Latest / HEAVY Music Interviews / 25 Years And Still A Dirtbag, With BRENDAN BROWN From WHEATUS

Transcript

25 Years And Still A Dirtbag, With BRENDAN BROWN From WHEATUS · HEAVY Music Interviews

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Hey, I'm Brendan from watas catch us on tour in
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Australia twenty twenty six.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: Gosh again one more time. I can't wait to get there.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: It's gonna be exciting.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Thomas, He and Nicholas opening up for us, doing all
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: requests sets come see us.
• 0:18
  Speaker 3: Fantastic Brendan, thanks for joining us today.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Brother, Thanks for having me man.
• 0:22
  Speaker 3: Bye, pleasure said as you say, waitas I had it.
• 0:24
  Speaker 4: Back to Australia to deliver a bladed Christmas present for
• 0:28
  Speaker 4: your twenty fifth anniversary short yourself charted album studying Brisbane
• 0:32
  Speaker 4: on January fifteenth before hitting every state of Australia and
• 0:36
  Speaker 4: got a New Zealand for three shows which winds up
• 0:38
  Speaker 4: red Well Inch and on January twenty second. That first
• 0:41
  Speaker 4: show is pretty close to Christmas, mate, Like you're gonna
• 0:43
  Speaker 4: be in any shape to do any shows after Christmas dinner?
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, I'm taking Christmas off this year. There's no there's
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: no parties happening. We've went on tour too much. I'm
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: just gonna shut the door, turn the phone off. You know.
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: Good sounds like you need it bright?
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, man?
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: And on that toy you're going to.
• 1:02
  Speaker 4: Be playing that album in form Mate, So how was
• 1:05
  Speaker 4: it relearning all of the songs to play live?
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: Like?
• 1:08
  Speaker 4: I can't imagine when you recorded it that you ever
• 1:09
  Speaker 4: planned have to replicate the whole thing live on shoe.
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: Oh we know.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: We've been playing that album for years. We never we
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: never laid off of it. We didn't have to relearn
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: a thing. There's a you know, a couple of couple
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: of tweaks we have to make to the back catalog,
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: make sure that we get everything in order. Should anybody
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: call anything, but you know we're not. We don't do
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: any set lists. It's still request sets. So kids are shouting,
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: people are shouting telling us what to play.
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: You say it, we play it. That's how we do it.
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah, noice and well, that tour is celebrating the album
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: as a whole.
• 1:39
  Speaker 4: But there's one little song on there that people were right,
• 1:41
  Speaker 4: if you don't play it, mate, So would I be correct?
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: And assuming that's the little song about being a teenager?
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: Oh that's correct. Yeah, we're definitely playing teenage tartpag. Nobody
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: needs to worry about that. We're not the band that
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: doesn't like their big song. We're the other band.
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: Ha. But the success of that song made.
• 1:58
  Speaker 4: It's nothing short of phenomen having repeated movies, TV shows
• 2:02
  Speaker 4: and now chiktok videos a lot. Honestly, do you ever
• 2:06
  Speaker 4: I won't say you get sick of it because it
• 2:07
  Speaker 4: doesn't feel like that, but it ever feel like you're
• 2:09
  Speaker 4: going through the motions?
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: No, man, absolutely not never. It's a weird song. It's
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: you know, I hadn't considered that it would ever be
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: a single. I'd kind of written that off. I didn't
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: think it could be one because it was too long
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: and it had this meandering story and switched characters and
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: all that stuff. So I didn't think that it would happen. Uh,
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: the way that it has is incredible. I mean, I
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: don't know what to make of it, but.
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: As a song, quite proud of it.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: Still feel like it represents who we are and who
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: I was at the time and continue to be, and
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: I feel good about playing it.
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: It's never gotten old.
• 2:43
  Speaker 4: Yeah, So take us back to when you wrote this song,
• 2:46
  Speaker 4: might like, what was your initial idea for, Like, what
• 2:48
  Speaker 4: was there the thing that maybe you wrote in your
• 2:50
  Speaker 4: notebook that later was flashed out into his Phosh.
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: It's funny.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: I didn't have a note but but I didn't know
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: that I wanted a song called Dirtbag or some such.
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: And I had messed around with this riff that I
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: had in high school. We're going way back, uh, trying.
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: And put it together.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: And the one day I was lying on my on
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: my futon thinking about Cydney Lauper and Metallica at the
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: same time, and it all just came out. I was
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: playing guitar, just hanging out and they and they.
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: Started started there. I had the first verse of the chorus.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: For a little while, I didn't know how to proceed,
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: but uh it within six months I had it finished.
• 3:23
  Speaker 4: Yeah, right, that song's become such an enduring legacy, mate, Like,
• 3:27
  Speaker 4: do you ever think maybe, in hindsight, if you had
• 3:28
  Speaker 4: to call the album teenage Dirtbag instead of making it
• 3:31
  Speaker 4: set upside and it would have started billions were copies.
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: Oh, I don't know about that. You know. I wanted
