THE REVEAL – A COOL INTERVIEW WITH BROTHER DUSTY AND JOSH
By Ralph Beauchamp
The Reveal is a three piece blues/funk/rock inspired juggernaut out of Nashville. The band recently released a new desert themed album entitled Hieroglyphics. The record delivers nine incredibly singular tracks that forge a whole new space in the aural universe. Combining elements of rock, hip hop, world and funk, The Reveal destroy musical genres in order to fabricate a unique sonic entity. Comprised of Brother Dusty (Vocals/Bass), Josh Norfleet (Guitar) and Ian Fleming (Drums), the group supplies brazen riffs, intoxicating vocals and a vibrant funk backbeat. Every song on Hieroglyphics is a monster. Each track uncovers cinematic features and fearless cadences.
Hieroglyphics opens with “My Chariot”. The song divulges a fat bottom and swirling guitar riffs coupled with in your face vocals. Brother Dusty’s manic intonations are spicy with a sensual edge. The entire track is a raving stomp. Other songs like “Sick Nasty” bear a ruthless fierceness. Norfleet’s guitar is funky and addictive. Fleming’s drums storm with a flaring vitality. “Sick Nasty” is merciless. Another gem is “Mama Don’t Know (Gypsy Lady)” which has a Chili Pepper groove. It’s has this enticing middle eastern flavor and imports an adventurous soundscape. “Sorry For The Ruckus” is spellbinding with an impetuous texture. Hieroglyphics establishes The Reveal as a band with a colossal future.
Brother Dusty and Josh Norfleet were kind enough to spend some time with AMP for this cool interview.
AMP: Can you give our readers a little background on the band?
BROTHER DUSTY: The band started with me and Josh a long time ago. We started playing together in high school. Eventually, we found out our dads used to jam together. Our jamming turned into an actual band. We moved as a band to Nashville after a few years. After we located, our lineup switched around several times. Arguably you can say that The Reveal has been in existence for about 10 years but in our current state, the band on this album, is about 3 years old.
We’ve been playing with Ian for a few years. He makes it feel like a whole new entity. So, depending on how you want to look at it, The Reveal is either 10 years old or just born a month ago. That’s when Hieroglyphics was released.
AMP: Your sound travels through many musical genres. How would you describe your music?
BROTHER DUSTY: It depends on who we are talking to. If people are just looking for references, we like saying, if Rage and Black Sabbath had a baby, that’s us. We also get a lot of people telling us we sound like a bunch of other groups like Primus, Chili Peppers, Jack White and The Black Keys. Without references, it’s a rock band that enters the realms of blues and funk. Sometime it gets Southern, sometimes it gets metal. In addition, Hieroglyphics is very desert influenced and multi-cultural. What we try to do is take a rock band sound and take it on a journey by adding every genre of music we love.
JOSH: We all grew up enjoying many different facets of music. Ian has a punk background. I grew up playing country and bluegrass. Brother Dusty listens to a lot of hip hop and rap but we all share a love of rock. I am rocking a James Gang shirt today. It all kind of meshes together in the end in order to create something authentic and real.
AMP: Your new album, Hieroglyphics, is simply raw and nasty. Can you give us some insights into the release?
BROTHER DUSTY: We got to the point where we needed to tour and all we had was our older material from previous lineups before Ian. When ian joined we played around town for about a year and then decided to go for an album. A lot of the songs had already been constructed. Josh and I were working on them for a while. We then thought it would be good idea to let some outside producers put their hands them. We wanted to see what it would be like and see how far the project could go.
Then we spent another year playing covers in every bar on Broadway. It was like 5 gigs a week. We took all that money and put back into studio time. After that we took a year off playing live shows in order to record the album with six different producers. For us, it felt like we were going back to school. All these producers had their own teaching styles. They all had their own techniques. Some were more hands on than others.
Once the album was done, we had to figure out our next step. So, we started building relationships with distributors, synch agencies and PR firms for about a year before Hieroglyphics was released. There has been a lot of behind the scene maneuvering. We understand how to play the game with social media content but we still wanted room to showcase our genuine art. We wanted our content to be high quality. Nothing just for the sake of exposure. We want it to be as real as possible and if that doesn’t work, we can start dancing on Tik Tok.
AMP: Your songwriting incorporates some really exotic flavors ala “Sick Nasty” and “Mama Don’t Know”. Where did that come from?
BROTHER DUSTY: It’s kind of interesting because the whole album has that style. “Mama Don’t Know” was the first song with that flavor. Originally, we were a riff driven blues band but somewhere down the line we began to evolve. I credit “Kashmir” by Zeppelin for that change. It’s a blues song but it has this mystical darkness to it. It has an illusion of a psychedelic fantasy world that makes you feel like you are in a desert.
