Interview with Dirty Blonde: ‘I write more generic love lyrics but Issy’s more political’

Manchester-based rock duo Dirty Blonde are gearing up to release their next single ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Guns’ on 24 March.

The duo comprises Issy Sutcliffe (vocals and guitar) and Hayley Tait (lead guitar, backing vocals). Their collaboration is something of a happy accident: ‘We had each other on Instagram and I messaged Issy ‘cos I’m terrible at singing,’ Tait said. Sutcliffe nods: ‘And I said no!’ Tait is laughing: ‘But she came round to my house and we played some songs and that’s how it started. The first time that we gigged properly was in July 2022.’ I ask where their name comes from: ‘It’s because we don’t wash,’ Sutcliffe deadpanned. ‘I like it as a girl ‘cos misogynistic men use it as an insult but we’re getting in before them and using it on ourselves.’ Tait weighs in: ‘We haven’t recorded it but Issy’s got a song called ‘Dirty Blonde’.’

‘The message of the song is that girls want all of this to stop’

‘Girls Just Wanna Have Guns’ is ‘a lot more serious, it’s the complete opposite to ‘Come Over”, according to Sutcliffe. Tait agrees: ‘I write songs about love and heartbreak but Issy’s more political.’ Sutcliffe continues: ‘It’s about the number of police officers who abuse women, women don’t feel protected anymore,’ she said. ‘Men can be so annoying, catcalling all the time. That’s where the line in the song “Why don’t these boys just leave me the fuck alone” comes from’. Tait nods: ‘A lot of women have gone missing in the UK over the past few years, Issy went to the Sarah Everard protest and that’s when she wrote ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Guns’. The message of the song is that girls want all of this to stop. We also had our rehearsal space broken into when the band was first starting out and they stole everything, so this song seemed appropriate. We never got our stuff back.’

Last month, they released their single ‘Come Over’, which erupts with a distorted, sludgy riff before Sutcliffe comes in on vocals. It’s a massively addictive song, empowering, sexy, energetic and cheeky and would be amazing live. ‘I wrote ‘Come Over’,’ Tait said. ‘I had the intro riff for ages and I kept it simple. I wrote it really fast, they’re intentionally simple lyrics. We keep moving it around in our set.’ Sutcliffe joins in: ‘It’s funny, I could tell that you were trying to rhyme the lyrics,’ she said laughing. The song turns out to have been inspired by Matt Healy from The 1975: ‘I love him,’ said Tait. ‘It’s sort of about him but he hasn’t come over… yet (laughs)!’

As it kicks off: “I wanna love you all the time, I wanna love you like you’re not mine. I wanna love you like I’ve got somewhere to be, I wanna love you for all eternity.”

They’ve posted photos of themselves on social media with a beautiful Alsatian and I ask whose dog it is. ‘He’s mine, he’s called Vince after Noel Fielding in The Mighty Boosh,’ Tait said, as Vince wandered into view as if on cue.

‘Love and nature are going to get you in the end’

‘Girls Just Wanna Have Guns’ is not the first time that one of their songs has a political bent: ‘Don’t Mess With Mother’ is similarly gutsy, also opening with a huge, overdriven, thuddy riff: ‘I think it’s using an octave pedal,’ Tait said. ‘It’s about Mother Nature and global warming.’ Sutcliffe nods: ‘Donald Trump is always going on about it but love and nature are going to get you in the end. Mother Nature decides who lives and dies – it’s a feminine power. She’s bigger and better than anything else. I wrote it for a Selfridges competition. We were supposed to write a nice one about nature but I wrote this (laughs). The song that won is probably gentle and mellow but we’ve got a guitar in ours that sounds like a siren!’

I ask them what their dream guitars would be: ‘I’d like a 1960’s Gibson Non-Reverse Firebird,’ Tait said. Sutcliffe is thinking: ‘I play guitar but I don’t know much about them,’ she said. ‘I’ve got a Fender Mustang in a natural colour like the one the girl in Deap Vally (an LA rock duo) uses.’

Endearingly, they worry about inadvertently borrowing from other people’s songs. I say that the lead guitar line and tempo in ‘Northern Twang’ reminds me sonically of ‘Come Together’ by The Beatles and they start humming it. ‘We’ve heard that before,’ Tait said. ‘I wrote that one, it sounds a bit like Miles Kane. My main concern was “Did I steal that?!”.’

‘My favourite is John Lennon’s solo stuff, he gets rid of a layer of dignity’

It’s not entirely coincidental that they’ve borrowed from The Beatles; it turns out that Sutcliffe has been hugely inspired by the way that John Lennon sang: ‘My favourite is John Lennon’s solo stuff, he gets rid of a layer of dignity, it’s more honest,’ she said. ‘He has this song ‘My Mummy’s Dead’, it’s the creepiest song ever. I love Big Mama Thornton (an American blues and R&B singer), she has this confidence, her voice is amazing.’ Tait agrees: ‘We both like Oasis and all that sort of stuff. Issy lived with me for a few months and kept playing Sugababes! Sutcliffe is laughing: ‘I listen to Cyprus Hill and Public Enemy and anyone where they’re like “Fuck off!”‘

Interestingly, they came to performing in very different ways: ‘I looooooove performing, it’s my favourite thing ever,’ Sutcliffe said enthusiastically. ‘I remember writing songs when I was like six. My family’s got videos of me singing as a toddler in restaurants and trying to get them to sing along!’ Tait played the guitar in school but abandoned it for a while. ‘I picked it up again in lockdown when there was nothing else to do!’

If they could go for a pint with anyone, Tait plumps for David Bowie: ‘I’d pick his brains when he was young and sexy (laughs). Sutcliffe looks at her: ‘You could ask him about the line in ‘Rebel Rebel’ about his parents not being sure if he was a boy or a girl,’ she said. For her part, she chooses Big Mama Thornton: ‘She’d be a wise women, she’d have some stories!’

(Photo from left to right: Hayley and Issy.)