Dutch Interior on 10/28/25
By: Angie Marquez
A band that sounds like they’ve been living in a 17th-century surrealist painting for a bit too long, but in the best possible way, Dutch Interior. The sextet from Long Beach is composed of lifelong friends Jack Nugent (guitarist), Hayden Barton (drummer), Shane Barton (pianist/guitarist), Connor Reeves (guitarist), Noah Kurtz (guitarist), and Davis Stuart (bassist). The Southern Californian bunch crafts music with the energy of someone staring into a fruit bowl who suddenly realizes that deep, intense feelings can truly exist. Their music pushes listeners into a moment of recognition, making them realize that feeling is part of the formula for being a true human and that there shouldn’t be fear of owning it or holding back.
Their lyrics open a small door into a big world of strange, striking visuals, and during that you find yourself sitting and waiting inside a tower of emotion that Dutch Interior is carefully crafting and building beyond the clouds. Dutch Interior’s “ Freak Americana” approach runs on personal intuition, oddity, and a tight-knit dynamic that sets them apart from other bands that are within their special orbit. The bunch breaks genre boundaries with a deliberate quirkiness that is unusual but strangely nourishing. Indie, yes- but it mixes their indie sensibilities with something quietly cosmic, divine, contemplative, and more domestic. Their music is for the people who notice the angle of the moonlight and feel something about it. Who would’ve thought that their music could genuinely empty and feed your soul at the same time?
Interviewing Dutch Interior, we find ourselves in a deep dive, tugging on a loose thread that connects us to their world.
( Q&A Transcript)
Angie: So, thank you guys for meeting me. First of all, how are you guys, and how’s the tour been so far?
Hayden: Yeah, it’s been so great. It’s been really fun. Since it’s only our fifth show, it’s a little early on.
Jack: We’re still high energy. We had a break day at home. Three nights in a row at home (LA). We played San Diego Slept. Then day off, played a show, slept, day off, and then sf.
Angie: Do you guys have any favorite moments during the road so far? Any highlights?
Jack: LA. We were soundchecking, and Shohei Otani from the Dodgers hit a home run. And that was pretty fun; that whole game was crazy. During that show, that was the game where there were like 18 innings… 17 innings… Pretty sure it was 18 innings.
So it was a seven-and-a-half-hour game that went through the entire show, and it didn’t end until the entire set was over. In the green room, they had the laptop open, and everyone was just freaking out.
Hayden: My friend was coming up and showing me the score as I was sitting near my drums.
Jack: Yeah. Right when the show finished, the person in the front row flipped his phone at me, and I was like: Oh, my God!!
Shane: Still tied, haha!!! Three hours later.
Angie: That is actually insane, would you guys say you’re into sports?
Jack: Well, yeah, it’s all fun, and it was the World Series
Angie: Oh, that’s super sick! Now I have another question! I’m an Art History major at SJSU, and you guys are called Dutch Interior. That’s the name of a series of paintings done by Joan Míro. Were you guys named that intentionally? Or like, was it like a silly bit?
Noah: So it is intentional. Davis (Bassist) named it specifically after the series of paintings or something like the reinterpretation- a surrealist interpretation.
Angie: Considering that Dutch Interior (the art series) is surrealism, do you guys take the surrealist approach to your music and to your overall art? A lot of the music, visuals, and art you guys present are things that I’ve never really heard or seen before, and I admire what you have put out so far.
Jack: I’d say it’s not intentional
Noah: Okay. It definitely maybe wasn’t intentional, but just a natural happenstance of how we ended up developing the way we make our music. I don’t know, sort of like interpreting each other’s personal experience and songwriting and then coming together to create a new version.
Shane: Yes. I was just going to say, as many songwriters as we have, it could never just be one thing. It’s going to get kind of experimental when everyone has different tastes.
Jack: Yeah, so like how the paintings took a traditional subject and made it surreal.
There’s a similar way that we take traditional songwriting, but you see us get more experimental. And it looks good on paper.
Angie: Kindergarten (2021) is your first album, and it is a really great album, and it has such a unique approach. I’m curious about your early processes?
Jack: Yeah, that was literally just us during COVID in our living room, having all our musical equipment together on the floor and being bored. We all wrote our own music just for fun. Then we thought, what if we tried to record it?
Connor does a lot of the producing in the band, but early on, he brought his tape machine to record, and we would just look at each other and be like: “Okay, who has a song?”. And then we’d just track the song, and it was kind of like a whatever came out, came out kind of thing.
Shane: Yeah. We would use an 8-track tape Machine. That’s how we get a certain sound on songs we make. And that’s why the record sounds like that.
Noah: Connor was really into tape recording, and he brought that. I think none of us had really interacted with it very much. We brought the “Let’s not try super hard, let’s make fun songs on the eight-track” kinda vibe.
