Interview with Dirty Bynum: ‘We built this whole story around it, we went to the underworld and borrowed Lucifer’s car’

Eustace, East Texas rock band Dirty Bynum have released their debut album Tuesday Nights, the sonic equivalent of a graphic novel encompassing “bleeding out”, werewolves, monsters and everything in between and which pays homage to their broad mash up of influences.

The band comprises childhood friends Tanner Van Horn (vocals, guitar and bass), Joe Hunter (drums), Bucky Womble (vocals, guitar and bass) and Ryan Powers (lead guitar and bass).

Their name is a reference to a day in high school talking about AC/DC’s large, inflatable woman they incorporate during shows, known as Dirty Betty. They were in a Spanish class at the time and said “Oh, dirty Bynum”, which was the name of their Spanish teacher, according to Van Horn, and the name stuck.

‘I feel like the difference in this album are the songs that me and Tanner wrote individually, they’ve been written at the precipice of Dirty Bynum doing its thing,’ Womble said. ‘We completely immersed ourselves in these songs. Our biggest compliment we get is that we have so many sounds and I do think that comes through on the album.’

‘We built this whole story around it, we went to the underworld and borrowed Lucifer’s car’

It does, from grungey 90’s inspired songs, such as ‘I’ve Always Been’, to songs with a faint country feel like ‘Happy Endings’ and ‘Sweet Lovin’ Woman’, which has all the hallmarks of a 50’s blues classic. Womble and Van Horn trade lead vocals throughout the album, with each typically singing a track that they have written. The album title Tuesday Nights – and title track – is a reference to some Tuesday nights that Van Horn has experienced, according to Womble; ‘Whenever Tanner came over to my feed store (on the ranch), he said he had these lyrics in his head, the “bleeding out in the backseat trying to beat the reaper” line in ‘Tuesday Nights’, Womble said. ‘It was a Tuesday night that night and we realised Tanner had had a bunch of crazy Tuesday nights, cryptic events like Friday 13th, so we built this whole story around it, we went to the underworld and borrowed Lucifer’s car (laughs). He sings these “ah ohs” in the late part of the song, fighting these cryptic monsters.’

Typically, either Womble or Van Horn will take a song to the rest of the band. Other times, there is some friendly competition as they each vie to sing the song: ‘If we start with a song the band is just messing with, it can go either way with who sings it,’ Womble said. ‘It goes to whoever gets the lyrics out first (laughs). That’s what happened with ‘Sweet Lovin’ Woman’. It’s Ryan’s pride and joy, he and Tanner were messing around with it for ages. I picked up the guitar, Tanner the bass and Joseph the drums; we thought it would be epic. It’s one of our faves to play in concert. It can be hard to play some of our upbeat songs if it’s a place where people are eating but Ryan is murdering the guitar in it (laughs), everyone is glued to him.’

I say that ‘Sweet Lovin’ Woman’ is an inspired album closer because you’re not expecting them to end with such an old school vibe and he agrees: ‘It’s our third to last song live,’ he said. ”Waging War’ is our closer live, it’s nothing like the recording and we go super crazy in it. ‘Sweet Lovin’ Woman’ isn’t based on anyone particularly but we were thinking about a guy in love with a girl. She’s had no reason to be interested in him, we were thinking dingey motel, cigarette smoke, what you’d see in a jazz bar. We wanted to make it sultry, so we’re trying to embrace that feeling.’

It opens with a deliciously crunchy riff before Womble comes in on vocals: “Sweet lovin’ woman, come back to me. Lay by my side all through the night and stay close to me.”

‘Tanner said “I’m gonna write a country song” and I said “We don’t write country songs!”‘

‘When TF Am I Getting Paid’ erupts with fuzzed-up, distorted riffs that set the tone for the irate lyrics that follow: “Riding around on empty, spending my last dime on chasing fame… going down in history, when the fuck am I getting paid?” However, initially, they didn’t expect ‘When TF Am I Getting Paid’ to make the cut: ‘That song, we all thought it was gonna be a joke song,’ Womble said laughing. ‘We didn’t have the guitar solo. Tanner said “I’m gonna write a country song” and I said “We don’t write country songs!” But we took it and recorded it and Ryan pieced together that guitar solo like 10 times.’ Little of the original country vibe survived, the song now feels heavier, edgier and grungier. However, there are some challenges with performing it live: ‘Living where we are, where a lot of families come to listen to music, we have to do a PG version,’ Womble said, looking disappointed. ‘We can’t say “fuck”, so we say something like “heck” but it’s not the same.’

