“The music industry itself and path of a full-time musician is pretty ridiculous, in an “if you didn’t laugh you’d cry” sort of way; that’s a theme that runs through the entire EP and through this song especially,” candidly admits Tony Petersen of Ditchbird abut his new EP Some Dreams out 8/30.
Yet when listening to his new EP, one gets a rare mix of explosive electric guitar rock and punctuating indie-folk that summons references to some under-the-radar guitar folk hero. Yet based on his benumbed go-around with the lame music biz, Petersen just wants us to listen to the damn EP and get something fun out of it.
Petersen had barely finished creating Real Enough For You Now — the Minnesota native’s debut release as Ditchbird, a solo project launched after the pandemic brought his hard-touring indie rock band, Social Animals (Rise Records), to a temporary standstill — when he began writing songs for a more aggressive, rock-influenced follow-up.
“The name ‘Ditchbird’ sounds like a folk artist,” he says from his home studio in Minneapolis, where both Real Enough For You Now and the harder-hitting Some Dreams EP were recorded, “but I wanted to make sure people were aware that I’m not going to sing songs with an acoustic guitar on my couch forever. There’s nothing wrong with that, but I have more rock songs in me. It’s the sound I grew up hearing.”
Glide is premiering the hard-biting “Heads Up,” which swarms with crushing lyrics, stomping folk, and to finish it off- an acrobatic guitar solo. Ditchbird has cemented himself as an artist who refuses to be “soundcast” into a particular genre corner and instead raises his musical middle finger with a glorious take mixing both the electric and organic.
I was kind of poking fun at the absurdity of the music business, and the constant fishing that musicians do for approval and chasing some fleeting sense of coolness or fame. It’s earnest, too though, in a way: I started my own musical career as a Van Halen wannabe, and this track allows me to express a love I’ve always had for that kind of pyrotechnic guitar playing,” adds Petersen.
