Introducing #274 - Dirt Buyer
Let us introduce you to alt-indie troubadour Dirt Buyer - who has just released his new album ‘Dirt Buyer II’ via Bayonet Records.
Throughout the album Sutkowski attempts to wrap his head around the idea of fate and how you can brush up against other people and then leave them behind. The songs themselves play with this concept of light and dark intertwined. Oscillating between urgency and cathartic release and more stripped-back elegies, Sutkowski faces the reality that while the people he’d rather forget can still live on through music, he is able to move on at the same time.
Dirt Buyer’s new album is a documentation of making it to the other side. Sutkowski grew up in New Jersey, and although he lives in Brooklyn now, he remains “an emo kid at heart,” garnering inspiration from bands like My Chemical Romance and Muse, the latter of whose theatrical, dramatic performances inspired the band’s own vocal-forward, soaring takes. Initially working together as a duo while Sutkowski and Ruben Radlauer (Model/Actriz) were at school in Berklee, the band’s self-titled 2019 debut album was recorded on an IPhone in their practice room on just drums and guitar, and the quietly striking, nuanced stylings earned them accolades far beyond the “fake record label” the two made up to originally release their music.
He took a moment to talk to us about his music.
Hey Dirt Buyer, how are you? So your new album ‘Dirt Buyer II’ is out in October, what can we expect from it? You have just released a track from it called ‘Gathering Logs' - can you tell us what it is about?
I’m OK! Things feel much more under control recently, but I’m constantly striving to improve aspects of my life. Dirt Buyer IIis a really special record that feels like the big brother to the self-title. It’s like an evolution in a way. Where the self title was very much an accidental labor of love and we didn’t really expect it to become anything, this new record is very intentional in its own right. I think that if you liked the first record, you’ll probably like the new one. There are a lot of parallels and the overarching themes are the same. The songs are about different things of course, but it’s still a testament to growth and self-acceptance. Gathering Logs is a song about grand gestures, excess, and generational trauma.
Where are you from and what are your favourite things to do there?
I’m from a little town in North New Jersey called Oakland. Real shit, it’s one of the most beautiful places, at least to me. I grew up hanging out in the woods and it’s still my favorite thing to do whenever I visit home. There’s a “dog park” in my hometown that used to be a Pool resort area called Pleasureland. It’s been written about in Weird New Jersey before. There are a bunch of abandoned little nooks within this big piece of land and they’re all separated by thick woods. There’s an abandoned skate park in one section and we used to go there to skate and do bad things when we were kids. I said “dog park” because they somewhat renovated it and it’s more of an actual place now rather than abandoned overgrowth. There are still sections that are untouched and those are some of my favorite places to go even still.
What are the key influences when it comes to your music?
When I was in college, I decided that I was gonna start listening to music that I like with the intention of analyzing everything and stealing what I liked. I was doing this thing where I had my headphones in, with music playing all day, even if I wasn’t paying attention to it. I was trying to ‘absorb power’ by listening to music constantly. The hope was that I would collect harmonic and songwriting vocabulary subconsciously just by having the music playing in my ears at all times. I don’t know if it actually worked, maybe it did. I got really into artists like Sparklehorse and Elliott Smith and I was so taken by their ability to express so much in their lyrics. I also really appreciate how they could write the absolute shit out of a song. They would approach songwriting from a very conventional, pop angle and they were doing it in a way that was different and interesting. I really wanted to figure out how I could do that in my own way, so I spent a lot of time listening to and trying things, anything. I just made stuff and I did it as much as I could. I find myself still doing that. It kind of forever changed my relationship to music in the way that I find myself always actively listening and looking for little tricks and rhythms that I can absorb and convey in my music.
How would you describe your sound to someone who has never listened to your music before?
I always say that Dirt Buyer is emo-folk. Or like, singer-songwriter band music.
Now the album is out there, what next for you?
The album comes out this Friday on the 20th. I’ve got dates in November to make my next record and that’s super exciting for me. Dirt Buyer II was written and recorded from Late 2019 to early 2020, so I’ve been sitting on some new stuff for a bit now. I’m really in love with Dirt Buyer II, but I’m also excited to move forward and continue making things.
