Dutch Interior

Dutch Interior is the project of lifelong friends Jack Nugent, Conner Reeves, brothers Shane Barton and Hayden Barton, Davis Stewart, and Noah Kurtz. Most of the band have known each other since elementary school, still live together, and have a distinct conception of California, where they have spent pretty much their entire existence. Today, the LA county collective releases a new single/video “Ecig,” the group’s debut for Fat Possum Records. They will tour throughout the US in July and August, including a co-headline show at Elsewhere in New York City on July 13th and support runs with DIIV, Horse Jumper of Love, and julie (all dates included below).

Dutch Interior began in relative insularity, in the living room of the house where three of the members were living. Initially, they had simple goals: to write, finish, and mix a song all in one day on a tape recorder supplied by Reeves. Each band member had been writing music individually, and the house provided a space to workshop and flesh out ideas (“throwing songs at the wall to see what stuck”).

Today’s single “Ecig” is propelled by a gradually unfurling, driving rhythm that feels high stakes in its urgency, all while Reeves’ vocals coalesce alongside it. On the brink of collapse, the band’s repressed tension explodes into dizzyingly new heights. It’s music that expands past any self-contained space, a song with high emotional stakes that feels like it’s running toward a point of no return.

“‘Ecig’ was once a quiet, pensive song, before practicing it and failing to stick to an initial recording of the song,” explains the band. “At rehearsal one day, Connor began strumming the fuzzy drone that would become the main rhythm guitar part, and in just a single play through, the entire band figured out their parts and all of them stuck. The song’s lyrical content tries to understand the feelings left over from betrayal through images that are dead but linger in a physical form that is difficult or impossible to dispose of: a rusted swing set, dried blood, circling buzzards, or a disposable vape. ‘Ecig’ is an early song of ours that evolved through many phases as we played it live. Being the first synthesis of the noisier aspects of our live set into a studio recording, it is a perfect bridge from our last record into what is coming next.”