[Interview] The Dirty Heads' Duddy B Talks Collaborations And Fists To The Face

TWV: Have you felt difficulty in explaining what The Dirty Heads are about?

Duddy B: I think that’s helped us too. It’s really easy to get pigeonholed into a genre then that’s just what you are. I think our style and the fact that you can’t really place us has given us an opportunity to tour with the bands we have, different acts. We’re not just going out with reggae acts.

TWV: What influenced you while making the record?

Duddy B: If you step on our bus, there’s everything from classic rock to old reggae and hip-hop, whatever. This album, a lot of the Black Keys, the band has really been into them for the last year or two. Lot of old reggae, Gregory Isaacs. Florence and the Machine, she’s got an amazing voice. Pandora—my new favorite band!

TWV: What did you discover about yourself as a singer-songwriter?

Duddy B: I definitely felt growth in the songwriting really. It’s funny when you look back to the songs before you did work with producers, before you really took that next step, having songs on the radio. You look back at the songs that you were like, ‘This is the shit! This is the song. Put this on the radio. It’s number one.’ Now you listen to it and it’s horrible. That song is a pile of shit. You just grow.

TWV: What has it been like working with different artists as you’ve built relationships on the road?

Duddy B: We have some awesome collaborations on this album. We did a lot of touring with Matisyahu. We built a relationship with him. He came down to our studio and we did a song with him [second single “Dance All Night”], which came out unbelievable. That guy is just an amazing dude to work with. He crushed it.

We also had Del the Funky Homosapien on a track [“Smoke Rings”]. That was very cool. We had Kymani Marley, jumped on a track [“Your Love”]. We have a song; the chorus is ‘You make me feel so high like when I listen to Bob Marley.’ We were like, ‘Wow, how cool would that be if we actually got a Marley to sing with us?’ He actually came, jumped on a track with us. That came out awesome. Rome also helped out with some of the songs.