Q&A: Dirt Flirt Touches Upon the Fading of the Honeymoon Phase on “honest”
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY IVONA HOMICIANU ☆
Photo by Lauren Meaney
“HONEST” CALLS FOR AUTHENTICITY WITHIN A RELATIONSHIP—Covering the process of understanding your partner is flawed after idealizing them in the beginning, “honest” sits as the middle of the narrative Dirt Flirt is unleashing for her upcoming EP, scorpio fever. Through slow alt-pop beats, “honest” details the moment of realization through a vulnerable interpretation before the production speeds up to signify the blow of what she’s learned.
Dirt Flirt is an London-based artist whose alt-pop sound prepares the stage for what she hopes will be “the next masc pop star.” She released her debut EP DIRT FLIRT last year and is preparing for scorpio fever, which will be out May 22. Her music is defined by an exploration of queer themes and introspective thoughts. In this upcoming project, she sees the unraveling of an intense relationship, from the secrecy of a new love to the fallout of the dynamic.
“honest” comes after the lead single “focus on u,” which portrayed the intoxicating and obsessive nature of crushing on someone new. It’s a catchy and upbeat recount of that feeling when the world disappears and the mind emphasizes only one person. “honest” sees a back and forth after the truth comes to surface and the rose tint disappears like a wave of shock. The last chapter in the scorpio flirt narrative grapples with the reality of hard truths, when a decision has been made.
The Luna Collective talked with Dirt Flirt about “honest” and her upcoming EP scorpio fever.
Photo by Syd Celluloids
LUNA: How would you describe your vibe as an artist?
DIRT FLIRT: When people ask me, I always say dirty alt-pop. It's hard to put my music in a box. I've been telling everyone that I'm gonna be the next masc pop star. That’s the vibe that I'm running with right now.
LUNA: What is the defining moment that made you want to pursue music as your career?
DIRT FLIRT: I've known I wanted to do music since I discovered pop punk and bands like Green Day. I realized I could do a solo project and make a career out of that a couple years ago. I used to do session guitar playing for other bands so being thrown into the industry made me realize suddenly that this is all possible. I can do this too.
LUNA: How did you come up with the title scorpio fever?
DIRT FLIRT: I wanted to drop the project in November last year, because it was going to be cool with Scorpio season. Logistically, that was never going to be possible. Right into the last minute, I was like, “Maybe we could do it.” I wanted to keep that somehow. I'm a Scorpio and felt like, for some reason, this project had to involve that somehow. I was playing around with different words and scorpio fever sounded cool. It sounded like this contagious obsession. It reminded me of “Bieber Fever.” With my label, we were like, “Oh, that would be really fun to play with.” It felt like it represented the EP. Although it's a concept record about a relationship, the narrative of that is very much self reflection.
LUNA: What's your big three?
DIRT FLIRT: Scorpio sun, Pisces moon and Virgo rising.
LUNA: Which zodiac signs do you think will resonate the most with the new songs besides Scorpio?
DIRT FLIRT: That's a good question! I want to say Taurus, because they're [Scorpio’s] opposite signs. In my life, I've found a lot of connections with Sagittarius. Maybe that means there'll be that connection here as well. So Taurus, Sagittarius, and let's throw in Gemini.
LUNA: There's a lot of dark pop, electronic production elements on the EP. Do you have any particular influences when it comes to artists?
DIRT FLIRT: The darker pop stuff is definitely more influenced by artists like Artemas and 070 Shake. I got really into Artemas’ music and when you discover a new artist, it completely changes how you make music and how you want to share things. The first couple of tracks of the EP live in the darkest, moodiest, mysterious space. That was when I was listening to a lot of Artemas. The EP moves from a darker space, it moves around a little bit. I listen to a lot of MUNA and a lot of other alt-pop artists that influence that as well. The influences are far and wide but each song definitely has its own mood.
LUNA: scorpio fever is the realization that your partner is flawed and so are you. It’s the vanishing of the original honeymoon phase. What made you want to tell this particular story with your single “honest”?
DIRT FLIRT: “honest” is where it feels like it all unravels. It's the raw truth coming out. I've found in my personal experience in various points of my life, I get really obsessed easily over things and people. Coming from the track before, “focus on you,” being all about obsession and how you can't stop thinking about something. Everything's idealized and perfect but that's never the case. It's dangerous to let that take over. It felt like when I was writing this track, I was telling part of that story being realistic. When the obsession starts to fade and you realize, “Oh, I’ve neglected myself,” or “I've neglected this actual connection,” or “I've realized things about someone or about a relationship that are clashing.”
