OceanCity.com was lucky enough to be able to interview Jared “Dirty J” Watson, the co-founder of the popular band, Dirty Heads. He describes his music, how he got started in the industry, his philosophies and more. We have broken the interview into sections in the transcript so it’s easier to follow. Or, you can just watch the interview in full.
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Background on Jared Watson & Dirty Heads:
Ann Hillyer, OceanCity.com
I am filling in for Katie. She couldn’t do this one. So I’m thrilled to do it. My name is Ann Hillyer and I am the CEO of Shore Craft Beer and OceanCity.com. We’re thrilled to be having you come to Oceans Calling in Ocean City.
Jared Watson, Dirty Heads
Oh, yeah. Yeah, we’re stoked to be there. I think we missed it the first time, right? And then this will be the second time we’re trying.
Ann Hillyer, OceanCity.com
Yeah, exactly. So last week another storm came through and that postponed the setup a bit. So they’re a little under the gun on the setup. But it looks like it’s coming along quickly. The big stage is up. So your stage is already in place for your performance.
Perfect. So I sent you some questions. The first section is really background, we’re going to try to go through this rather quickly. We’re really excited to have you and we want you to tell us who you are and where you’re from and a little background on you and the band.
Jared Watson, Dirty Heads
My name is Jared Watson, I am one of the singers and songwriters from a band called Dirty heads originated in Huntington Beach, California. We met in high school, started playing in Dustin’s garage, and realized that we had a lot in common, musically, then personality wise, you know, we became best friends. And then he was already in a band. And I had no musical background. So I just kind of figured this is something fun to do. I really liked the guy keep hanging out. This is super fun. And then it just kind of snowballed. And like, you know, we kept writing songs and having fun. And then that made me realize that I really liked doing it. And then we started playing shows and started getting a following. And next thing you know, like, a couple years later, we’re signed to Warner Brothers. So it’s called I’ll really, really quick and not something that I saw in my future when I was growing up, and now I’m very grateful. And I’m just, I’m very, very happy that I feel like I found my purpose.
Ann Hillyer, OceanCity.com
Well, that’s really exciting. I see that in some of your music. And I was listening to some of your songs today. So we’ll get to thos a little later. . You’re performing this Sunday. Right? From 5:1 PM. To 6:15 PM. On the Seabright stage which is the big one at the Oceans Calling festival. Did you know that the concert is almost totally sold out?
Jared Watson, Dirty Heads
I did not. But I’m not surprised.
Ann Hillyer, OceanCity.com
So you didn’t anticipate that necessarily? Have you been to Ocean City, Maryland before?
Jared Watson, Dirty Heads
Yeah, yeah, we’ve played there numerous times before.
Ann Hillyer, OceanCity.com
And where did you play in Ocean City?
Jared Watson, Dirty Heads
I could have no idea. No idea.
Ann Hillyer, OceanCity.com
Probably Seacrets!
Jared Watson, Dirty Heads
Oh, definitely. We’ve definitely played Seacrets a bunch, Oh cool. Yeah.
Ann Hillyer, OceanCity.com
What did you like most about Ocean City?
Jared Watson, Dirty Heads
I’ve never seen outside of the parking lot of Seacrets. So
Ann Hillyer, OceanCity.com
There’s a lot to see that you might enjoy. There’s some really good food, too. It looks a lot more like California than it did..
Jared Watson, Dirty Heads
Yeah, we’re you know, we’re on tour. So it’s like, you gotta you gotta get in, get out.
Ann Hillyer, OceanCity.com
Where are you right now?
Jared Watson, Dirty Heads 3:17
I’m at home in Costa Mesa, California.
Ann Hillyer, OceanCity.com
Okay, cool. And when do you head east?
Jared Watson, Dirty Heads 3:23
We’re gonna go out on Saturday, the day before.
OCEANS CALLING CONCERT IN OCEAN CITY
- You are performing this Sunday from 5:15-6:15 at the Sea Bright Stage at the Oceans Calling Festival in Ocean City, Maryland.
- Did you know this concert is almost totally sold out?
- Did you anticipate this level of response from Oceans Calling 2023 in Ocean City?
- Have you ever been to Ocean City, Maryland before?
- If so, what do you like most about Ocean City?
- If you haven’t, what are you looking forward to seeing in Ocean City?
- Did you know this concert is almost totally sold out?
YOUR FANS WANT TO KNOW…
Ann Hillyer, OceanCity.com
So Katie posted to the Oceans Calling Facebook page to ask what fans wanted to know about you? And the the answers that came back, the questions they want answered are
- Who and what influenced your music?
Jared Watson, Dirty Heads
So the first one right off the bat. I think the two the two main ones would be Sublime and Beastie Boys.
There was a ton, a ton, a ton of really kind of old school reggae from the 60s and 70s and 80s that we were into. And that definitely, definitely you can hear that in our in our music. But I think at the time, sublime, and the dirty and dirty heads and the Beastie Boys were the only two acts that we knew of that we were listening to that were kind of mashing up all these genres, and taking all this different type of music and blending together but making it sound good making it sound like one original band, you know. And we knew then that if we liked reggae, and we liked hip hop, and we liked folk and we liked jazz, and we liked classic rock we could take we could take it from anywhere, and we could put it in our music.
