[Editor's note: This feature previews Dirty Beaches' concert at The Waiting Room in Omaha on Monday. The other bands on the bill are Xiu Xiu and Father Murphy, and cover is $10 advance, $12 day of show.]
Alex Zhang Hungtai, Dirty Beaches' brainchild, dwells silently on the backburner of a lifestyle that is despondent and mysterious in the present, yet nostalgically canters back to the primordial era of rock ‘n’ roll. His debut LP Badlands openly channels the adolescent years of his father while harkening early Elvis Presley – if Presley’s rotting corpse emerged to the surface from the depths of his grave to spew a droning lull into a dark trajectory.
So with every new age artist emulating sounds of the past, there is bound to be a twist. For Hungtai, the twist is much darker.
“Music was always my passion when I was younger, but that was taken away from me when I left the states,” says Hungtai on his way out of Grand Rapids, Mich. “All of a sudden, I was removed from my so-called friends and left alone in a new environment, and music seemed so far away.”
Living a nomadic lifestyle between Taiwan, Honolulu, Montreal and Vancouver, Hungtai resorted to jobs that only made him feel “suicidal.” Music was definitely place a solace from those feelings, but it would take many years for it develop into a career. The first Dirty Beaches material surrounds this depiction of an alienated individual.
Hungtai correlates being on stage with a theatrical performance and writing music with role playing. It took years for Hungtai to know his father beyond his real estate profession. After understanding his passion for Elvis, Huntai had a new insight into his father and a central figure of his debut album, Badlands.
“The first approach was to create a fictional character that emulated my father,” Hungtai says. “That route didn’t work out at all and I was having a hard time orchestrating those ideas into a fictional character.”
Hungtai’s second approach, which was more suitable for the path of Badlands, sees his own self from a past touring perspective that personally relates to his father.
“The most accurate description I can think of was when I was looking into an infinity mirror and I noticed one of my reflections looking at me from a weird angle,” Hungtai says. “If you think about it in that aspect, that was and is me, but it’s not me — it’s only a reflection.”
The final product of Badlands incorporates the shrieks and love-pumps of Sun-era Elvis being layered with a lo-fi, deranged traveling subcontext reminiscent of Hungtai’s prior life.
The dissonant sounds of Dirty Beaches mixed with his love for film have opened the floodgates for opportunities to expand his musical endeavors beyond album releases. This year, Hungtai will produce soundtracks for three films, one of them being a documentary about Canada’s largest indoor waterpark, appropriately titled, Waterpark. The film is directed by Evan Prosofsky, who may be best known for directing the Grimes video "Oblivion."
“The soundtrack is not about me, it’s about the film,” Hungtai says. “I try to cater to the film and figure what best suits the picture. The film is actually very empty, but there is an overtone of ambience that I tried to create with sound.”
The two other films that Hungtai will lend his sound services to are a documentary about outward democracy in Japan and an Italian horror movie.
To follow suit, Dirty Beaches’ “Lone Runner” is a continuous shot of a haunting noir tale that more so plays out like a mini movie rather than a music video showcasing the band as the central theme.
“I met the filmmaker through a friend of a friend and he showcased me his work,” Hungtai says. “He did ask some questions about the meaning of the song, but decided to take a different approach on the video, which I really loved because it showed me his own interpretation of what the song meant to him.”
Dirty Beaches is now on the road supporting experimental rock group Xiu Xiu. The tour stops in Omaha Monday, May 21 at the Waiting Room Lounge with opener Father Murphy. More info on the show here.
As a performer and a fan of music, Hungtai is very appreciative to be able to share the stage with Xiu Xiu, band whose track record spans over a decade.
“Jamie (Stewart of Xiu Xiu) has been around for so long and plays his heart out every night, it’s almost like the quality of buzz that James Brown had going for him,” Hungtai says. “It’s really taxing as a performer and I don’t know how he does it.”
Dirty Beaches will be coming to Nebraska for the first time with a guest guitarist by his side. However, Dirty Beaches gained notoriety as a one-man band with a strong stage presence to fill a nearly empty stage.
“When you’re a one-man band, you have no choice but to ‘perform,’” Hungtai says. “Nowadays, I only play a backtrack and a guitar, and the rest is me singing my heart out. I get hostile reactions because it’s like some people want to pay to see someone perform, and some people want to see someone struggle on stage… you can’t please everyone.”
Steven is a Hear Nebraska contributor. He calls it like he seems 'em, and he thinks Alex Hungtai may be one of the coolest cats in rock 'n' roll right now. Reach Steven at stevena@hearnebraska.org.