...Dirty Keys!

With their I Wish My Brother George Was Here EP released on their bandcamp back in April, and a spate of free shows coming up, it's about time we were properly introduced to Glasgow's piano pop-rockers Dirty Keys. Here's vocalist and pianist Dave Gilles to fill us in...

Kowalskiy: Who are Dirty Keys?
Dave: Dirty Keys are a four piece piano pop/rock band from Glasgow, although none of us are from Glasgow. At least that's the starting point. The feature is piano, but we've got fuzzy bass and crunchy guitar, too. I started the band because I got fed up playing for everyone else's band; I was having fun, but my own ideas were going to waste. Specifically, I had all these piano-based bits of music, and a fairly good singing voice that no one was aware of, and felt it was time I took a crack at songwriting. The result is this weird kind of earnest/playful music that appears to be making people happy.

Kowalskiy: How would you describe 'your sound'?
Dave: Although we usually pitch the sound as piano pop/rock, our genre is debatable. I try to keep influences to a minimum (it keeps things fresh) but it's pretty obvious to anyone with ears that I'm a fan of Ben Folds and Randy Newman. There's a hell of a lot of hip-hop and punk rock in there too (though it doesn't really shine through in the few songs we have made publicly-available so far - refer to our live show). Some people hear a bit of Muse in there, but frankly the only Muse song that set my griddle on fire was 'Plug In Baby'. Talking about plugs, you can expect a hell of a lot from us in the future. We've just released this sweet, locally-produced music video:

Kowalskiy: What else can we expect from Dirty Keys in the future?
Dave: We're recording a Xmas 'single' soon, which we hope to have a similarly-quality music video produced for. We're being featured a bit on Subcity (I was on the Couch Club on Saturday morning, and Left of the Dial has been following our progress since we first started gigging). We've been trying to play special gigs up til now, but the plan is to play as many free shows as possible over the next few months, to get a bit of exposure to the random punters.

In their own words, they "need to be heard". They might just be on to something there!

Upcoming Gigs
17^th Oct - The Butterfly and the Pig, Glasgow (solo piano set)
28^th Oct - The 13th Note, Glasgow
5^th Nov - Capitol, Glasgow
20^th Nov - Pivo Pivo, Glasgow
17^th Dec - The Halt Bar, Glasgow