Dirty Brew are one of Brisbane’s hottest hard rocking Rock/Metal bands around right now. These guys play hard, party hard and are by far one of my favourite Brisbane bands. Dirty Brew are headlining Rock For Rain alongside Hammers on November 17th at the Jubilee Hotel. Shannon had a chat to guitarist Mick Eedy (aka Mick Brew) about Rock For Rain, the big year Dirty Brew has had so far, how the band’s name has a dirtier meaning than originally intended and what is coming next for the band.
How did the band first get together?
We have been a band since 2013. It was me and the bass player, Chris. We played in other bands and stuff. We had a band at the time that had just recently broke up. Chris and I wanted to start a new thing, we tried out with some other bands together and it just wasn’t working out, so we decided to start our own. We had a feeling of what we wanted to go for and we got a drummer and a singer and that is how it started. There were four of us to start with. There are five of us now, we have had a few lineup changes since we started. We recorded an EP and did a couple of tours up to regional Queensland as a four piece then we got our fifth member, Jimmy, on guitar which just sort of cemented the sound and thickened up the live performance. He is a shredder; it was a no brainer we have known him for 15 years because we all used to play in separate bands back in the day. Jimmy our lead guitarist and Brad our singer are actually two of the original members from Bonesaw.
Where did the name Dirty Brew come from?
We were sitting at practice one night, having a few beers as you do. I had a new beer that I was trying and I was just like, “That tastes dirty. It is almost like a dirty brew!” Then Chris goes, that is actually pretty cool. So we were like let’s go with that! So we actually googled the meaning for it and if you google the meaning of dirty brew in the urban dictionary it will tell you, if you pour your beer filtered through the ass crack of someone and have your glass at the bottom and filter it that way and then drink it. We were like oh that’s fucked *laughs* we didn’t discover it until a year or two later and we had already branded it so we were like fuck it, we can’t change it now. Dirty Brew sounded fitting for us too, it sounded a bit Southerny, I am a massive Pantera fan, and I adapt a lot of my song writing on; basically the structure and how I write songs and the way they write riffs. So it sounded Southern and you probably gathered we are all big drinkers *laughs* so it was kind of fitting.
Who writes the songs for Dirty Brew, is it a group effort?
Of late it has been a bit of a group effort but in the beginning I did the majority of the writing, with Chris our bass player. We would just nut out a few ideas and take it into practice and then it would get tweaked. So that was how things started, we had about 10 songs but we canned a few because we thought they weren’t up to scratch. It was more about quality than quantity for us. I can sit here and write 30 songs, no fucking problem. But whether they are going to be quality enough is where we sort of sit, is that we want to have songs where, we want people to go away from our set going, all of those songs were just absolute bangers! So that is how we filter our writing process. We have a few songs coming through now that have been written collectively as a band. There are two that I haven’t had any part in. They sound really different, which is another thing we do as well. A lot of our songs don’t sound the same.
Does the band all have similar taste in music or are you all influenced by different bands and different genres of music?
There are similarities but there are differences as well. All of us are massive Pantera fans, that’s just a no brainer. Jimmy plays a Dimebolt, I play a Dean Cadillac which Tom Maxwell from HELLYEAH plays one of those. We are all massive HELLYEAH fans as well. Chris is into heavier stuff like Gojira and Meshuggah. Our drummer likes sludgy stoner rock but he also likes the heavier stuff as well, he is a bit of an all rounder. Jimmy likes Slayer, Pantera, death metal. The new songs are sounding a little bit more metal. Our singer is just a loose cannon really *laughs* he is a loose unit, he likes everything. Anything and everything you can throw at him, he will listen to it. I love my metal but I predominately listen to stuff like Airborne and Fozzy and hard rock metal, that kind of thing. The angle we were going for was that we don’t want to fit anywhere, we want to be adaptable to both metal and like we want to be able to play at a metal show like Shredfest but then we will jump onto a rock gig. We supported Hardcore Superstar, they are like glam rock and we played with Snake Bite Whisky and Smoking Martha.
This year has been pretty epic for Dirty Brew, you’ve played some awesome gigs, including Shredfest and Metal Of Honor 200, plus supporting Hardcore Superstar and Black Rheno and you did an Indonesian Tour in April!?
Yeah we went there in April, played 8 shows across 12 days. It was quite an experience *laughs*. We will do it again. You don’t get paid much but we didn’t pay for beer or food, they would just give us free shit. We were happy to play music for them. The last show on the last night, we played to about 11,000 people, it was a big outdoor festival, an open air festival. That was really cool.
We do a lot of Mousey’s festivals. We do Shredfest every year and we played the New Years day gig the last 3 or 4 years as well. He does well Mousey. Supporting Hardcore Superstar was pretty good, getting to mix and mingle with international rock stars. You know, you get there for the sound check and they are doing theirs and they just sound bang on in the sound check and you’re just like fuck yeah this is awesome. That was our second support show for Silverback Touring, we played with Hed PE in March, that was a bit bigger. That was surreal because I listened to their music when I was like 16. For me and Chris is was like a nostalgia moment, like I wish we could go back in time and tell our 16 year old selves that we’d be playing with them.
Then we are playing with Fozzy in two weeks, I grew up watching the wrestling and I loved Chris Jericho. He was my favourite wrestler, and it is another one of those things, where it’s surreal like I am playing a gig with him. When they first brought out their music back in 2000, when they brought out their first proper album, I had it, and I had it on the stereo and I was so excited, wish I could go back and tell myself this was going to happen now.
Then next up, you guys are headlining Rock For Rain along with Hammers! You must be pumped for that?
Oh we are really excited for that because we haven’t done a good gig at the Jubilee before. I love Hammers, they are the best dudes and their music is fucking tops as well. I have been a fan for a long time, Fish is the only original member, I remember when they had all the other dudes and they just rock it all the time.
Who else on the lineup for Rock For Rain are you keen to see?
I am keen to see Nowhere Else. I like them, Jimmy from Azreal playing guitar, he is a great dude. I have seen a couple of videos of them playing live and they sound awesome and tight and I am looking forward to seeing them. The Iron Eye, I had never heard of them before and man they are pretty good! For The Wolves is another one. I checked out their new song on Spotify and it is bangin’ it is great. TrashQueen are going to kill it as well.
Who are some of your favourite local bands that you’d like to give a plug too?
I am going to have to say Level H. Those guys are just rad. Also they plugged us on the radio so I got to do it back *laughs* We have done a few gigs with them now and they are always in the front row watching us and they are going to go a long way, you can see it. Mergatroyd are good friends of ours, we do a lot of gigs with them. We have done a lot of tours with them to regional Queens land and it’s just basically a drink-a-thon *laughs* it is always good fun.
What is up next for Dirty Brew? Have you got new music coming or more tours coming?
All of the above. We are currently in pre production for our album. Hopefully it is going to be done in the next couple of months and then off the back of that album we are going to be going international again. Next year is going to be really exciting. We thought this year was good but I think next year is going to be just as good if not better.
Dirty Brew are supporting Fozzy on Wednesday the 14th of November at The Triffid, then on November 17th they headline Rock For Rain along with Hammers and a line up of awesome hard rocking bands at the Jubilee Hotel. Dirty Brew are amazing to see live so I highly recommend you get out to see them!
Get your tickets to Fozzy HERE!
Get your tickets to Rock For Rain HERE!
Follow Dirty Brew on Facebook HERE!
