Culture Wars has always been X marks the spot for Alex Dugan. It’s just been a case of making sure that he was ready for the reward when his map led him towards it.
Though the band’s debut album feels like it has been a long time coming, without the time bided to make it a reality, they wouldn’t have caught up the head of steam that now revolves around them. Racking up millions of streams and touring with some of the biggest and best in every corner of the musical spectrum, the release of ‘Don’t Speak’ serves as not just the wrapping up of the first few chapters of their story but also the chance to pinpoint exactly where they want to move next. And doing that with a collection of songs this vibrant, varied and volatile nicely tucked into your belt is not a bad thing in the slightest.
To add some colour to their tale so far, and to prep for tour on both sides of the Atlantic, Rock Sound caught up with Alex in some well-needed downtime.
Rock Sound: It feels like this has been a really long road for you and the band. But in the immediate aftermath of the release of this debut album, what are your feelings about the path you have taken to get here?
Alex: I know it’s not very rock and roll, but I’m always business-oriented in a way. What do we have to do today to keep driving and driving? It’s almost like a battle stations thing, you know? It’s hard to allow myself to think about that sort of stuff just yet. And it’s not about numbers; it’s about people, but it’s really interesting when I aggregate all the numbers we have done pre-release, and it’s something like 44 million streams on Spotify. Like, what the fuck? I think there’s something to be said about people taking albums maybe a little more seriously, but like, in the reverse, we take an album very seriously too. We didn’t want to put out an album unless anyone gave a shit instead of just throwing it into the ether. And now we have that, people are consuming it differently. Dave [Grayson, Drums] and I wanted to start a band together like ten years ago, so to be here now is amazing. And a lot has happened in that time, including this band starting. It’s all really interesting.
RS: How do you look back at the mindset you were in at the beginning of the band and compare it to where you are now, or even where you were as this record started to take on more and more shape?
Alex: Throughout this, you always have this idea that one day you’re going to get the big call where they go, ‘You made it,’ and the movie ends. That never fucking happens. And even when you get the things that you’re hoping for and know are going to happen, there’s going to be some shit that you have to eat with it. But it’s funny because when Dave and I first started in Austin forever ago, we just knew we wanted to make a rock band. The band we’re working on feels like what we wanted, and we didn’t know how to do it before, and now we do. We went down this rabbit hole of getting better at writing and writing and writing and experimenting with tech. But the way we are set up, the way things are now, is just what we always intended to do. We just took the long way. The more sustainable way, creatively. And now I’m at a place where I can say, ‘Oh, that’s cool, because I would be into this in college.’ We got there.
RS: You’re already on the right track when you know that you’re making something that would appease a different version of yourself, but then it’s a whole new thing when you realise other people are searching for the same thing. Like, you’re glad you weren’t the only person searching for this particular sound and solace.
Alex: The thing with the band is that we are all into different shit, and we don’t really agree on many things, including music. But I think that’s the point. And I think consciously going into it being like, ‘I’m stepping into a place where I know it’s not going to be exactly how I want it to be’, because that wouldn’t be as good as what we’re going to do. Everyone can make whatever they want on a laptop now, but that’s not the point of a band. But the other thing is, there is a lot of vindication in this. ‘Typical Ways’ is a great example of that. That’s a song I wrote with Dillon [Randolph, Bass] in 2019, back when I lived in Austin. At the time, as a band, we were rejecting that heavier rock feel, which is something I love, and we literally just ignored it for four years. Then we took it back on the road, like, ‘Let’s just try it,’ because we needed to figure out what we were doing. We went out with BANNERS, The Cult, LANY and Maroon 5, and all of the audiences loved it. It was carried out through multiple audiences for a really long time. Like, okay, alright, this is clearly not just a rock song. It was a way of going to that 2019 version of myself sitting in Austin and letting them know that my instincts were right. I didn’t know what I was doing, and that was the real problem.
RS: What was it for you that turned this collection of songs, pulled from different points in your journey and beyond, into an album that makes sense together? What were the elements that allowed the necessary cohesion to make this what it is now?
Alex: The thing is that we have got better. The band’s sound has changed, and the songwriting has improved. We went back and remixed the entire album, and you feel all these songs catch up to each other as you try to tie it all together. But I think the touring we did was pretty influential in shaping where we ended up. Because of it, we scrapped half the album and rewrote it, then remixed everything, and that was all through everything we learned. And I think getting the whole band involved in the process helped too. ‘Don’t Speak’ is a good example of that. We grew more cohesive, and everyone became more involved as we progressed. And as we start over again, because I’m the sadistic asshole that wants to go once we have just finished, we’re going to do it all new, not just the same as what we already did. We’re going to flip the script completely, and we’re not just going to make an extension of the first album.
RS: Showing your working and being honest about the missteps and things you want to change is a really brave move, especially at a time when so many people are hellbent on perfection and making everything look seamless.
Alex: I think that complacency is the kiss of death. And I do really think that knowing what we are doing helps, especially live. For us to be in a place where we have been touring and studying other people, it has prepared us for our own shows. And the way that people are showing up and singing so loud, it’s not what I was expecting. Things are really starting to gel together, and that’;s what I’m most excited about. That people are going to get to see us and go, ‘Oh yeah, this really is a band.’
RS: If you could go back and speak to that version of yourself who knew that this band was becoming a thing, wasn’t just a want but a need, what would you tell them?
Alex: The thing is that I was so blindly charging forward, ‘This is going to work,’ charging forward and ignoring all of the stop signs. So if I could talk to myself, I would say, ‘Look, man, it’s going to take a while, but it is going to work, and I know that he would reply, ‘Yeah, I fucking know. But it’s more than it’s going to take a while because it’s supposed to. Just because you want to be popular right now doesn’t mean that it’s the right timing. My grandfather on my mum’s side would always say, ‘When you’re ready, it’ll happen’. Now, he was talking about sex, but I feel as though the mantra is very much the same.
Culture Wars will be hitting the road in the US, UK and Europe for a headline tour in the coming months. Here are all of the dates you will be able to catch them on.
MAY
14 – SEATTLE The Croc
15 – SAN FRANCISCO Rickshaw Sto
16 – PHOENIX Crescent Ballroom
21 -ATLANTA Terminal West
22 – NASHVILLE Exit/In
23 – DALLAS Trees
30 – MEXICO CITY Foro Puebla
31 – MONTERRAY Foro Tims
JUNE
18 – BIRMINGHAM Dead Wax
19 – LONDON The Garage
21 – MANCHESTER Gorilla
22- GLASGOW King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut
23 – BRISTOL Thekla
25 – DUBLIN Whelan’s
26 – BARCELONA Razzmatazz
27 – MADRID Sala Villanos
29 – PARIS Petit Bai
JULY
12 – HAMBURG Molotow
13 – COPENHAGEN Rust
14 – STOCKHOLM Debaser
16 – BERLIN Mikropol
17 – WARSAW Hydrozagadka
19 – PRAGUE Bike Jesus
21 – VIENNA Szene
22 – MUNICH Strom
24 – MILAN Q Hub
25 – AMSTERDAM Paradiso