I think those two bands really opened our eyes to the fact that you don’t just have to play one style of music but it’s tricky to do because it can be very confusing.
And I really like the fact that there’s so original, that when you hear a Beastie Boys song, you know, it’s a Beastie Boys song, whether it’s like one of their punk songs, or when it’s their funk songs or instrumental or it’s their regular Hip Hop stuff, you know, it’s them, when you hear sublime song, whether it’s more of a reggae song, or a grimy punk song, or he’s putting a lot more hip hop into the production back then, you knew it was simple as volume song, and I’m really proud that we’re able to do that, that I don’t think there’s anybody playing music right now that sounds like the dirty heads. I don’t think there ever will be and I’m really proud of that, you know, and we can take a lot of different style of music and make it our own and, and still be original in 2023. You know, it’s it’s kind of hard to be original at this point.
Ann Hillyer, OceanCity.com
Thank you. The next question that they wanted to know is:
- What is the best advice somebody ever gave you? And who was that person to you?
Jared Watson, Dirty Heads 5:54
The best advice? Well, I think this is in no way conceited at all. But I think after a really long time, I don’t want to just do a cliche one and like, go off, like some quote, there’s one. There’s one that my manager told me a long time ago, that really, really works, but it’s still not my favorite one. And it’s get all the information first. And when you do get all the information first, it makes things a lot easier. Don’t assume anything until you have all the information. Don’t worry about it. Just don’t even think about it until you have every single piece of information about whatever it is. And then you can decide on whether you should freak out which not that was great.
But it dawned on me one day, because I was you know, an 18 year old kid, I was a 25 year old kid, I you know, I’m 30 Whatever, I’m in the industry, there’s all these, you know, could be mentors around me, there’s all these other really successful musicians. And when I was younger, I found myself like most people, I feel like well, they when they look back that I thought I knew everything. And there was a lot of advice given to me that I probably didn’t take.
And then a little bit later on, I remember giving myself advice going man, the best probably advice is to actually take advice. I feel like 90% of the time somebody gives you advice. It goes in one ear and right out the other and you don’t even you don’t even think about it. This is unsolicited. I don’t want to hear what you have to say you’re old, you don’t know what you’re talking about. You’re in a band, you don’t know what you’re talking about. You’re not even you know, there’s always an excuse to not listen to the advice or the advice is such a solution to your problem. But it’s not the easy way out might be the hard way out that you don’t want to listen to it. So I honestly if there’s any what I think the best advice is for other people is that when somebody is in a position that might need be more successful than you doesn’t matter that’s up to you what success is, or just in a position to give you advice. actually listen to what they have to say, actually just don’t just lie. Oh, they’re just an old guy telling me a story. I’m being nice about it, whatever, just like actually listen and try and soak it in, write it down and try and implement it. And like, when you do you’ll see that, you know, the advice is usually pretty good. I never used to take advice. So I wish I could go back and tell myself when I was younger, like hey, actually take advice. That’s the best advice. actually use this. These people that’s very useful. I think it’s excellent. That’s a really good answer.
YOUR CAREER, YOUR MUSIC & THE SET FOR SUNDAY
The Dirty Heads debut album was, Any Port in a Storm, and was released on September 23, 2008. They just released Midnight Control, on August 26, 2023, by Better Noise Music. That’s over 15 years of music. Let’s see what Jared has to say.
Ann Hillyer, OceanCity.com
So music for Sunday: your debut album was Any Port in the Storm and it was released on September 23 of 2008. And you just released it a month ago, Midnight Control by Better Noise Music. That’s 15 years of music.
What are you thinking that you are going to bring to the Ocean City concert? Are you mixing it up? Are you playing your new music? What are you playing at the concert on Sunday?
Jared Watson, Dirty Heads
Yeah, I mean, we have an hour set, which is so rad. Like we usually, we don’t usually play an hour . We usually play, you know, an hour and a half, two hours, we have a longer set. So the hour set for us, we call it the power hour because we’re literally just playing the favorites. And that’s fun. That’s really fun for us.
You know, we don’t have to. it’s not that there is filler but there’s like we need to please a lot of different fans, There’s new fans out and say we play a show and it wasn’t Oceans Calling., We had two hours where there’s new fans that we want to make happy. There’s old fans that we want to make happy. We want to make it exciting. We want to build a show we want to be entertaining, we want to bring you up. We want to bring you down, but when you have a power hour, it’s like you know we’ve like said we are on our eighth album. We’re on our eighth album. We’ve had a lot of success, a lot of popular songs, and so it was very easy to make this set, you know, so it’s just like literally all of our top all the fan favorites all the most, you know, just kind of popular songs that we could throw out there and that’s really fun. And I like I said there’s no other bands on the bill like Dirty Heads.
