FEATURE:
Spotlight
Dirty Blonde
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ONE of the acts…
named for this year’s Great Escape festival in Brighton, Dirty Blonde are an act quite new to my ears. The Manchester duo are fierce and phenomenal. Consisting of Ailis Mackay and Hayley Tait, everybody needs to follow them. I think that they will have a huge year ahead. Their phenomenal Favourite Record E.P. was released in November. I am excited to see where they head as we move through 2024. I want to come to some interviews with the wonderful Dirty Blonde. I want to start with an interview from early last year. Broken 8 Records featured Dirty Blonde in June:
“Dirty Blonde are a fierce female alternative duo comprising members Ailis Mackay and Hayley Tait. Hailing from Manchester, the duo have quickly gathered pace amongst key tastemakers and were praised as ‘one of the most exciting acts to come through Radio 1’s Future Alternative'.
The pair met on Instagram in 2022 after Hayley kept seeing sponsored videos where Ailis combines the styles of two artists and makes a cover of them. “I knew she was really talented so I took the plunge and reached out to her and asked if she’d want to be in the band, and here we are today!”, says Hayley.
Following a packed out show at The Great Escape last month and a sold out debut headline at the Deaf Institute, Dirty Blonde are back with their new single ‘Run (When I Tell You)’, and we couldn't wait to find out more about it.
Wonderful to have you here, we've been absolutely loving the new single. We know you first met on Instagram, but how did you first start making music?
"Individually we had different routes that led us to being in Dirty Blonde. Hayley wanted to be Mark Ronson and Ailis wanted to be Dave Grohl. The band came together when we met on Instagram and realised we were as delusional as each other. We’d gotten used to working remotely throughout Covid so we worked on some demos together initially before turning it into Dirty Blonde."
The new single has been described as indie-pop in the recent past, but how would you describe it to the uninitiated?
"Indie rock anthems with a pop edge - picture Dua Lipa being dragged through a hedge kinda vibes."
I love that. There's definitely a distinct indie rock edge to things. What sort of bands have helped inspire that?
"We have a really big range of influences ranging from Oasis, Royal Blood and Kasabian to The 1975, Billie Eilish and Phoebe Bridgers."
I can imagine some amazing potential collaborations there. Do you have a particular favourite?
"Dirty Blonde X The 1975"
Let's talk a little about the new single, can you tell us a bit more about it?
"'Run (When I Tell You)' is a gritty song with big riffs and vocals. We love this song because it really resonates at our live gigs. A lot of people are shocked when they hear that two girls are writing and playing such heavy music."
What is your songwriting process? How does it all come together?
"It varies from song to song. Sometimes the whole song will just come together out of nowhere in a couple of minutes and other times it needs more work. With Run, the original version was very close to the end product. We took it into the rehearsal room to play it through and made a few changes that just really brought the song together."
What’s the most important thing for you when you’re writing a song?
"Just making sure that it’s a song that we genuinely like. If you can strip the song back to acoustic and it still sounds good and interesting then we know we’re not hiding behind the production”.
I with move on to an interview from Vents Magazine. They spoke with Dirty Blonde back in August. It is always interesting learning about their songs and how they came together. I am really keen to see the duo play live. If they are in London anytime soon, I will definitely try and catch them. One of our most promising and talented acts who are creating a lot of excitement:
“We’re excited to be speaking today with acclaimed Manchester alt-rock duo extraordinaire Dirty Blonde; greetings and salutations, you two! Before we dive into the proverbial Q&A mosh-pit, could you each say ‘hi’ and introduce yourselves to readers?
Hey! I’m Ailis and I sing and play guitar and I’m Hayley and I play guitar and do backing vocals.
Major congrats and accolades for your brilliant new single Don’t Cry (It Doesn’t Suit You)! Ailis, what’s the story behind this amazing new release, how did it come into being?
Hayley actually found a meme that inspired her to write this song. She sent me a voice note of it so I naturally added a rap in the second verse and started to produce the song ready to take to the rehearsal room. Lyrically it’s about people only being sorry when they’ve been caught out and that it’s okay to be sick and tired of people’s BS.
Hayley, the new single has real tinges of beautiful nostalgia ingrained within the music and lyrics. Was this a deliberate choice on yours and Ailis’ part?
This song from the start was always me trying to write an Oasis song so I’m glad that nostalgia comes through. We see so many indie lad bands trying to be the next Oasis and we thought it was time for women to do it with a modern twist.
Ailis, who was your producer on Don’t Cry (It Doesn’t Suit You) and what did the collaboration between Dirty Blonde and producer look like in the studio?
