We’re Dirty Money, a rock originals band from Oxfordshire consisting of John Hudson (Spud) on vocals, Mark Walker on guitar, Ross Hutton on bass and Luis Silver on drums. We’re also the greatest band you’ve never heard of…but you will
TELL US A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOUR NEW ALBUM OR SINGLE?
Our latest single is called If. It’s a rock ballad showcasing our softer side but it's still an earworm you won't be able to get enough of.
WHAT INSPIRED THE ALBUM OR SINGLE?
Life really and thinking about the people who’ve crossed your path over the years and who are no longer a part of it.
CAN YOU SUM UP THE ALBUM IN A FEW WORDS?
It’s a wistful song about love, loss and longing
WHAT RECORD CHANGED YOUR LIFE AND WHY?
It would probably have to be Zeppelin II (the brown bomber). It was the first Zeppelin album I’d ever heard when I was about twelve and it absolutely blew my mind. I’d never heard anything so beautiful and powerful and it made me want to make something as equally good.
DO YOU HAVE A FAVOURITE MUSIC VIDEO FILMED BY YOUR BAND OR ANOTHER ARTIST?
Weirdly enough, although I’m not a big fan, Sledgehammer by Peter Gabriel. It was surreal and artistic and I have to say I do miss the 80’s and early 90’s style of videos. They’re massively polished now but can be a bit samey. Music videos aren’t as fun and don’t seem as important as they used to be.
WHAT WOULD WE FIND YOU DOING WHEN YOU'RE NOT MAKING MUSIC?
We spend most of our time making music or working on different aspects of the band so that’s about 95% of what we do with our time but we all still catch a lot of gigs. We’ve got a hugely eclectic music taste between us so there’s always someone coming to town we want to catch
DO YOU GET NERVOUS PERFORMING LIVE, IF SO HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH THAT?
No, not really. I think the key is we all just love playing together and playing live so, although we want the audience to enjoy it, we’re not so fixated on it that we can’t enjoy playing our stuff in public.
HOW DID YOU FORM THE BAND?
Mark and Ross had a band together for a lot of years and around that time Ross also was a pub landlord. I (John), lived in LA at the time and had come home for Christmas and was staying with my mum who lived in the same village as Ross’ pub. So being a grown man staying with parents' I did the only sensible thing and went to check out the locals and happened to walk into the Cherry Tree, (Ross' pub) which had
various guitars and bass’ adorning the walls and met them both. We all just hit it off and I think I didn’t leave for about 3 days. Anyway I went back to the States but we kept in touch and when I moved back 3 years later my wife and I stayed with Ross and his wife while we were looking for a place to live. Mark lived down the street so we just picked up where we left off.
Then when their band broke up just before lockdown Mark called me and said they were looking to put another band together, would I like to be the vocalist and I jumped at the chance. I’d got up with their old band a couple of times and we’d gelled and we’d talked about putting something together before but it took a while. Trying to find a drummer was a different story altogether. I think we had about 5 sit in with us that either we didn’t feel fitted or they just disappeared off the face of the earth so we really struggled and it was like trying to find rocking horse shit if you’ll excuse the expression. Then Ross, being the salesman that he is, struck upon the ingenious idea that he’d look through the classifieds for people looking to sell their drums and that was how we happened to find Silver, (or Hiho as we affectionately call him). Poor guy was trying to sell his drums and instead, Ross convinced him to keep them and join the band
HOW DO YOU WRITE? - DO YOU HAVE A KEY SONGWRITER, OR DO YOU ALL WORK TOGETHER?
It's mainly a collaborative experience. We all write together during rehearsals but we do all spend a lot of time working on ideas when we’re not together so someone will always bring something they’ve been messing with and we sort of flesh it out together
WHAT INSPIRES YOU?
Life. I don't think any music has the ability to resonate with a listener unless there’s the truth behind it that they can connect with. So it really does depend on what we’re feeling at the time. You really need to be able to make yourself vulnerable and expose that element of your own emotions in your music for people to connect with. That's the beautiful thing about music, it has an honesty you don’t get in everyday life.
WHAT IS NEXT?
World domination...just kidding, (sort of). We're in our early days as a band so we're planning to release the studio EP and get on the festival circuit for next summer. We are actually mixing a live EP at the minute from our gig with The Meteors in Manchester. We’re also playing at The Stag in Hoxton on Aug 4 th , MK11 in Milton Keynes on August 27 th and The Phoenix in High Wycombe on September 16 th if you want to catch a show
PLEASE TELL US ANY SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS SO WE CAN SHARE.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dirtymoneybanduk
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5yJBuUrqIBSHWCxWmX5ij1?si=XboXUae6TBGQsB2UykpY4w Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dirty_money_uk/
Website: https://www.dirtymoneyband.com
Don't forget to follow us @photogroupieuk to get all the latest news, reviews and interviews