Dirty Heads have dropped their seventh studio album, Super Moon, August 9th on all platforms through Five Seven Records. They recorded this album with four-time Grammy-winning super producer Dave Cobb of Nashville, Tennessee. Cobb is an extremely talented producer and well-known in the country genre (A Star is Born soundtrack, Brandi Carlile, Chris Stapleton, Jason Isabelle, Sturgill Simpson). But worry not, this ain’t a country album. Wanting to do something new and fresh, he linked up with the Dirty Heads for this record.
“It was game-changing for us. I think we might have got a little lost and he really brought us back to where this band should be”.
– Jared “Dirty J” Watson of Dirty Heads on recording Super Moon with Dave Cobb
Lead singer, Jared “Dirty J” Watson, had some time to chat with me while on their tour co-headlining with 311. He spoke about things like the tour, working with Cobb in the studio creating the album, and his first cannabis experience when he was a teen.
Dirty Heads’ Jared “Dirty J” Watson Interview
Photo via Facebook
Summer Tour 2019
What’s it like touring with such a legendary band and in 311?
Watson – Our first national tour was with 311, 10 plus years ago, when we were opening up the show [for them]. so now doing a co-headlining tour is pretty rad and having Nick [Hexum] come out and do a song [with us]. You know, the 16-year-old me is pretty frothing right now.
Any special moments, so far during the tour, that has stood out?
Watson – There’s just been a couple special shows where, some stand out more than the other ones, and any time when Nick comes out it’s pretty cool. He only comes out when we headline, so it’s kind of like a special treat for those nights.
Recording The New Album
What was it like to produce the new album with Dave Cobb?
Watson – It was game-changing for us. I think we might have got a little lost and he really just brought us back to where, I think this band should be and really just relying ourselves and not trying to make everything so perfect.
We recorded everything live in this really rad, old studio in Nashville. The whole band just sitting round circle like we used to. It was just great to not have to lean on computers and technology and making everything so fucking perfect. There’s just so much more soul in it. He only let us do, like three takes. He says, “Usually the first one’s the best, the second or third is good, but anything other that we’re just over doing it and we’re just losing the feeling.”
Fun Story In The Studio
Watson – We’ve learned a lot from him, you know? We’re always learning. We like producers that’ll push us and we can learn from. So it was cool to have just complete creative freedom because he doesn’t give a shit. There was this one song where Duddy wrote a guitar part. I thought it was so dope, I didn’t want to hear anything on top of it.
(I asked him), “Could we not put a chorus?
He was like, “Yeah, fuck it. Let’s not have a chorus.”
I was like, “You gotta be kidding me, I would have had to go to a map for that with any other producer.”
He was just very refreshing, we were very like-minded.
Are there any songs, in particular, where you felt the most out of your comfort zone?
Watson – No, I think we were, surprisingly, more comfortable working with Dave. I think it was the recording live, was like, oh okay we’ve never done this before. To say we were ever “out of our comfort zone” was the wrong way to phrase it. We weren’t doing anything like crazy that we’re pushing back on and scared of. It was more just like we’ve never recorded this way, we got a fucking come in and be on point! Once we started writing songs, we loved every direction of every song. So there was never any freaking out. I don’t think that really any song spooked us because halfway through the song we were like, “Oh my god this is going to be the shit!”
Cannabis Experience
Referring to the first single on Super Moon, “Lift Me Up,” how do you feel cannabis has influenced your music and lifestyle?
Watson – I mean, probably pretty heavily when you think about it. Me and Duddy met in high school, we’re both kind of selling weed…a lot. That was, kind of, what “Lift Me Up” was about. I used to slang weed, Duddy used to slang weed. Like, “Oh, Dirty Heads are going to write another weed song, like shocker.” Like surprising, right? We were like “That’s boring, what can we do?”
We listened to a lot of Curtis Mayfield, so [we thought] what if we made this light-hearted song about your local-friendly-neighborhood weed dealer. You know, the pusher. So, we started writing “Lift Me Up.”
We’ve always supported it, we’ve always used it. Recreational, medicinal, we’ve always thought it should be legal and supported that as well. We’ve been in the culture for so long that it’s hard to say where we would be if we didn’t.
Could you tell us a little about your first cannabis experience?
Watson – Yeah! I I remember, I actually hot knifed hash with my brother when I was fifteen and we ruined my mom’s butter knife. I’m so fucking roasted, I remember drinking out of the hose like a hundred times. We just skated around Huntington. I was so stoned for the first time and I was like “yeah, this is fantastic.”
The funny thing is, I threw the butter knives away cuz I was like, shit we ruined these butter knives. Somehow my mom found them and I was like, she’s not gonna know what we did.
She was like, “Were you smoking hash?!”
I was like, how the fuck do you know what hot knifing hash is? I’m like get the fuck outta here (big laugh)!
Getting into your Dirty Heads’ Stick-E-Vape pen line, what could you tell our readers about them and where they could pick them up?
Watson – You can get them at any dispensary Orange County. Our sativa pen (Dance All Night) is probably my favorite. Not only my favorite pen, but probably my favorite strain and its the favorite high that I’ve found in a really long time. I use that pen so fucking much that sativa, it’s really, really great.
We’re coming out with three new ones from the Super Moon album. We’ll do one that is a hybrid [called] “Cloudlifter”, a “Lift Me Up” that is the sativa and will also do an indica. It’s a great company and we’re stoked to be part of it or stoked to be putting out our strains and putting out our of pens. I mean, it’s rad and a dream come true. We got our own beer and our own weed pens, you can’t be mad.
Co-headlining Tour Dates with 311:
+with The Interrupters, Dreamers and Bikini Trill
^Dirty Heads close
- Avila Beach, CA – Avila Beach Concerts at the Cove+ – August 14, 2019
- Sacramento, CA – Papa Murphy’s Park at Cal Expo+ – August 16, 2019
- Portland, OR – Veterans Memorial Coliseum+ – August 17, 2019
- Auburn, WA – White River Amphitheatre^+ – August 18, 2019
- Salt Lake City, UT – USANA Amphitheatre+ – August 20, 2019
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