Incredibly, Powers didn’t use a fuzz pedal on the recording, although he now uses a generic overdrive pedal when he plays it live: ‘He plays a Vintera Stratocaster knock off, that guitar is like a $100 guitar but it feels like it’s meant to be played the way he does, it sounds so good,’ Womble enthused. ‘We bought another one that’s the same for $100. I thought I could pick it up and get it to sound like that but it doesn’t sound like that when I play it!’

‘Tanner has a different dark sound, his songs are extremely emotionally driven, low on the guitar’

Vampires become part of the story in ‘I’ve Always Been’, which has clear echoes of Nirvana: ‘Tanner wrote it, he has a trend on this album for writing about monsters (laughs). This is the vampire song, we called it that for the longest time. Tanner has a different dark sound, his songs are extremely emotionally driven, low on the guitar. It’s one of my faves and is my girlfriend’s fave. In concert when we play it, we turn all the lights off and turn on the flashers when it goes off. It’s musically very intricate with the timing. Tanner has songs that build up and break down, the tempo jumps around like on this one. I feel like we’re used to it but we wonder if that’s what everyone wants?!’

They have had different routes into music. Van Horn was in a marching band in high school and played the French horn. He and Womble first started playing the guitar around six years ago. Since then, big guitar riffs have become a hallmark of their songs, although it happened somewhat serendipitously. Hunter almost didn’t join the band, although he jokes that they wore him down and Powers joined the fray during COVID.

They cite diverse musical influences, including Nirvana, Bleachers, Weezer, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Foo Fighters, as well as 70’s glam rock. When it comes to the songs on their debut album, they all have different favourites: ‘Ryan says ‘Sweet Lovin’ Woman’, Womble said. ‘I choose ‘Happy Endings’ because I feel it’s one of the best songs I’ve ever written. The lyrics flowed really well together. It’s hard to pick a favourite, my emotional attachment is to the album as a whole, that accomplishment of the eight songs together.’ I say that I love the graphic novel-esque artwork of them in a bright pink car at night: ‘It’s by Samantha Garza, she did the ‘Sweet Peaches’ artwork for us, she’s my buddy from college’s girlfriend,’ Womble said. ‘We very much like her work, it’s so colourful, we will definitely use her again. It fits the graphic novel feel.’

‘I was super interested in power chords kicking it off’

‘Happy Endings’ hooks you from the scuzzy opening riff and has a slight Foo Fighters feel to it; it’s probably the most guitar-driven track on the album: ‘It just felt right for me to have that drop (in the intro chords), I was super interested in power chords kicking it off. It’s just four simple chords. I cannot remember chords (laughs), I can put my fingers on the frets and figure it out but I don’t always know what I’m playing. When we play in concert, Tanner does all of the cover songs, he has the patience to sit down and learn the chords, I’ll do the bass.’ I say that it sounds as if he is more of an instinctive player and he agrees: ‘Yeah, my love of music is different to Tanner’s. He’ll spend weeks or months perfecting a song, they’re really well put together, there are no gaps. I just can’t do that. Once you have the basics down, you can sit with the band and get the rest right.’ I say that Dave Grohl has apparently never had formal drum lessons and it has served him just fine and he laughs: ‘I don’t have the same instincts as someone like Dave Grohl but enough to write a song,’ he grinned.

His dream line up would be brilliantly raucous. ‘Fun would be there, do you know them?’ I confess that I don’t. ‘Nate Ruess was the lead singer but they broke up. Their song ‘Some Nights’ is really good. AC/DC would be there. KC and the Sunshine Band (an American disco and funk band), I’ll have them. I’d love to play a show with Bowling for Soup (an American rock band), I grew up with them. And My Chemical Romance. In the past two years, I’ve gotten into them. There’s something about their intensity that inspires me. I want our guitars to sound as good as theirs on The Black Parade (2006), it’s all so sharp. I wanted ‘Happy Endings’ to be like Black Parade and American Idiot by Green Day, those were big inspirations. They’re playing power chords and building a showcase album out of it.’

(Photo from left to right: Bucky, Tanner, Joe and Ryan.)