For us, it’s a lot less about a specific culture or geographic location but more about a sound or feel of something exotic. How I did that was by looking up the double harmonic major scale because I like the guitar sound in gypsy flamenco and middle eastern music. I wanted to know how they achieved that specific tone. Because of that research I wrote an early version of “Mama” quite a few years ago. It was completely different in every fashion possible. I loved the tune so much, I couldn’t stop messing with it.
So, that song led me to write “Sorry For The Ruckus” and that feel infiltrated several other songs. By the time we got to Nashville. Josh and I knew we were a blues rock band but all of a sudden all these new groves began to creep in. We didn’t know if this was going to be our signature sound but we fell in love with it. I don’t think this is going to be the way The Reveal will always sound but it is really a cool phase. In addition, I don’t feel many bands are moving in this direction. It kind of give us a little edge.
JOSH: During our songwriting, each song kind of propelled the next one. So, there are some similarities but because we utilized so many different producers, Hieroglyphics has this musical variety. The producers gave each track its own character. Also, “Mama Don’t” and “Sick Nasty” play homage to artists and genres we admire. “Mama” – Red hot Chili Peppers and “Sick Nasty” our love of rock with an interesting twist.
BROTHER DUSTY: Another reason we delved into this alluring sound is due to my exploration of religion and mythology. While we were writing this album, I found myself going down a lot of rabbit holes in search of human origins and ancient beliefs. I looked for things like alchemy and ancient scriptures. This allowed me to use our music as an outlet for my curiosity.
I’m hoping that the esoteric value of Hieroglyphics, the artwork involved and some of the lyrics have our listeners experiencing their own journeys to far away places. I hope that we put enough sprinkles throughout the music to push fans to start launching their own questions. At the same time, we still want it to be a cool rock & roll album that you can dance to. The best of both worlds.
AMP: Who were some of your early influences?
BROTHER DUSTY: Everyone in the band has different ones. I think as a whole, we can say Rage Against The Machine, Black Sabbath, Chili Peppers and Jack White. Then there are the bands we get compared to all the time like Primus, Tool and Beastie Boys. We all have gone through phases, especially metal. For me, I had a big hip hop phase. Every song on the album where I rap comes from a different place. For example, “Sorry For The Ruckus” has a Wu-Tang kind of vibe.
AMP: If you could collaborate with any artist, past or present, who would it be and why?
JOSH: On the present side, I would say the coolest collab would be with Jack White because all three of us grew up listening to The White Stripes. Some of his music has definitely influenced our record. And since I’m a guitar player, Jimi Hendrix.
BROTHER DUSTY: I agree with Josh that Hendrix would be fun to jam with. Another one would have to be Tom Morello.
AMP: You guys are young dudes. I just want to know when did you sell your soul to the devil?
BROTHER DUSTY: (All Laughing) I don’t know. For me this is the only thing I truly love. In a general sense I have a life but this band is the only item on my priority list. Everything else is second. Some people think that selling your soul means a dark place with candles and a contract but for me it means just giving up everything for your art. I’ve been homeless twice not because I was a hobo but because it is expensive to play music and pay rent.
So, I made the choice of playing music instead of paying for lodging. When Josh and I moved to Nashville, we left family, friends, jobs and everything else behind. On a smaller scale, that’s like selling your soul.
JOSH: I agree. When we were still in Indiana, we collectively decided to take the plunge. That’s when they took our souls.
BROTHER DUSTY: You know, that’s a really good question because there are so many ways it can be answered. Josh grew up in a country/bluegrass family and when he found one of his relatives’ rock & roll CD stash, it changed his musical perspective. So, I’m saying that is when Josh sold his soul.
AMP: The band looks like it knows how to party. What’s the worst trouble you guys have been in?
BROTHER DUSTY: Me and Josh get pulled over a lot. Maybe 5-6 times in the last 13 years.
JOSH: But we never made it to jail!
BROTHER DUSTY: Individually we tend to get in trouble a bit more. I’ve been to jail twice for little weed but that was quite a while ago. We like to party but on a whole we are pretty good. Partying for us is more likely to be a social endeavor as opposed to be chemically influenced. We are not squares but none of us has had a crazy time of no control. Everything is in play within moderation as long as it isn’t expensive.
AMP: I was just in Nashville for the first time in 30 years. Is it always so crazy?
JOSH: Always!! There’s music 24/7, every day! Just the other night I was downtown after Vanderbilt beat Alabama. I think it was 40 years ago since that last happened. They took down the goalpost and brought it down to Broadway. Cars had to go through it because it was in the middle of the street. This town is insane.
AMP: What’s next for The Reveal?
JOSH: New music. I’m excited to write some new material. Hopefully it goes in a complete different direction. I want to show the world how we can create new original sounds that will take you on exciting quests and journeys.
Stream music: Spotify
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