and everyone trying to explain their case!” Dudduy continues “So my new thing in the morning was: I get my coffee, I smoke a little pot and I would just read and laugh my ass off!”
He went on to explain that they love their fans & appreciate their support & at the end of the day, they have to write music that they feel strong about.
The group will take their Sound of Change on the road starting this Wednesday when they share their summer tour with Pepper, Aer & Katastro! When Robin brought up Pepper, Duddy mentioned how he’s known them forever: “I think 12 years ago, my brothers band was playing with them and I remember meeting them… Since then, we’ve played with each other so many times and we just had a great relationship, but we’ve never toured together! It’s gonna be fun, but my liver is terrified because those guys drink like animals!”
His brothers band that he mentions, happens to be HB Surround Sound & they’re bad ass! Anyway, following this 31 day tour with Pepper, Aer & Katastro, the group will come back home for a couple weeks to get their livers checked before heading back out on the road, but Duddy mentioned how the group will be going abroad to Europe: “That’s another good thing with this album, we feel like its more international, its broader and I feel like we’ll be able to break new ground with this music. We gotta get out to Europe and want to go to Australia & Japan & all that & see what we can do!”
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The tour will run from July 16th to August 30th. Duddy was specific when he said that their live show will be unlike any experience any longtime fan has experienced at a Dirty Heads show. Following this tour in August & into November the group will hop a plan to Europe for 10 days followed by a trip to Mexico with Slightly Stoopid in December. Then in February, they’ll take a Caribbean Cruise to Jamaica with 311 & Pepper.
Stay tuned & you can check out the whole call on 91X by clicking HERE!
Pick up the new album Sound of Change iTunes & catch the group as they hit the road with Pepper, Aer & Katastro!
Related Links:
Dirty Heads Website
Dirty Heads Facebook
Dirty Heads Twitter
Article By: Mike Patti
Photo By: David Norris
Watch: Dirty Heads – “My Sweet Summer”
