featured image shot by June Ghisolfi
“Expect a lot of drama. Expect some crazy autotune, expect the sickest band ever. I try and just get a room moving — that’s my aim.”
Dirt Flirt is here with the song of the summer, “Peach.” From its juicy lyrics to the dirty pop you hear coming from your sound system, the song has us drooling over the replay button. Recently, death of a rabbit got to chat with Dirt Flirt about her newest song and what the life of an alt-pop star looks like.
DEATH OF A RABBIT: You describe your sound as dirty alt-pop — which I love, by the way. I was wondering what that meant to you.
DIRT FLIRT: For me, it’s like the dirtier, grittier side of pop. I just thought it sounded cool when I was trying to think of a way to describe my music.
DOAR: Your influences are more from the emo background, right? Obviously there’s some pop in there, too.
DIRT FLIRT: There’s a lot of crossover, to be fair. I think a lot more of my influences probably live in a pop world, but I think the more emo influences have always cut through, which is quite cute. I used to be obsessed with My Chemical Romance and their worldbuilding, and also the performance side of things.
DOAR: You have an EP under your belt now, released back in May. How does it feel to finally have that [out] and have a more established discography?
DIRT FLIRT: It feels really good. It feels like people kind of take me more seriously, which is nice, but it also feels really rewarding to have a full body of work out. I still feel excited when I think about it, which is cool.
DOAR: I also really like your cover art; there seems to be a string attaching each cover art with the silhouettes of you and pops of color and such. I really enjoy the aesthetic that you got going on, but is “Peach” going to be slightly different?
DIRT FLIRT: It’s funny you say that. No one’s ever mentioned that, and I’m glad you did, because it has been intentional and the result of very low budget shots of me having to edit them myself. So not the same, but kind of recognizable in that way. “Peach” sort of follows on from that different color scheme.
DOAR: That’s crazy that you edited them yourself. Did you have a photographer that helped you out?
DIRT FLIRT: I think most of them, my girlfriend just took the pictures, and then the EP cover art was this photographer named Lauren, and they took the photo at the shoot for “Bodycount.” And it wasn’t meant to be that.
DOAR: It was like, “Wait, I kind of fuck with this.”
DIRT FLIRT: Exactly.
DOAR: That’s amazing. That’s how it happens sometimes, you can put so much effort into one picture, but then you have an accidental one that at the end of the day, works out.
In general, with your songwriting, you kind of balance imagination with real things and keep the listeners guessing on that. How do you strike that balance between the imagination and your personal experience?
DIRT FLIRT: I think usually it usually starts from a real experience, and then I take it as far as I can take it, and then I like to twist it into something else, adding an element of fiction to it. I think I’m kind of aware of making really personal, real music and not being able to detach from it at all in the future, so it’s all a tactical thing. But also I like that, I like that the audience won’t know what’s real and what’s not.
DOAR: That’s honestly kind of nice, because you can still get your journaling out in that way but still have it incognito.
DIRT FLIRT: Exactly, it’s not too honest and personal, but still comes from that place.
DOAR: I also wanted to dive into “Peach.” I had the pleasure of watching the music video. How was shooting that?
DIRT FLIRT: So fun. It was a concept I’ve had for awhile. A big part of my artist project is playing live and playing with my live band. Not many of my songs are super band vibe, like guitar heavy, but this one is, and I was like, “Perfect. We’re going to do a 2000s pop punk style band shoot.” My friend Lilly was super down, and the band was, too. It was just a really awesome day; it was super chill, and it was a team of all queer people or women.
DOAR: That’s so amazing to have the community come together for your project. It’s a nice feeling.
DIRT FLIRT: It was an amazing feeling. It was like, “Oh, it can be like this.” It doesn’t have to be crazy or stressful, we can all just feel really comfortable. And it was a super small team as well; there were only like six of us.
DOAR: And why peach of all fruits?
DIRT FLIRT: It rhymes with a lot of things. I guess it’s also considered like a sexy fruit, isn’t it? There are also pop culture references, like Call Me By Your Name is a classic poem. There’s a lot of songs called “Peach” as well and I just thought, “Why not hop on the bandwagon?”
DOAR: How does “Peach” fit into the world of Dirt Flirt?
DIRT FLIRT: I think it fits chronologically. It makes sense because I’ve come out of this EP and it’s like this big summer sort of heartbreak, but upbeat. It sort of feels a little bit indie and a little bit pop punk in a way which feels like a different direction to what I’ve released before. So I think that’s how it sonically fits. I think lyrically, it’s quite tied to the rest of my music. It’s sort of a balance between being quite playful but also kind of heartbreaking at the same time. It feels like it made sense to release it now; we actually wrote it last summer, but we couldn’t get it together in time. And I’m kind of glad, because I think it just feels like a lot more of a release now, a lot more has been building up to this big fun explosion like kind of carefree vibe, which is really cool.
DOAR: Well, I’m glad it worked out! I also wanted to talk about your performances. What should we expect from a Dirt Flirt performance?
DIRT FLIRT: I would say expect a lot of drama. I grew up playing in a pop band, so I always bring that kind of energy to my life. Expect some crazy autotune, expect the sickest band ever. I try and just get a room moving if I’m the opener or support, that’s just my aim. Have a good time.
DOAR: Here at death of a rabbit, we like to focus on lyricism. What’s a lyric that you’ve been listening to lately that you adore, or a lyric that you wish you’d written?
DIRT FLIRT:
I feel like a kid with gum in my hair
I feel like I did when my mom got scared
That the gum wouldn’t come out
Had to shave my head down to the scalp
Should learn to keep my shit in my mouth
Devon Again, “Gum v6.4”
check out the new Dirt Flirt single here!
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