The act of merging genres is an art form so precise and delicate that many fall far short of pulling it off.
Enter Dirty Heads, the Orange County band that have been spreading their seamless blend of reggae, hip hop and alternative rock for 17-plus years, 27 years if you count from when founders Jared 'Dirty J' Watson and Dustin 'Duddy B' Bushnell began playing together in the garage.Fast forward through decades of collaborations with the biggest rock stars on the planet and eight studio albums to 2023, to where the band is hitting out on their most successful tour yet across the United States, playing at 4,000 seat venues, aided by the viral success of their song 'Vacation' due to it spawning a TikTok challenge.
It's a far cry from those initial garage sessions. "I don't really get imposter syndrome," Watson shares, "but it's wild that I'm a musician, because that wasn't the plan.
"When I was growing up, I had no dreams, no aspirations. Being in a band wasn't anything that I ever thought of. I was just skating, surfing, working at a tattoo shop, and I liked art, and I was trying to go to art school.
"I had no idea what I was going to do. But as soon as I found music at 16, within that year, everything changed. And once we started playing shows and releasing music, it was over from there.
"When I would sit up at night and think about if the band was gonna make it, it was always 100 per cent yes. There was just never, ever a doubt in my little, 16-year-old, anxiety-ridden tummy that this wasn't gonna work.
"Ninety nine per cent of everything else that was going on in my life, I would second guess it. I would be super scared, but whenever I thought of music and the band, it was always calm. But up until that point, it was half my life that I didn't know that I liked playing music."
Complementing the US tour, the band have released a deluxe version of their eighth album, 2022's 'Midnight Control'. The record features some of their strongest, most provocative lyrics, and also their most touching.
"The opening of 'Heavy Water' gives me a lot of confidence. I remember when I was writing that verse, I was like, 'oh this is a pretty heavy opening line', the 'you better pat me down and pray for peace, before you let us in'.
"Not like when we show up places we're really tough guys, gonna cause a bunch of problems. But when you are in the mode of writing drafts and I'm writing verses, I always look for that opening line. It's so important to me for our hip hop-leaning songs.
"Usually when I'm writing songs or stories that are on more of the singer-songwriter side, I'm not too worried about the opening line, because I might be setting it up. But whenever I'm writing drafts, the first line is usually where everything falls into place. I was pretty proud of that one.
"On the singer-songwriter side of it, I love the song 'Little Things', because it's all personal. I didn't know what to write about one day and my producer FaceTimed me and he's like, 'what are we going to write today?' And I said, 'I don't know' and he hung up the phone.
"And I saw the old blanket that we had on the couch. I saw the broken ashtray that we had on the table. I saw this old Harry Potter book that we have that we're never gonna read, that my dog has chewed up like ten times.
"And it was cool to be like, 'oh, I'm just gonna write about little things around my house that make me smile'. So I got to write this very personal song and even bounced stuff off my partner. That was really fun. That one meant a lot."
Never one to be bound by genre, the band has collaborated with countless musicians and producers, from Slash and Tech N9ne to Avenged Sevenfold, the latter of which were childhood friends.
"I've known Jimmy, I've known The Rev since I was 11. They went one way and then we went the other way, and then they became incredibly successful. We were always chasing them.
"I still show Brian and Matt our stuff months before I show anybody else. We're still bouncing ideas off each other all the time, or mostly I'm just bouncing ideas off of them.
"And when he sent me their album, I was like, 'this is batsh.t, this is the craziest album I ever heard'. The album's so, so brilliant. They're pretty much family to us, so anything we can do with those guys is rad.
"And I'm just so stoked on all their success. They deserve it. You know, I think they're probably one of the greatest bands of our generation, but I’m biased. Actually I'm not biased, because they're a friend. If they sucked, I'd be like 'you guys f...ing suck'. They're inspiring, they have inspired me over and over and over again."
Stretching beyond the limitations of music, Dirty Heads also collaborate with artisan producers on projects close to their hearts, including co-creating a beer and THC gummies.
"It feels cheesy if you're doing it just for money, right? It has to be genuine and somebody in the band or all of the band needs to be like, 'I care about this thing that we're putting out'.
"What we just did that was super cool that I'm actually pumped on is, we're doing a contest where we worked with my friend Mike Lynch. He's a surfboard shaper and a clothing designer, and he has this company called Imperfect and they shape really sick boards, like twin fins.
"There are three Dirty Heads surfboards that we're gonna be giving to our fans. So something in that world could be really cool."
The band are planning to hit Australian shores as soon as they can. "Hopefully next year, or the year after that, but that's definitely the next big plan, to try and get some festivals out there and route out a tour around the country. We would be stoked."
The 'Midnight Control' deluxe album is available.