Shane: It was a lot of live recording
Noah: Yeah. And for me, that was like a completely new light on what recording can be and I’ve been making demos on it for a while. I think simplifying it that much was very inspiring to me. I think I’ve been building up the process slowly and not overstepping with what we’re using. It kind of defined how we made our music. It was really fun and really loose.
Jack: To us, we weren’t a band. We were just friends hanging out. And now we take that same idea and we do it in the official capacity.
Angie: So with the new single that just came out, is there gonna be a certain shift in terms of like, what you guys are gonna put out? Because I feel like every album that you guys have it’s been pretty much under the same umbrella, but it’s been so different. You guys seem to have so much range. So are we going to see more change and more experimental approaches?
Jack: Oh, totally. I think, like each sort of project we start work on, whether it’s an album or a single, we just try to take a different approach every time we make music.
So it’s not always going to be us sitting in the living room. We’ll try something else next time and try to improve the sound. And, you know, one day maybe we’ll regress the sound and we’ll in be in the studio, or you know, we’ll just try and keep experimenting. Whatever feels right kind of is what we kind of move towards, as far as like developing the sound.
Shane: Yeah, just keeps things interesting to try different things. I miss recording the tape.
Noah: We’ve been talking about what we’ve done well with Blinded by Fame (2023) a lot lately. And talking about simplifying our miking setups and going back to analog recording. There’s a world where we go back there, but, you know.
Shane: There’s a world where we go back to four-track records. To be honest, really anything.
Noah: I think the sound will always penetrate and evolve, and that’s what keeps it exciting for all of us. But it can always go back, and we can regress and change; it can go so many ways.
Angie: A few fun questions. Where’s the most unusual place you guys have written in music?
Shane: Okay, well, so, during the pandemic, before we were recording anything for Dutch, before the tape machine, I was writing songs in my front yard, but in a World War II era bunker. But it’s underneath my front yard. I wrote “It’s Smokey Outside and I’m Afraid” down there. Yeah, it’s this crazy cylindrical weird thing. Someone who lived there was worried about bombs; it was like the prepper style. There’s a bomb shelter down there. I’ve written a few songs down there; definitely a weird feeling.
Jack: I actually wrote “Cannibal Song” in Kyrgyzstan. It’s a small, quick phone recording. I went on a climbing expedition there, and we brought this little travel guitar along. And uhhh, I just came up with that chord progression, but I was like sitting around on the side of a fire, a little far out of the Ak-Su river. I was like 12 miles or so into the Himalayas.
I forgot that I have that recording, but it should be up online somewhere. I can send it to you if you’d like.
Angie: That’d be amazing, “Cannibal Song” is probably one of my favorites! I love playing your guys’ demos on air!
Do you guys have a favorite or least favorite song to perform?
Everyone: “Canada” is our favorite.
Angie: Great answer! I love the vocals and instrumentals on “Canada”. It’s such an intense song.
Hayden: We’re opening the show with it. But I think it shows our dynamic for sure. It’s very, very quiet. It’s a little louder live than the recording. It’s slow, a little more intense. I think the other two would agree with that (Connor and Davis)
Angie: Are there any songs that you guys struggle to play?
Shane: We’re pretty well practiced now. I know some that feel weird sometimes, but Sandcastle Molds was a hard one.
Angie: Ah, yes! The drumming is insane on that song, right? I feel like it’d be hard to play.
Jack: There’s a lot going on, especially on the drums. It’s just very sporadic. And if the venue sounds really good [ during sound check], “Sandcastle Molds” goes off, but if it sounds off…
Shane: I was about to say a bad sound situation for “Sandcastle Molds” is maybe worse than any other song.
Angie: Totally good point, it’s all about atmosphere.
Jack: I think my least favorite is “Cannibal Song.”
Angie: Oh, really, why?… I happen to like that one a lot.
Jack: I have a personal issue with “Cannibal Song.” I have been recently experimenting with my peddleboard. When we started playing that song, at the time, I had an amp that had a blue switch. Now I use 3 overdrive pedals with no blue switch. So when I play that song, I’ve been struggling a bit.
Angie: So here’s my last question: Top inspirations ever? It can be anything, Music or Non-Music.
Jack: Non-Music would be really fun
Hayden: Hmm… Aliens, and Red Wine!!!
Jack: I’m gonna say my friend Jordain Barton, who is a poet who used to live in Chicago. I did a winter class with her at university. She’s an Incredible poet and now lives in Paris. Her poetry has changed the way I write. And Montana, the state.
Noah: I think early on, I was super inspired by our bass player’s paintings. I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned this, but I really loved the way he approached his art. One of Davis’s Covid projects was this massive, like, six-foot-tall canvas that he oil-painted. It was literally hanging over us while we recorded Kindergarten (2021).
Shane: I would say Kings of Leon
Hayden: Shane’s garage… which is now an ADU.
Jack: Yeah, definitely Shane’s garage. It’s like a little house now.