I self produced this track when we recorded a demo earlier in the year. We then brought it into the studio with Gareth Nuttall at The Lounge and used his knowledge to amplify what we had started on. One specific part which was really good was when Gaz mic’d up the electric guitar strings to recreate a really scratchy and messy guitar that was in the demo where you could really hear the strings.
Hayley, what sets Don’t Cry (It Doesn’t Suit You) apart from anything else currently going on the 2023 music scene?
When we play this song live everyone expects it to be a slow acoustic song, but everyone is always really taken back when it kicks in out of nowhere. With this song we purposely wanted to give it that indie Oasis feel that a lot of other bands are trying to do but we’ve never seen any female fronted bands doing it. With added grunge and attitude obviously.
Ailis, can fans look forward to an EP or LP release from Dirty Blonde in the wake of the release of the new single?
Watch this space.
A question for the both of you: Who inspires you musically?
We’re both really inspired by new up and coming bands who are reinventing the wheel. It always pushes us to be better and challenges us. We’re really liking Queen Cult and Girlband.
Hayley, how did Dirty Blonde get its start? Is there a VH1-Behind the Music origin story you could share with our ever-inquisitive readers?
Myself and Ailis met on Instagram. We clicked straight away and started writing songs together which quickly became Dirty Blonde”.
I think it is only a matter of time before Dirty Blonde get spotlighted by a big publication or magazine. The likes of NME or Kerrang! come knocking. The interviews out there already are pretty illuminating and revealing. Rock the Joint Magazine featured Dirty Blonde last year. Labelling them as Your Dad’s Favourite New Band’, there was a lot of buzz around this phenomenal duo:
“Hailing from Manchester, Dirty Blonde represent a cool rock northern vibe with a twist of punk in the mix (think early Blondie before they became popular). The single shows how fast they are developing musically, and it is no surprise to us that they are gaining so much positive attention. Therefore, when we point our readers towards a must watch act in 2023, we mean it—they could become one of our new favourite bands!
With their new single, “Don’t Cry, It Doesn’t Suit You,” making waves on social media and the girls starting to make an impact on the live scene, we spoke to Ailis MacKay about the band, their single, and their future plans.
We thought a quick introduction to the band and their music would be a good place to start.
Ailis- As you said, we are from Manchester, and sonically, we are doing an Indie thing, but it is female-fronted and has an Oasis meets grunge vibe. Hayley and I met on Instagram, and the rest is history.
The new single “Don’t Cry, It Doesn’t Suit You” has a positive melodic rock vibe; it kicks in the mid-section and becomes a great riff-driven groove. We believe it is also the first time the band has filmed for a video.
Ailis- We just had my little vlogging camera; Hayley has a videography degree, so we managed to pull it all together and get it sorted.
The single has a positive commercial sound, and it follows a couple of earlier releases, “Run When I Tell You” and “Come Over.” We asked how the songwriting developed between the duo.
Ailis- I think it’s different every time, really. Sometimes it’s me that brings in something, and if it’s Hayley, she’ll play an acoustic guitar and send a voice memo. I have a sound engineering degree, so a lot of what I do is like a fully formed demo. With “Don’t Cry,” Hayley found a meme; I’m not sure what it was, but that set the track off. I then did a bit of production on it. At the start, when you listen to it, it is this slow acoustic song, and then it rocks. On the production side, I added that bit where the drums suddenly come in and finess the guitar tone, and then the second verse is similar to the first verse, but I added a Jamie T-style rap to it. So that is how that came about, but we are trying to be as organic as possible.
“Run When I Tell You” has a strong early Debbie Harry or Blondie feel to it.
Ailis- I’ll take that! Debbie Harry, who walked so that we could run, is, in my opinion, an inspiration for all women in bands. I feel like Hayley has a big rock and punk taste; she loves all the 90s indie bands. But then I was raised on Radio 1, so I listened to a lot of pop music, so I brought in a commercial pop side to things. I think where we are going is making it indie rather than rock, but personally, for me, my favourite band at the moment is “Nothing But Thieves”.
Playing Brighton’s The Great Escape this summer, there is going to be a lot more from Dirty Blonde this year. I am going to keep my eyes peeled for the amazing Ailis Mackay and Hayley Tait. They are primed for big things! A duo I can see appearing at some big festivals. After a string of terrific singles and an E.P. last year, there is no stopping the mighty Dirty Blonde! If they are new to you, then make sure that you follow them. This is an act that you cannot…
AFFORD to overlook.
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