The Dirty Banks play a brand of indie-rock that pays homage to the sounds of the ‘90s while keeping things current. Chunky pop hooks clash with fuzzed-out guitars and sweet keys to make a satisfying aural odyssey.
In this spotlight, we chat with The Dirty Banks about the new project, influences, motivation, and more.
Full Q&A, links, and streams can be found below.
Where are you from and what style of music do you create? (In your own words, not necessarily in marketing terms or by popular genre classifications.)
Danaca: We’re from Minneapolis. From the start, we knew we wanted two guitars, keys, bass, and drums. But we never discussed trying to stick to a specific genre, and I’m not even sure that we could agree on one if we tried. But we often get references to 90s alt rock bands, which seems not undeserved. I don’t think we’re trying to play homage to that sound or anything, but that’s definitely a style that we all have kind of baked into us.
Jon: It’s hard for me to nail it down for the band just because we have three songwriters who all have their own style and influences. I can speak to mine but in the end it all gets mixed up through collaboration. I just hope in the end there’s some cohesion.
What led you down this path of music and what motivates you to stay the course?
Jon: Personally I’ve been playing and writing music since middle school, but mainly for myself and with my friends. I was probably too self conscious to actually share it. It wasn’t until my 30’s that I was comfortable enough to actually put it out and be willing to play in front of actual people. It helped that at that time I was becoming friends with Holly and Danaca and they completely were on board with putting something together. What motivates me is having something fun going on in my life outside of my job and kids. It’s nice to have the interaction and friendship you get with a band that without music probably might not exist.
Danaca: Jon (guitar/vocals) basically dared me to do it. I was more or less content to write and play for the neighbors that could hear through paper thin walls. But he said we could make a go of it and that it would be fun. So far, he’s been right. It’s really satisfying to hear the band lock into a song or play a great set and I think we’re motivated just to write better and play better. I think we’ll keep at it as long as we’re trending in the right direction on those fronts.
Who or what are your biggest influences when it comes to your creativity?
Danaca: Musically, our influences run the gamut, and I think a lot of it is subconscious — like people saying we have a 90s alt rock vibe. That’s not consciously a sound we’re trying to make, but it’s definitely there because we all lived through the 90s. For me personally, I think less about creativity and more in terms of persistence. I can’t sit down and think, “and now I will be creative.” It’s more like, ohh we need a hook for this song or a chord progression for that chorus, and I’m going to try a lot of things and be persistent until I hit on something I like. So I have a lot of admiration for people who are persistent in their work, whether it’s music, or writing, or teaching, or computer programming. You have to be a little obsessive, you know?
Jon: That’s an overwhelming question but I can think of bands that directly or indirectly influenced bits that I came up with on our upcoming EP. Right off the top of my head would be The Heart Strings, The Walkmen, Deerhunter, DIIV, Heartless Bastards, Sherlock’s Daughter, Ultimate Painting, Lower Dens, Luna and believe it or not, Tripping Daisy.
How is your new release different than previous ones? Did you set out to accomplish anything specific?
Danaca: It’s more cohesive. The last EP, Coda, was recorded over many months, and Tim (keys/vocals) didn’t even come on board until about half way through that process. We had rotation of different keyboardists in the first year or so of the band, and we were so excited when Tim joined because it really felt the right fit finally, and we started to solidify. Tim writes his own songs, and we were really excited about how they fit with songs that Jon and I had been writing.
I think something that is different about our band is the fact that three people bring different songs and song ideas to the group, and everyone can sing. We all have pretty different styles. With Lida, we wanted to highlight that because it’s kind of weird how we bring these different styles, but they all sort of normalize into something cohesive.
Jon: I didn’t feel like our band was solidified on our first EP. Our drummer was relatively new and there were songs that were written before Tim had joined. The band on this EP has been playing together for over 2 years now so I think we’ve all settled into our roles.
Really the only thing we hope is there are some people out there that enjoy it and that it opens up opportunities to meet and play with more local and out of town musicians.
Do you face any challenges as an indie musician in a digital age? On the flip side, how has technology helped you (if it has)?
Jon: For a band at our level it’s definitely a positive. To be honest I don’t think a band like ours would have had an easier or harder time making a career out of this 30 years ago. However, there’s no doubt that it’s hosing bands that are working at a much higher level than we are…bands that would have had the opportunity to make actual money from their music which is now basically free.
Danaca: The digital age is really the only age I have experience with as a musician, so it’s hard to say how it’s maybe helped us or not, because it’s really all I’ve ever known. We’ve always shared song ideas and demos over Dropbox and Gmail. We record to a laptop and Jon mixes with Sonar. We invite people to shows via Facebook. We send each other music that we’re feeling inspired by over Spotify and Bandcamp. We make our music available on those streaming services to increase who can even hear us. I think it’s a net positive, but I can’t really say because it’s just all I’ve ever known.
How do you feel about streaming services? Any romantic attachments to the physical formats: vinyl, 8-track, cassettes, CDs?
Jon: At this point I basically only listen to music on Sportify and Bandcamp. I felt like it should have been a real sad day when I finally deleted 90% of the mp3s that I curated for over a decade, but to be honest it was a relief. I’m old enough to have an attachment to cassettes and CDs but I don’t. I have a record player and an alright collection that I go through phases with. Basically I’m waiting until I get in a house with a fireplace again and I expect to fire it back up. I blame it on my lack of a fireplace.
Danaca: I use streaming services. I set my home computer up as a server at one point so that I could stream music I own to my phone without actually having it on my phone. I did it for awhile, but then it was like, well Spotify does this really well and I actually don’t want to fiddle with these network things. So as a consumer of music, I find it really convenient and I get why it’s attractive to people. My girlfriend has a nice vinyl collection of old country and random pop and hiphop from the 80s-00s that made me swoon when I saw it. But, my own record collection is pretty small. Vinyl’s not something I can really commit to as my primary medium because I don’t actually have the physical space for that. My car is of legal drinking age, so it actually has a cassette player. I bought Haley Bonar’s last album on cassette for dead zones on car trips.
Where can we follow you online and hear more music?
Danaca: Bandcamp, Soundcloud, Spotify, iTunes, emusic — take your pick!
Jon: And you can get an actual compact disc if you come to a show! We’re planning on making those available on bandcamp as well.
Anything else before we sign off?
Danaca: Our EP release for Lida is September 16 at the 331 Club in Minneapolis. Persian Leaps will also be releasing an EP that night, and Driftwood Pyre is rounding out the lineup. The 331 is one of our favorite places both to play and to see music (and it’s always free!), so I guarantee it’s gonna be a good night.
Jon: If you’re in the Twin Cities you should come to our show! Two EP releases for the price of…well it’s free. The story how that came about is kind of funny. Our EP release show was booked at the same place but a week earlier and when I noticed theirs I contemplated contacting them about it but figured that would be weird. The next day we got an email asking if we’d be interested in playing their EP release show…at that point I guess it was fate. I know that MidTennMusic has covered Persian Leaps before and their music is dope but I need to add that Drew is easily the nicest person I’ve met in the Minneapolis music scene. The amount of advice and help he’s given us has been amazing.
