Maria Connors

While the opportunity to perform live has been lost, the artists that used to be center-stage in Worcester’s concert scene have remained hard at work—and Dirtylaundry is no exception. Dirtylaundry has been making waves in Worcester since 2016, playing the kind of old-fashioned rock and roll that feeds off of the symbiotic energy of live shows. It might be easy, then, for a group like Dirtylaundry to be left in limbo during a global pandemic, but the band has been anything but unproductive. They released their newest single “Bubblegum” on Jan. 21. Bubblegum is available on all streaming platforms with a music video in the works and a highly anticipated debut album arriving in the coming months. 

Dirtylaundry is composed of frontman and guitar player Shane O’Dwyer, lead guitarist Owen Foster, Garret Moore on drums and bassist Daniel Tabojka. O’Dwyer and Moore are the two original members of Dirtylaundry, performing together since the band’s inception in 2016. Foster joined the group two years ago, with Tabojka following in the summer of 2020, already a longstanding member of Clock Out, a Worcester-based hardcore punk band. The evolution of Dirtylaundry has culminated in what O’Dwyer describes as a recent “rebranding” under new management, marked publicly by the release Bubblegum. Bubblegum is the lead single off of their debut album, which has an anticipated release sometime in the late spring or early summer. O’Dwyer and Foster describe quarantine as having been a period of valuable reflection, giving the band time to gain more focus and direction as they delve into a newer and larger project. “Coming together to play has been an escape,” O’Dwyer muses, countering this sentiment by saying, “financially, it sucks. These songs don’t pay for themselves.” 

The band’s current income is entirely dependent on streams from their single, now that the opportunity to perform live has been lost. The pandemic has also put the involved community of the Worcester music scene on hold, a disappointing reality to Dirtylaundry because, as O’Dwyer states, “the relationship we have with other local bands is phenomenal.” 

The band reflects nostalgically on the excitement of hosting house shows and the burgeoning dive bar scene that put them on the map. Artists are nothing if not adaptable, and this lack of physical connection between local musicians has inspired the creation of a zine to showcase the city’s bands. This project will have Dirtylaundry working in in collaboration with Wisdom & War, a Worcester-based hardcore band, to release a zine every two months with the hope of connecting local talent during a time of isolation. 

Despite many setbacks, Dirtylaundry is only looking to the future. O’Dwyer expresses, “we get to write as much as we can, so by the time Covid is over we’ll have a lot to offer.” The band is taking this time to grow closer as collaborators, particularly important with the newer arrangement of members. The slower pace of life has allowed them space to align their individual passions to create a more powerful, unified sense of artistic direction. Bubblegum is the ideal song to commemorate a new era of Dirtylaundry. The song is a thoughtful rock anthem reflecting on the illusion of sustained satisfaction, marked by a powerful chorus full to the brim with frustration and a sense of timely desperation, that melts into a steady, almost dragging drumbeat and echoing guitar riff that welcomes softer, more contemplative verses. Bubblegum is the perfect reintroduction for Dirtylaundry—meaningful lyrics, a melody that makes you move, and a sentiment that resonates with a deeply disillusioned generation.  

“The only way that we can truly identify ourselves is through our music,” O’Dwyer asserts, a promise that the passion behind Dirtylaundry’s work is steadfast. The band isn’t only interested in exploring their own creative impulses but is deeply concerned with the relationships created with their audience. O’Dwyer meditates on this sentiment, saying, “hopefully, someone can take what I put out and digest it the way that I did with the people that I look up to.” 

“That one song that gives you goosebumps is going to be ours someday,” adds Moore.

 Dirtylaundry is in the business of giving back to music what it gave to them, keenly aware of how their musical heroes have influenced the art they make. Dirtylaundry’s love for the music that raised them is love they are putting back into their own work, an artistic journey they are determined to continue for the rest of their careers.