Interview: Dirty Money (Written)

Games, Brrraaains & A Head-Banging Life bring you an interview with the energetic and exciting rock band, Dirty Money!

1. Hello! Thank you for taking the time to chat to us. First things first, tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got started.

We’re an originals rock band from south Oxfordshire consisting of John Hudson (Spud) on vocals, Mark Walker on guitar, Ross Hutton on bass and Luis Silver on drums. Mark and Ross had a band together for a lot of years and around that time Ross also was a pub landlord. I (John), lived in LA at the time and had come home for Christmas and was staying with my mum who lived in the same village as Ross’ pub.

So being a grown man staying with parents I did the only sensible thing and went to check out the locals and happened to walk into the Cherry Tree, (Ross’ pub) which had various guitars and bass’ adorning the walls and met them both. We all just hit it off and I think I didn’t leave for about 3 days. Anyway I went back to the states but we kept in touch and when I moved back 3 years later my wife and I stayed with Ross and his wife while we were looking for a place to live.

Mark lived down the street so we just picked up where we left off. Then when their band broke up just before lockdown Mark called me and said they were looking to put another band together, would I like to be the vocalist and I jumped at the chance. I’d got up with their old band a couple of times and we’d gelled and we’d talked about putting something together before but it took a while. Trying to find a drummer was a different story altogether.

I think we had about 5 sit in with us that either we didn’t feel fitted or they just disappeared off the face of the earth so we really struggled and it was like trying to find rocking horse shit if you’ll excuse the expression. Then Ross, being the salesman that he is, struck upon the ingenious idea that he’d look through the classifieds for people looking to sell their drums and that was how we happened to find Silver, (or hiho as we affectionately call him) . Poor guy was trying to sell his drums and instead Ross convinced him to keep them and join the band. Thankfully his mrs is still talking to him.

2. Someone comes to you and asks you to sum up what kind of music you play – what do you tell them?

We’re a blended fusion of classic and modern rock that have a live act that we feel is truly second to none. In short, we’re the greatest band you’ve never heard of…but you will!

3. What’s currently going on in your camp? New releases? Tours? Etc.

We’ve recently released our first single ‘If@ and been playing up and down the country all summer and now we’re planning to release the studio EP later in the year and get on the festival circuit for next summer. We are actually mixing a live EP at the minute from our gig with The Meteors in Manchester. We’re also playing at The Stag’s Head in Hoxton on Aug 4th, MK11 in Milton Keynes on August 27th and The Phoenix in High Wycombe on September 16th if you want to catch a show.

4. What has been the most positive experience of making music to date for you?

I don’t think we’ve had a negative one to be honest. We’re four guys that just love playing music together and as long as we get to do that, we’re happy. We’re quite low maintenance. Although the first time we heard our track on the radio was insane.

5. Likewise, what has been some of the more challenging aspects and how have you overcome them?

Time management. It takes an awful amount of work to keep the train moving and stay relevant. If you take your foot of the pedal for a second it’s hard to get back up to speed these days

6. How do you handle the modern expectations of being in a band? Always online, having to put out content constantly, your success measured in likes and follows?

We don’t really try to live up to anybody’s expectations of what a band should be. I think if you’re trying too hard that’s when a band starts to become too contrived and just an exercise in marketing. It sullies the art and ultimately, we’re just expressing ourselves. If it resonates, great. If not, we’re still having fun and doing what we love.

7. What’s something that really ‘grinds your gears’ about the industry/business these days and what would you propose is done to combat it?

Over commercialisation. Mainstream music has just become so formulaic that its really hard to differentiate between artists, especially in the pop world. The beauty of music is that there has always been something for everyone and a lot of really great artists go unnoticed because they don’t fit the mould. Companies are risk averse and its all about pounds, shillings and pence rather than the product. Its like Brian Eno said, The velvet underground’s first album only sold 30,000 copies but every one of those people started a band. Can you imagine trying to sell that record today? I don’t think it could be done and what a classic we would’ve missed out on.

8. Speaking directly to listeners – what would you ask they do to help support your music?

Come and see us, check us out on Spotify and our socials, tell your friend’s, your mum and your nan about us.

9. Outside of the music, what’s do you do to relax?

Believe it or not we tend to go to a lot of gigs. We’ve all got a hugely eclectic musical taste so we catch a lot of different bands that come to town. Spud writes, acts and does graphic design too. I think it’s always good to be inspired by other people’s work and it different discipline’s help you to create in different ways. Lyrically I, (Spud), tend to write in pictures if that makes any sense. The lyrics tend to be a description of what I visualize when I hear the tunes.

10. Where can people find you?

You can find us at:

Website | Facebook | Spotify | Instagram

You can buy our music through iTunes, Amazon and all those other sellers of wonderful tunes.