It all started out in a proper Nashville manner. On a shift in late 2015 at Dillard’s department store, two aspiring musicians, Jacob and Aaron, had the idea that all aspiring musicians in Nashville often ponder: Let’s start a band. The difference with the founding members of The Dirty Delusions, is that they actually did it.
Five years later with two valuable additions, Charley and Hux, the modern rock band’s discography includes an EP, a first album, and second album in its final stages with the first single, “I Hope It’s Worth It,” out now, and it’s second single, “Life’s a Con,” debuting this Friday.
Throughout my zoom interview with The Dirty Delusions, it was clear that although they have very different personalities, there is an organic chemistry between the four lads that just works.
Even in such dark, uncertain times in many aspects of American society and in the world as a whole, the four band mates have only propelled their careers farther by choosing patience when it comes to releasing an album that was practically completely over a year ago.
“Right now we are having an interview on our phones, the game has completely changed,” Aaron realized, “we are going to take it slow”.
The band revealed that postponing the album has only made them more confident in the changing application of the connotation of their music as times shift. It seems as though this next album will possess a timeless quality.
Recently the band recorded a live set at the 5 Spot in East Nashville. “We did shy away from living room streaming stuff, we had the mindset that if we’re going to give a performance, it’s going to be as close to a real show as possible.”
It’s always interesting to learn about the inner workings of the musical journeys of a band because it varies immensely from group to group. When asked about their writing process, it seemed unanimous that it was a joint effort. Most of the time, Aaron will bring in a blueprint of lyrics and the rest seems to flow naturally.
With heavy Jay Reatard influence, it’s obvious that a live show is always the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, even at stages as early as coming up with melodies in pre-practice jam sessions. They described their dynamic as democratic and alluded to the current state of the world and how that has trickled into their creative process.
The energy the group expressed about their newest single was contagious. They are a local band all of Nashville should be rooting for. Although the pandemic threw a wrench in quite literally all of their plans, they have used this time to enhance this body of work that was supposed to be out in the spring of 2020 to reach levels they probably never imagined.
The first single, “I Hope it’s Worth It”, is complemented by a music video made at the height of Covid’s first quarantine, in which all participants were given complete control over their submissions. The video includes clips contributed by friends of the band, dancing and lip syncing to the single. The Dirty Delusions were one of the pioneering bands who adapted so quickly to life in quarantine and capitalized on their presumed losses so seamlessly.
A music video for “Life’s a Con” is another one of those projects that may have never happened if the world didn’t come to a halt back in March. The song illustrates feelings of anxiety, baggage, and financial burdens which take a very different and more meaningful turn in the past few months given all of the contrasting situations in society today.
“It’s startling when we shed those things. You start to rely on a lot of the toxic things you go through in life, so in the video, we made it literal,” Aaron explained.
“The protagonist is an endless wanderer into his vices and as the video goes on he starts cleaning up his act and loses the backpack. He ends up running into a “better” version of himself and we kind of leave it up to interpretation. You don’t know who’s the good guy and who’s the bad guy.”
We don’t profess to have any single answer other than stand up and look it in the eye. The song doesn’t give you a happy ending because a lot of the time there is no happy ending you just do better.”
The future looks bright for the Dirty Delusions with an album set to emerge come the new year.
Watch ‘Life’s a con’ HERE
