Interview with The Dirty Pennies: ‘We live in the best day and age for music’

Rochester, New York-based garage rock band, The Dirty Pennies, released their single ‘Waste Away’ last month, which manages to be both punchy and laid back, layering blues with metal, which makes them uniquely fit into plenty of sub genres. 

The band comprises Ryan Klem (vocals and lead guitar), Joe Mungo (bass) and Lucas Howe (drums).

And although the song could easily be interpreted as a lockdown one – with a reference to the ‘crack of doom’ – it is actually more of an indictment of the current state of the US, according to Klem: ‘The last couple of our songs, including ‘Waste Away’ were more politically based. We had problems here before Covid.’ The lyrics back that up: ‘My friends, are sick in the head, and you got a lot to say, how the world outside is gunna get sicker if we can’t act our age, well, the train’s off the rails, it’s the crack of doom, so come on baby let’s dance, we can have a ball while all the lights flicker and watch it waste away.’

As such, ‘Waste Away’ touches on the themes of attention deficit, cynicism, and apathetic viewpoints influenced by the obsession and disdain for social media that divides and drives our society deeper into oblivion, they say.

‘Some of this political stuff is on your mind all the time, you can’t get away from it’

Next up is a politically-driven song with the working title of ‘You Are Who You Are’, Mungo said. ‘It’s a little more in depth, we’re expanding on what we’re doing sonically,’ he said. However, it’s hard to say what the final version will sound like. given that Klem rewrites lyrics up until a couple of weeks before a song is recorded. ‘Some of this political stuff is on your mind all the time, you can’t get away from it, I can’t get away from it,’ Klem said. For Mungo, the song is about ‘the general climate in the United States’: ‘It’s so divisive over here now, the political climate has changed the social climate over here since 2016.’

Klem agrees: ‘I work at a grocery store, I’ve seen arguments, it’s so divided, everyone is on edge. Nobody wants to get in the middle. It’s strange times. I’d be shocked if every band wasn’t writing about this stuff. It’s your day-to-day life now. It affects lives.’ Mungo chips in: ‘It’s all consuming.’

Between their first album, Kick Out the Rocks (2017) and their last three songs – including ‘Love Ain’t Free’ and ‘I’m Your Man’ – they have found their sound, Klem said. ‘We’re fitting into garage rock but we’re also pyschedelic. I don’t think I could have sung like I have over the last three songs before now. I feel a bit more confident with my singing voice.’ Mungo interjects: ‘The basis of everything we do, we’re leaning more towards garage rock, like early Strokes.’

Another track, ‘Kingpin’, from their eponymously titled EP in 2017, was written by Mungo and is about the demands that big corporations make on their employees: ‘A lot of people are working crazy hours for almost no money,’ Klem said. ‘You have single parents working 60 hours a week.’

The US healthcare system only exacerbates the problem, they both said: ‘Some people take a taxi to the hospital to avoid the high cost of ambulance rides,’ Klem said. ‘I broke my leg last year and went to the emergency room and got a bill for $900 and I have good insurance through work. I should have had physiotherapy but that would have probably cost the same, so hey, no physiotherapy!’

The Dirty Pennies formed in 2012 when Klem and Howe hashed out songs with mean gutbucket guitar riffs, addictive driving drums, and folk style singing for a few years before gaining the attention of Mungo in 2015. They have been heavily influenced by Deer Tick, an American alternative rock-folk band from Providence, Rhode Island.

‘It was excruciatingly hard to even play an instrument’

Lockdown was tough on both of them, in terms of finding inspiration to write songs. As Mungo put it: ‘I can say that it was excruciatingly hard to even play an instrument, it was four months of not really doing anything.’ Klem, who continued to work at the grocery store during this time, said: ‘I was dealing with a lot of stress, so song writing came to a screeching halt. I started listening to different music, other genres. I try to listen to absolutely everything, including bluegrass stuff and an element of country. I also like Middle Eastern bands a lot. We live in the best day and age for music.’

Mungo would like to collaborate with LA-based rock band, Rage Against the Machine: ‘Tim Commerford (their bassist) is a huge inspiration for me. It would also have been neat to work with The Doors in the 60’s.’ Klem would have liked to work with John Prine, an American country folk singer-songwriter, who died earlier this year. ‘I’d love to work with The Black Keys, they’re the biggest inspiration when it comes to writing music.’

Their influences also trickle through into their songs: ‘We absorb all these styles and we bring that into the recording process,’ Mungo said. His favourite of their songs is ‘Waste Away’: ‘It was the first of the last three songs that we wrote. At the end, in the studio, we could feel it was special.’ Klem really likes ‘Kingpin’: ‘I like the way my guitar solo sounds on that one,’ he laughed. ‘My favourite is probably ‘Man on a Wire’, it’s my mom’s favourite.’ Mungo interjects: ‘She’s our biggest fan!’

(Photo from left to right: Joe, Ryan and Lukas. Photo credit Krit Upra)