Beach Combing
Dirty Beaches’ Alex Zhang Hungtai on Finding Inspiration
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Badlands, the full-length LP that Alex Zhang Hungtai, who records under the name Dirty Beaches, released earlier this year, was an album the artist never really expected anyone to hear.
The record was a big shift from his earlier work, and displayed a nostalgic 1950s and ‘60s rock ‘n’ roll sound, beneath layers of lo-fi. The shift in sound was something that Hungtai did for very personal reasons.
“For Badlands, I didn’t really care if it was going to be difficult because I didn’t expect it to be popular. I just wanted to make it happen. I knew what I wanted to make; I just wanted to make one album that was like that for my dad,” he explained. “It was personal. And originally it was just going to be a really small record.”
The huge attention that the album received in the music blogosphere was unexpected. “I didn’t know what to say, really,” admitted Hungtai. “I’m really happy, but it was a big surprise.”
Hungtai only began pursuing music seriously about five years ago, after a stint selling real estate that left him feeling creatively uninspired. “I made a conscious decision to go back to shitty part-time jobs, and making music because that’s what I love,” he said. “It was a ballsy decision but I knew I had to do it. I was getting suicidal.”
Badlands was as personal in its lyrical content as it was in its raison d’être, Hungtai said.
“I’m constantly finding new sources of inspiration. I don’t take influences solely from music, I also take it from everywhere else—my friends, my life. I think it’s hardest to create when you stop living your life. Then you have nothing to write about. You have to live your life with engagement and sincerity, so you always have these ideas coming in.”
The relationship between a musician and their music is a complicated one and many performers are often just that—performers putting on an act. But Hungtai believes that can only last for so long.
“I tried to make it purely fiction at first, but I find that really hard to continue, especially on tour, night after night. After about five shows, I would get really sick of these fiction-based lyrics. So I had to base all these songs on things that I had lived through.
“It’s like when you’re in one of those crazy amusement parks and they have an infinity mirror. And you look into it and you see an extension of yourself, but then if you think of it in a fictional way, those reflections are all you, but they’re not really you at the same time. That’s kind of how I see it.”
Even though Badlands presents a different side of Dirty Beaches, the trademarks are all still there: grainy lo-fi audio, ambient guitar strumming, haunting melodies and vocals and an ever-present feeling of nostalgia.
Hungtai, however, is ready to move on from Badlands. “I’ve been working on new stuff and it’s a lot more exciting for me because there’s no samples; I’m going back to what I used to do, which is programming machines, playing bass… I wrote everything myself,” he said. “It’ll be more rewarding for me, to be making this album for myself and not for my dad or anyone.”
*Dirty Beaches / Il Motore (179 Jean Talon St. W.) / Sept. 23 / 8:00 p.m. *
This article originally appeared in Volume 32, Issue 04, published September 20, 2011.
