Eclectic Swiss rock trio Dirty Sound Magnet recently shared their fourth full-length album, Dreaming In Dystopia, with the world via Wild Things Records.
The Everblack Podcast spoke to Stavros Dzodzos from DIRTY SOUND MAGNET about their latest album Dreaming In Dystopia and its different musical direction, the importance of meeting fans and possible 2024 Australian tour.
Watch/listen to the interview here:
Out now via Australian label Wild Thing Records, Dreaming In Dystopia is a kaleidoscopic rock odyssey that is as equally wrapped in the warmth of nostalgia as it is unique, weaving blues rock, prog, indie, psychedelic rock, and more into one vibrant and novel sonic tapestry. Dirty Sound Magnet’s achievements with this latest release are due in part to the band’s tireless work ethic and the unbreakable bonds forged between the three men who were brought together by a shared love of classic rock decades ago in the picturesque yet isolated Swiss countryside.
Since its founding in 2016, Dirty Sound Magnet has released three studio recordings, each melding the sounds of rock’s golden age with the genre-agnostic, experimentalism of today. Besides putting out this trilogy of records, the trio of Stavros Dzodzos (guitars, lead vocals), Marco Mottolini (bass, backing vocals), and Maxime Cosandey (drums, backing vocals, special effects) would go on to perform nearly 700 shows throughout Europe, UK, and Mexico. Thanks in part to this tireless work ethic and becoming known internationally for its mesmerizing live shows, Dirty Sound Magnet has, in just this short period of time, taken home the 2022 Swiss Live Talents award for ‘Best Swiss Rock Band’ and performed as support for various rock heavyweights including Wolfmother (AU), Rival Sons (US), and Monster Magnet (US).
While 2023’s Dreaming In Dystopia sits as Dirty Sound Magnets’ most wonderfully expansive release to date, it also represents the most introspective chapter in the band’s story so far, seeing the trio explore how despite the chaotic nature of the world we live, certain things like the profound power of music and the dedication to self-expression and elevation through it that Dirty Sound Magnet extols, have remained constant. It’s reflective in a way that allows Dirty Sound Magnet to not only express and iterate on its ever-evolving flavor of psychedelic rock but also puts into perspective just how far the trio has come as musicians and performers. Rather than revisiting the blistering, riff-stuffed hard-rock depicted in its prior two releases, Live Alert and DSM III, Dreaming In Dystopia instead opts to wave a vivid tapestry of harmonies, soundscapes, lush sonic textures informed by the late sixties and early seventies psychedelic and progressive rock that not only inspired Dirty Sound Magnet’s inception but a decades-spanning friendship between its three members that even long precedes Dirty Sound Magnet’s formation.
“Utopia”, the album’s fifth track, masterfully distills this notion into aural form, combining existential lyricism with the march of its psychedelia-laced instrumental, harkening back to Barrett-era Pink Floyd and The Mothers of Invention. Tying everything together, Dirty Sound Magnet pepper the bridge of “Utopia” with a spaghetti-western flavor evoking the legendary film scores of Ennio Morricone.
“From start to finish, ‘Dreaming In Dystopia’ has this decidedly European lean to it in terms of arrangements,” explains Dzodzos. “Something about a lot of the music coming out of Europe during that time lends itself very well to accentuating philosophical lyrical themes, which is something we very much embraced on this record.”
Dzodzos concludes; “Despite ‘Dreaming In Dystopia’ not being Dirty Sound Magnet you’d expect and yet it might be the album that resembles us the most. So much passion was put into making this record, yet at the same time, it all came together for us so naturally. It’s something that only the three of us together could pull off and an album that we’ll be proud of our entire life”.
Dirty Sound Magnet’s Dreaming In Dystopia is available now to listen on all major streaming platforms and to purchase on the Wild Thing Music Store.
https://ffm.to/dsm_
and at the Wild Thing Music Store