Angie: Okay, great list!!! But besides that, that’s all I had for you guys today!!! Thank you so much for meeting with me. It’s been such a pleasure.
Many thanks to Jack, Hayden, Shane, and Noah for meeting with me and providing me with incredible insight into their band. A big thanks to Nick Ross for accompanying me!
I’m deeply grateful for such a great opportunity to meet and talk with creative and fascinating individuals.
Below, there is a link to a voice memo gifted to me by Jack Nugent, which contains the early works of “Cannibal Song”.
Wow! What a great interview! I love that KSJS provides these types of opportunities for us young creatives. I also liked that you were able to pull info from your SJSU major into finding out the meaning behind the band’s name.
I appreciate your work and dedication to the progression of the channel. I am one of the few RTVF major enrolled in ksjs. It make me extremely happy seeing how passionate people like you are for the Channel
This is such a great introduction to this band, and the interview gave a good look into the band’s creative process, as well as the members’ personalities. I am very curious how the band formed in the first place, that is always an interesting subject to me.
Awesome interview! I appreciate you guys bringing it back to artistic influences and how to effects the sound of the band. Thanks for tuning me onto some good new music!
I love all the pictures you took and the interview questions! I’d love to interview a band one day and post about it. How was it you got to talk to them? Such a cool opportunity you had!
Two things that stood out to me were how the band mixes a dreamy sound with personal feelings, and how they recorded on tape during COVID. It makes their music feel more real and unique. I’m curious what made them want to go back to using tape instead of digital recording.
Whoa, that voice memo is sick. I guess it really does pay to read blogs all the way through. Love that for KSJS. Looking forward to more interviews by Angie!
Hey, I really liked how descriptive your intro about the Dutch Interior was. It made me think how surreal this band’s music can be. What stood out in the interview to me was how the name of the band was intentional, but how surreal the art and song were not intentional just how they made music. I found this interesting because maybe they developed the band name based on how they made their music.
This interview was very interesting and a nice read overall. I wasn’t familiar to this band prior to reading this but after learning a bit of their style and some of their story I definitely plan on giving them a listen. Angie did a great job as an interviewer since all her questions yielded really informative and interesting responses, especially the recording a song in a WW2 bunker one.
For Dutch Interior: This blog was interesting reading because their whole band has young people in their group, but the style of music is more old fashioned. And their vibe is unmatched with all the other people getting into the music industry because it goes to this whole new wave of music instead of the original rap or hip hop type of music you might usually hear.
Wow, these guys sound awesome and glad I got your insight and a personal dialogue with the group themselves. I enjoyed how highly the band speaks of Shane’s garage
Two things that really stood out to me here were how thoughtful the interview felt and how much genuine passion came through when Dutch Interior talked about their creative process; it felt like more than just a “music promo” piece. The band’s reflections gave real insight into their motivations and artistry. I was also impressed by how they described blending different influences and sounds to create something unique, which makes me want to go listen to their full catalog.
This article did a wonderful job of helping me learn about this very interesting, and previously unknown band. Angie asked great questions and it felt like I was there when the conversation was going on. This story seems straight out of a movie scene with the band all being lifelong friends.
What stood out to me was the band’s origin story of recording on an 8-track tape machine in a living room during COVID. It highlights how limitations can actually fuel creativity and shape a unique “Freak Americana” sound. I also loved the detail about writing songs in a WWII bunker—it adds such a specific, moody context to their music. My question is: How do you think moving from analog tape to digital recording might change the “soul” of your future albums?
Fantastic interview! I liked how the questions were able to bring out the character in each member of the band and portray their relationship to one another as a big group of friends. They also make phenomenal music!
Loved the descriptive language you used when speaking about how their music feels and sounds, and the questions you asked were a perfect balance of abstract and insightful.
Will they be going on tour agin any time soon? and are they planing on getting more experimental in there next record?
I loved the Q&A questions! I haven’t heard of this band before but from what I’m reading without having heard a song yet I like their style and the artistic place that they’re coming from. It’s a very comprehensive interview. As someone in a band myself, I love hearing about people talking about their favorite and least favorite song to play because I feel like the answers can be pretty unexpected from listeners perspective.
I haven’t heard of Dutch Interior before, but without having heard a song yet I like the style of the band just from the description and interview with the band. The interview was really comprehensive! As a member of a band, it’s always interesting to me to hear about what bands favorite and least favorite songs to play are, because I feel like it is often unexpected from the listeners perspective. Will definitely be checking these guys out.
Great sit down interview Angie! I feel like the conversation was very free-flowing and natural. These guys seem pretty chill and down to earth. I liked reading about the weirdest place they’ve written a song. Definitely going to give these guys a listen.
Super interesting interview to read! I enjoyed how you asked a mix of “real” questions and fun ones. The way that they think about music really interests me, their list of inspirations especially. I listened to “Kindergarten” a bit ago and enjoyed it. I’ll need to dive into more of their recent stuff!