The Dirt
“A Cash/Carter-Cash for the 21st century, they sing of doomed incestuous love, local serial killers and creative uses for human remains. The simplicity of the arrangements belies a complex interplay between their constituent elements . . . The Dirt’s songs have clearly been compressed, cut and polished to perfection.”
Q & A (April 2009)
How do you describe what you do to strangers?
Graeme: Country
Jen: Graeme does all the talking
How long have you been making music, individually?
G: When I was about four I stood on a chair in a hotel and sang the theme song for ‘Calum’s Ceilidh’, a popular TV show of the time.
J: When I was three someone stuck me on a bar and made me sing Good Ship Lollipop
How did the two of you meet and how did The Dirt get started?
We were raised by the same pack of wolves.
Why no drums or bass?
We’re minimalists. We never want to add anything unless it’s really enhancing the song. If you have more people in the band they probably want to be doing something all the time. But I think we could benefit from a bit of drumming. Ideally we’d have a third person to play the drums, piano, accordion, banjo or whatever takes our fancy, but we haven’t found them yet. Don’t think we’d ever have a bass player. From a practical point of view, there’s a lot to be said for being able to turn up at gigs with one guitar and bagful of harmonicas and tambourines.
What inspires you, musically and lyrically?
Musically, rhythms like bum-chick or bum-bum-chick or bum-chick-chick, or a nice chord sequence. Lyric-wise, a good word or phrase gets me started. I write little notes to myself when I’m out because I’m so forgetful.
What is your song-writing process?
Some are done in half an hour, others gestate for years. I think for the time you’re writing the song you’ve got to believe it’s the best song you’ve ever written, even if in the cold light of morning you realise it’s shite.
What song(s) of yours are you most satisfied and why?
Bury Me Tomorrow, Peter Thomas Anthony Manuel, Flowers, I Saw You. I don’t think there’s anything glaringly wrong with them.
Who would be your ideal collaborator(s) (living)
G: Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse.
J: Nick Cave
Who would be your ideal collaborator(s) (dead)
G: Got to be Johnny Cash
J: Shirley Temple
Who would you most like to cover your songs?
G: Nick Cave. Or the Bad Bad Men
J: Leona Lewis
What does the future hold for The Dirt?
Play more gigs outside Glasgow and do some more recording.
There is a zombie apocalypse and you have to choose five things to take into the bunker to rebuild human culture – what do you take?
G: A guitar, a good supply of Guinness, pens, paper and a toothbrush.
J: Tobacco, liquorice papers, extra-slim filter tips, a lighter and a bottle of Queen Margot from Lidl.
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Photo by Garry MacLennan
