The Dirty Nil: Free Rein To Passions

“As the guy out there singing the songs every night, I know there’s no chance; we’re not going to be the FOO FIGHTERS, we’re not going to be GREEN DAY, and that’s totally okay with me.” Luke Bentham, guitarist and vocalist of Ontario rockers THE DIRTY NIL, isn’t here to pull punches.

2021’s Fuck Art sent the Juno winners stock into the stratosphere, but drove Luke and drummer Kyle Fisher to disillusion. The suits were shouting for creative control, convinced they’d craft them into Canada’s biggest rock band since NICKELBACK.

“Our management were putting a ton of pressure on us to appeal to radio, and we don’t want to do any of that shit. We wanna make whatever we wanna make, and to hell with the rest of it,” shares Luke, defiantly throwing back the music industry’s calamitous curtain. “I think the scarcity of resources, the thinning of economic return, has caused more pressure from management to artists to play ball. We don’t want to play these carnival games in the music industry anymore. We’re still willing to kiss the babies and shake the hands, but our mission statement is to make as much music as we’re happy making, and be happy with our small in number but mighty in spirit fanbase.”

Refusing to “make decisions that are tantamount to pandering to the masses”, THE DIRTY NIL decided to “screw the radio” and ditch their management. Surrounding themselves with good friends – longtime producer John Goodmanson and new bassist Sam Tomlinson -, they’ve given up “giving a shit about trying to chase down IMAGINE DRAGONS fans, because they’re just not going to like our band, and why would they, they like music that plays in Walmart.”

This isn’t just posturing for punk rock’s sake though. THE DIRTY NIL have put their money where their mouth is and given Free Rein To Passions on their aptly-titled new album. From opener Celebration’s chokeslam of thrash, it’s clear all bets are off. In half an hour of power, the trio trip out on the music they love.

Take Celebration for starters, a song that celebrates our lives and the loved ones who fill them. Whilst lyrically it’s Luke showing the “appreciation owed to our partners for supporting us, and for weathering all of the craziness that the modern world is, with us”, it’s musically inspired by thrash metal force POWER TRIP, following the passing of frontman Riley Gale.

“POWER TRIP are one of the best bands of our time and we wanted to in some way pay humble tribute to an incredible band and incredible musician. We were just obsessed with Nightmare Logic, and I was living with a friend who knew Riley when he passed away, and that was the most impactful casualty of the pandemic for me,” admits Luke, colouring the conversation in a shade of blue, before sharing how Celebration is their way of raising a toast to Riley. “We immediately hung a big POWER TRIP flag in our practise space and made this crop of music with that banner literally hanging above our heads, so we used it as a bit of a northstar, like, does this rip enough?”

You’d be forgiven for thinking THE DIRTY NIL are forsaking good ‘ol fashioned rock ‘n’ roll, but Free Rein To Passions is far from just a thrash metal cassette. There’s songs to dance, mosh, sing, and scream too. And in the goosebump-inducing closer The Light The Void And Everything, a song to serenade someone to at the end of the world party. It’s a special song, and they know it, too. In fact, it’s how they knew they’d finally given Free Rein To Passions. Its subject matter is just as freeing spiritually as its music is sonically. Leaning into his existential tendencies, and world weariness, it posits the meaning of life before throwing it away, as Luke sings “do you believe in fairytales of heaven and beyond? What does life mean? Shut up baby, nothing at all”. For Luke, it comes from within.

“It was around the time where they were appealing Roe v Wade, and I was really upset about that, as many of us were and are, and I wanted to put my theory, my perspective, into a three minute pop song,” he says, having let the song become a stream of consciousness. “I’m a firmly antitheist, life is beautiful type guy; I’m more obsessed with Christopher Hitchens than I am with any rock and roll star; I was trying to channel my inner Hitchens as an admirer into a Roy Orbison-style ballad, having recently rewatched Blue Velvet. I think that everyone’s beliefs are their own personal ones, but I get extremely tired with the Christian right, and all that bullshit.”

THE DIRTY NIL could have done the devil’s work and become the biggest band the world has ever seen. Instead, they’ve stayed “signed up to the pirate’s life”, committed to “playing some shows, getting in our van and listening to some murder podcasts, stopping at some truckstops, browsing the Katana swords and seeing the world again.” Ultimately, that’s their message to the world: to go out there and find your version of that.

“That’s what life’s about; it’s not just about working for 60 years and dying. You gotta find out what is beautiful about life to you, and invest in it. That’s the message we’re trying to put out there, in whatever ways are available to you, because it’s a wide and beautiful world out there in terms of expression and creation and we want to encourage people to do that as much as possible, because what’s life without art.”

Free Rein To Passions is out now via Dine Alone Records.

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