Artist: Dustbowl Revival
Hometown: Venice, California
Latest Album: Change Your Mind (released June 26, 2026)
Personal Nicknames (or rejected band names): The Atomic Mushroom Cloud of Love, The Colt 45s
(Editor’s Note: Answers supplied by Z. Lupetin.)
What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?
There was a full-circle moment when we got to open for the Preservation Hall Jazz Band out of New Orleans at the beautiful Ford Amphitheatre in LA. Seeing Del McCoury’s bluegrass band combine with that famous brass squad on a tour in 2008 or so was one of the foundational moments for us – most people thought we were crazy combining a string band and brass band – and being in that gorgeous canyon theater felt magical and surreal.
What other art forms – literature, film, dance, painting, etc. – inform your music?
Personally, I came out of university as a playwright and screenwriter hoping to break into Broadway and Hollywood telling stories. Being in a band turned out to be a much more direct way to write and have your voice heard. It’s a lonely world putting on plays in New York and LA and hoping ten folks might come. Music is the obsession that never went away and there are dialogues right in many of the songs – “Change Your Mind,” the title track of this new record, is case in point. It’s really about a relationship breaking own in real time and picking up the pieces as they fall. You can have a whole drama in one song and bring it to audiences instantly which I love.
What’s the toughest time you ever had writing a song?
“Mr. Steady” came right after I got home from the hospital when my daughter was born. I knew I had to process the horrifying events that led to my wife nearly losing her life (the birth triggered a rare syndrome), but this song was written down then hidden away for a long time. It was too raw – singing about a single parent telling their daughter what a cool mom she had and admitting that being the “stable and steady one” might be impossible. But maybe being honest about those dark days helped move me through it. And I adore how the strings recorded by our old fiddle player Connor Vance lift the song so beautifully.
What would a perfect day as an artist and creator look like to you?
Unlike many musicians, I tend to love the feeling of recording a song right after you learn it, like when you’re still in love with it and you’re white-knuckling it a bit through the changes, totally un-jaded, just going for it. Some of the songs on our new record like “Listen, Come On Try” are full of excitement and live-take fear – just hold on and nail it! I would love a day to write, record, and put out a song, no breaks! OK, maybe a good lunch in between.
Since food and music go so well together, what is your dream pairing of a meal and a musician?
I do get a bit crazy about finding the best food on the road. Korean specialities are my all time favorite. Maybe an epic KBBQ meet up with Paul McCartney would be fun? Hell, let’s get Paul and Bob Dylan together and let them chat over banchan – that would be heaven.
Photo Credit: Molly Hudelson
