Remember Teenage Dirtbag? Brendan B Brown Chats About Wheatus

It’s hard to believe it’s now been well over 20 years since Wheatus released their million-selling eponymously titled debut album as well as their still ubiquitous single Teenage Dirtbag. Yes, that’s right—"Dirtbag"  is no longer a teenager. In honour of this milestone, Wheatus will release a new specially expanded 20-track edition of their now classic debut long-player Wheatus on December 1, 2023. To celebrate the landmark, the six-piece are on an epic tour of the UK. We caught up with vocalist Brendan B. Brown to find out how it was all going...

Hi Brendan, how are you?

Good, thank you!

How's the tour going?

So far, it’s been amazing. Crowds have been rowdy in all the right ways. UK audiences have always been so good to us, and this is the longest we’ve been away since we started touring. It’s just incredibly joyful to be back.

It has been nearly a quarter of a century since Teenage Dirtbag. Did you ever think that the song would take you on such a massive journey?

I could have never imagined. I truly believe we’re the luckiest band in the whole world.

Thinking back, what were your ambitions for your debut album?

We certainly wanted people to hear it and hoped that it would make an impact... but even with a major label behind you, that’s never been a guarantee. It’s funny to think about now, but when it initially came out in America, it was considered a failure. It took a few months before UK audiences heard it, and the enthusiasm from this side of the pond was the thing that kept us going in those days.

Naturally, fans expect to hear the classics, so how do you balance your sets between albums?

We do our entire show totally by audience request. In between songs, we let people yell out what they want to hear, and that’s how we decide what to play next. We don’t even know what the first song of the night will be until we’re standing on stage. That helps ensure all the classics get played, and it also allows our more hardcore fans to call out deep cuts that we can pick and choose from. The audience gets what they want, and we never get bored playing the same set twice.

This year marked your musical return with a killer set of singles; does that mean an album is in the making?

Yes! We’ve re-recorded our debut album in full to regain control of our masters (the original masters are still owned by Sony, and they actually lost them some years ago), and alongside them we recorded ten “lost songs” that, for one reason or another, never got released before. The full twenty-song double album will be streaming on December 1st of this year, with vinyl and other special physical media to follow!

Tell us a little more about the songs: Wannabe Gangster and Dead Again...

Wannabe Gangstar was the most hip-hop-inspired track on our debut, and when doing the re-recording for the 2020 version, we tried to keep that spirit alive using vintage drum loops and huge bass tones. We tried our best to keep the spirit of the original while, maybe, making it sound SLIGHTLY better. And Dead Again was one of the oldest songs I ever wrote, from way back before Wheatus even existed. I recorded it with just acoustic guitar and Matthew, our bass player, doing layers of bowed upright bass. We tried to make it sound as huge as possible while still being very minimal. I was very proud of how that one turned out.

The industry has changed hugely since you debuted; how do you find the changes?

Generally speaking, we feel like we’ve survived the worst of times… functioning as a fully independent band used to seem like more of a compromise, but nowadays so many younger artists understand the value of self-releasing their music on platforms like Bandcamp, promoting themselves on TikTok, and building community on Discord. We feel more at home than ever.

You've toured and worked with some huge acts; who do you dream of working with still?

Oh boy, it’s a long list… hard to know where to begin. We just recently did a one-off back home with Dashboard Confessional, and it felt like SUCH a perfect musical fit. It would be a real treat to turn that into a proper tour.

Your former tour mates Busted have just re-released their Greatest Hits with a series of collaborative re-recordings. Would you consider doing something similar?

Wasn’t that a great idea? They were kind enough to ask us to join them on the re-record of Who’s David, and that was a real honour. Unfortunately, we just re-recorded our whole album without thinking of that first, but maybe it’s something we could do in the future!

And lastly, if you could achieve one more thing career-wise, what would it be?

If we ever got the chance to share a stage with AC/DC, I might never recover.