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: the band to have the band name to have no
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: real meaning.
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: I wanted to be a nonsense word and it is
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: so yeah, it be a bit, a bit bit bit
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: on the nose if it was all teenage dirt Bag,
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: just you know, the name it. But and then the
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: next thing they'd want you to name the band teenage
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: dirt Bag and where does it end?
• 3:55
  Speaker 4: You know, one last question on that particular songlay my life.
• 4:01
  Speaker 4: When you finish writing and recording it, did your sense
• 4:04
  Speaker 4: that it could be something special or was it just
• 4:06
  Speaker 4: not really?
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: As I said, I knew, I knew it was a
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: strong song. I knew it was interesting. But as far
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: as being a single, you know, there were all these
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: rules that were that it was violating.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: It was too long, it was over three minutes and
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: fifteen seconds long, it had it had some cuss words
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: in it. It was singing about the gun in the
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: second lyric. You know, I thought, there's no way this
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: will be a radio single.
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: It can't be.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: And yeah, that was wrong.
• 4:31
  Speaker 4: You were wrong, man, that self thought an album was
• 4:34
  Speaker 4: recorded in the basement of your mom's house.
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: Is that correct?
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's correct. Yeah, the basement in the living room. Yeah,
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: few different rooms, but yes, absolutely.
• 4:42
  Speaker 4: And what was the reason for that then? Was it
• 4:43
  Speaker 4: financial or was it nostalgion?
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: Financial? Financial?
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: And there's the only place we could really set up
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: and do the experiment we wanted. You know, Tenny strip
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: Eeg is this sort of has a bit of a
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: hip hop influence.
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: It's also got the folky acoustic.
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: Guitar that you would find in like a James Taylor
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: song or a Paul Simon's and then the chorus, of course,
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: explodes into this sort of metally thing. And I've always
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: been afraid of walking into a studio back in the
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: day and saying, you know, hey, I'd like to hear
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: a record that we'd like to make a record that
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: sounds like James Taylor and Metallica. You know, they would
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: have kicked me out of there if I said that,
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: so so we so we kind of had to figure
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: out how to do that on our own by experiment,
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: and uh and we did, and I think it came
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: out all right.
• 5:27
  Speaker 4: Wading through the track list of My life, there's some
• 5:29
  Speaker 4: great song titles a You but Hump Him and Dump Him,
• 5:32
  Speaker 4: Love is the Mutt from Hell. Punkos Bitch sounds like
• 5:35
  Speaker 4: had a bit of an attitude problem back then.
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: Well I didn't write I didn't write punk Ass Bitch,
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: but the album is a little is a little snarky.
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: Punk Ass Bitch was written by our bass player at
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: the time, But those songs are sort of about In
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: the nineties, I had done a record for another label
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: and it kind of got ripped off really badly. And
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: the initial version of the first Weadest record was a
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: little bit more dreamy, a little bit more emo. But
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: then once that happened to me, I kind of got
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: a little angry and the first record came out pretty
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: snarky as a result, you know.
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: Speaking of dreaming and email. You mentioned this before.
• 6:10
  Speaker 4: You've got a gentleman by the name of Thomas and
• 6:13
  Speaker 4: Nicholas touring with you. Is national support, Like, honestly, could
• 6:16
  Speaker 4: not think of a better band to have a support
• 6:19
  Speaker 4: for you.
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah. He's a good dude. He's a lot of fun man.
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: He's got a big repertoire all of your nostalgic pop
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: punk singles and hits. He can whip them all out.
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: He can twist him around, he can have fun with it.
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: He's a fun guy to watch watch work.
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: And he's touring with you over there now a cheer
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: I believe he is.
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: Indeed, Yeah, it's going really well.
• 6:38
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and he going to be any stage. Cross pollination
• 6:42
  Speaker 4: of your music and to be jumping up with him
• 6:43
  Speaker 4: or him jumping.
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: Up, I would, I would. I would bet something's gonna happen. Sure, absolutely.
• 6:48
  Speaker 4: I'd say you probably have to tie him up on
• 6:50
  Speaker 4: side of stage for that not to happen.
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: Fantastic mate. Well that's thought we blocked for me today.
• 6:57
  Speaker 4: You get nug yourself, for Rest, but the Weeds trying
• 6:59
  Speaker 4: to fifth anniversary chour hits the train next January. Riders
• 7:03
  Speaker 4: tours are always good fun. This one is going to
• 7:05
  Speaker 4: be better, so we'll see you in Brisbane.
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: Thanks Chris, thanks for having me on. It's nice to
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: talk to you again.