On Thursday, DRTY BLND released her latest single “Bedroom”, which features an electronic pulse that will make you want to dance around your house in pajamas. The song was inspired by a night she spent with a lover, sleeping together on a mutual friend’s bedroom carpet while on a trip to Boston. As she further developed the lyrics, the song took on a more generalized narrative, becoming less about a particular instance and more about the exhilarating feeling of sexual tension and desire. Moreover, it addresses a commonplace dilemma for young adults and college students: trying to find intimate spaces while living an often communal, slightly nomadic dorm-to-dorm, lease-to-lease, hometown-to-hometown lifestyle. The echoed lyrics “Take me home tonight / I don’t want to leave this carpet / but I want our own bedroom” provide the song’s namesake, communicating the struggle of wanting to be alone with someone but not having a space that is fully yours.
Madison Sharp 
Madison Sharp
DRTY BLND is a rising indie pop artist who can be found playing venues around Nashville, Tennessee. Gianna and I grew up together in the San Francisco Bay Area and were rarely seen as one without the other (except for her summers spent gigging around Barcelona, Spain with her high school band). Our friend group gave her the nicknames G and Bones, but she has chosen to go by the moniker DRTY BLND for all music purposes. DRTY BLND not only refers to the color of her hair throughout her childhood (and now, to an extent), but also her presence: reckless and fiery, with a hint of mystery.
She currently resides in Nashville, where she is pursuing an undergraduate degree in psychology from Belmont University. While I often replay memories of her popping bottles of rosé Moscato on Northern California beaches and giggling at the dialogue of various sitcoms, I also have memories of her engaged in deeply analytical conversations, constantly dissecting topical concerns with each and every one of our peers. We share a star sign and the defining quality of a Virgo: completely unpacking and hyper-analyzing every situation, which is to say I’ve been on multiple ten-hour road trips with her and I can’t recall ever having a silent moment.
My poem about her and us, “ember warm,” carries themes of neglect and the idea of home. The question posed – “what is home?” – is meant to contrast the typical conception of a home with the conceptions of home that Gianna and I share. The poem concludes that one definition of home, for me, is being with her – listening to music too loud, searching for the most striking Bay Area vistas we can find, and generally stirring the pot. I am not sure what her definition of home is, but she has expressed that her upcoming work will address more difficult topics, and I have good reason to believe her childhood experiences may be one of them.
DRTY BLND hopes to release a full-length album by summer 2020. For now, you can stream “Bedroom” on Spotify and Apple Music.
The Dilettante 
You must be logged in to post a comment.