Jared Watson, Dirty Heads 10:00
As you know, we’re gonna be giving you really exciting hip hop songs really mellow, kind of reggae acoustic songs, you know, it’s, we’re able to put on a show that’s really dynamic, rather than just one note. So I think that’s what sets us apart.
Ann Hillyer, OceanCity.com
Very exciting.We will put this up on the OceanCity.com calendar. People will will be very interested,
“Island Glow”
Ann Hillyer, OceanCity.com
I think in your performance in their thing, they’re expecting something close to 50,000 people. So I’m just saying, and you’re on the big stage. So let’s move to your songs. What is your most requested song?
Jared Watson, Dirty Heads 10:37
I don’t know. I couldn’t answer that. I mean, yeah, we’ve been a band for almost 20 years now. You know. And, like, if I’m, if I’m going off of social media, it’s, you know, there’s, it’s different from every person. You know, we don’t sometimes we don’t play the old stuff enough. Sometimes you don’t play the new stuff.
Jared Watson, Dirty Heads 10:56
Actually, I think at this point in time, there’s a song called Island Glow off of our new album, and I think that’s probably the most requested, and we’re playing it. And it’s, it’s like the band’s favorite, too. So that’s really fun.
Ann Hillyer, OceanCity.com
So is that the song that is the most fun to perform for you?
Jared Watson, Dirty Heads 11:11
It is. It is yeah, it’s a pirate story. It’s the song is a story. And we based all of our production around that on the summer tour that we just did, we kind of did like a broken down, like deconstructed pirate ship. And it’s just a song about some pirates. So how do you not like that, but it’s really cool.
“Vacation”
Ann Hillyer, OceanCity.com
And your song vacation suggests that you love what you do? Do you ever get tired of touring and making music?
Jared Watson, Dirty Heads 11:39
Yeah, yeah, like, there. I mean, we like I said, I don’t want to sound repetitive. But we’ve been doing it for 20 years, there was a point where I was really, really tired. There was a point where I didn’t want to go on tour anymore. You know, there’s a point where, you know, it was it was there was I’ve had a lot of highs and a lot of lows.
11:59
That wasn’t necessarily the band or the music or the touring, it was how I was treating my body and my mind. So it was really my fault for doing that. You know, there’s things you can do on the road. And you can get into partying and you can you know, not be nice to your body or your brain or you know, just have a little bit too much fun.
12:19
So I don’t necessarily think it was the music or the like too much touring it was just that I wasn’t honoring myself and honoring my body and taking care of myself and now that I’ve gotten through that, and then we had COVID
12:33
I can tell you right now that taking touring away from me, making me sit at home for two years and not being able to tour was a crazy perspective check and I can tell you that I have
12:46
there’s never been a time in my career where I’ve enjoyed it more than right now.
Ann Hillyer, OceanCity.com
Wow, that’s fabulous. Ocean City is lucky. What would you take vacations? And if you do where do you go?
Jared Watson, Dirty Heads 12:57
Yeah, I just got back from Kauai for a couple of months. My family stayed out there.
13:03
I really like Thailand, we’ve been there and we feel really safe and at home there. Japan is probably my favorite place I’ve ever been and I’m excited to go back there. I could we could we could definitely live in Japan for a couple years. It’s that cool!
“Standing Tall”
Ann Hillyer, OceanCity.com
That’s really cool. Your song Stand Tall is an important message in today’s world. What do you want your fans to take from that song? And what advice would you give someone who needs to stand a little taller
Jared Watson, Dirty Heads
Um, I don’t like telling people what my songs are about. I like them, you know, taking whatever message they can from it. But the to stand a little taller or to get through something.
I really love this one and I think this one is people have probably heard it and it could be a little cliche, but the main message is everything will be okay in the end. And if everything’s not okay, then it’s not the end. That one’s my favorite because I you know personally I’ve had a lot of ups and downs and a lot of good times a lot of everything does always get better and it will get better you just got to see it through. You know, you just gotta keep getting up and going. But when you are in the lows, it really feels like it’s never gonna get better, like nothing’s ever going to change and it’s going to be like this forever. It’s not. It will not. it will get better. Iit will 100% get better.
Ann Hillyer, OceanCity.com
I love it. It’s a great message. My mother always used to say.” this too shall pass.” It’s a really important message.
Ocean City Rescue Me?
Ann Hillyer, OceanCity.com
Your song California Rescue Me resonates with anybody who loves the ocean and has a favorite beach. And Ocean City is a beloved beach to millions of people.
Would you consider replacing California with Ocean City for one refrain at Sunday’s concert?
Jared Watson, Dirty Heads 14:57
It works. The syllable I’ll do the whole thing.
15:00
wanna celebrate the syllables? Totally works.
Ann Hillyer, OceanCity.com
That’s really cool!
Jared Watson, Dirty Heads 15:08
California Ocean City, I could totally do it.
Ann Hillyer, OceanCity.com
Okay, cool.
Well, I’ll have somebody there videoing you!