The reason I wrote it in the first place was that I was thinking and talking a lot to people generally about honesty and about how vital it is to every connection and when you navigate life. We were talking about radical honesty and the narrative of that song played out as we were writing it. It's not necessarily a step by step experience I've had, it was pulled from different conversations and different experiences. I think it sits really well between “focus on you” that is the obsessive fun track and “high walls,” which isn't out yet. It is the other side of “honest” where it's retrospective. It's looking back at this relationship falling apart. When you're in the moment, there's always things you miss and you don't realize then afterwards you're like, “I should have seen it. I should have seen the signs.”
Photo by June Ghisolfi
LUNA: Why did you choose “honest” as one of the singles?
DIRT FLIRT: The first reason is I wanted to drop the singles in the narrative order, so the final track in that narrative comes out with the EP, and it is the closing track of the project. Aesthetically, it made sense to me, but I also like the idea of the narrative unraveling as well. Then the other reason is it sonically feels risky dropping this one because it's quite different to all my other songs. All my other songs are more upbeat and this starts moody. It's slower and it feels like it lives in a slightly different sonic realm, then at the end, there's a crazy moment. I thought if I drop that, that shows the full spectrum.
LUNA: Do you have a particular song on the EP that you're most attached to?
DIRT FLIRT: The unreleased track “high horse.” Of all the songs, I wrote that one first which is really interesting because it's the last track. Also, that track is fully produced by me. My friends did additional production, but I remember making that song in one session just by myself at home, then finishing it and being like, “Whoa, I can't believe I just made that. Where did that come from?” And because the other tracks were a lot more collaborative in terms of production… The whole project is my baby, but “high horse” is my first born from the project.
LUNA: The EP explores the subject of intense and passionate queer relationships. Are there any other queer themes you'd like to explore in your songwriting later on?
DIRT FLIRT: Definitely! I feel like my queerness is always there in my music. In some songs, the themes are more obvious. Other songs, it's there, but I'm not necessarily singing about it, but there's a lot I want to play with. I started writing a demo yesterday. I literally just have part of the song, but I see a future to this. It’s a criticism of society, but also deconstructing what it means to be an IT girl. Obviously, as a masc lesbian, I don't look like the IT girl that you see on TV. But what if I want to be that?
LUNA: I never thought of that but we do tend to go towards more feminine presenting people when it comes to pop stars. So why do we do that?
DIRT FLIRT: As I’m moving forward with my artist project as a whole, I don't want to shy away from that either. Like I said at the start, I want to be the next masc pop star. That sounds kind of funny and silly but at the same time, there aren't that many at all. When you look around, there definitely are some and they're killing it, but compared to everyone else, the representation is super far and between. This thing I've been trying to shy away from in order to try to fit in, is actually the thing that I need to embrace and show people is powerful. This is a statement in itself. There’s so much I want to explore and so many queer themes in general. As long as I'm writing songs, it's all gonna come up.
LUNA: I was thinking of King Princess, 070 Shake and G Flip. MUNA has two masc presenting people.
DIRT FLIRT: When I discovered MUNA, it was a huge point for me because I loved pop music but I didn't see myself in it. I didn’t know how I could ever be a pop artist because you just don't see people like me in the mainstream. Then I discovered MUNA and I was like, “Everything makes sense.” It was like a switch flipped in my head, and I was like, “Cool, I'm gonna do this one day. Now that I've seen people who look like me doing this, I can do this.” Which is why representation is that important.
LUNA: How do you hope people feel when they listen to the EP?
DIRT FLIRT: A big part of my songwriting process is allowing myself to be super vulnerable. The overall message of my music in general is vulnerability can be really powerful and can be really fun. There's joy to be found in it as well. I want people to come away with that message. I want people to hear that it's okay to realize that you've made mistakes, or that things weren't perfect, or that things don't always work out but ultimately being there for yourself and knowing yourself is the best outcome. Having love for yourself and respect for yourself. I want them to have more of an idea of who Dirt Flirt is, and come away from it thinking that they've just discovered a little gem before it all blows up. I just want them to feel like they're part of my world now.
