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Dayle Best
catches up with girl and boy band ‘Dirty Little Blondes’
whose folk music is taking them across the world.
F
ar from your typical girl next door
or boy riding on a waxed surfboard,
Dirty Little Blondes is a boy and girl
band that hails from sunny San Francisco.
Until recently, they were operating on a
shoestring but have now found themselves
outside of the box, playing a mini tour
around Asia. This entertaining duo de-
scribe themselves as ‘quirky and filled with
love’ and ‘create experiences that creates
smiles’ while their music lies somewhere
between Of Monsters and Men and The
Juno Soundtrack. Their YouTube vignettes
are unique, comical and somehow inform-
ative while their theatrical and lighthearted
live performances
prove that the only
thing that this mul-
ti-gender duo takes
seriously is creat-
ing from a place of
love. Living just half
a block from one
another, on San
Francisco's Lower
Heights,
Kendra
Moriah (KM) and
Mark
Sandusky
(MS) bumped into
each other at an
open mic ‘session’
in a local bar and
felt an instant chemistry. From this chance
meeting, a duo was formed.
MS:We eventually got together and played
some music after chatting only briefly, and
we were neighbours, how crazy is that?
Over a couple of weeks, we shared salad
bowls and got a few songs together. The
following week, we went back to the open
mic session and performed the songs to-
gether. We must have gone down well as
the hosts asked us to be the feature act
following a couple weeks. So what was
only a fun project had to get its act togeth-
er quickly, quite literally.
BM: Were you
taken seriously
when people first
heard you?
MS:
Well, we got
a little clever and
cute with the
name, as every-
one would always
comment on how
Californian
and
blonde we looked.
Technically, we're
dirty blondes, but
yeah we gelled and
had a sound.
BM: So was forming a duo something
you’ve always wanted to do?
MS:
In hindsight it may have been, duos
with the opposite sex have always ap-
pealed to me. I think it throws another
dynamic into the mix, with its energy and
phasing. We really dig anything folky, and
just love the likes of Bob Dylan, Simon &
Garfunkel, and song writing is our appeal. I
felt that dynamic on meeting Kendra.
BM: How is it being on the road?
KM:
We both enjoy being on the road and
it equally brings its creative edge towards
song writing. Our most recent outing was
a trip to Thailand. We took what change
we had, and made it over here.Why Thai-
land?We thought it would be inspirational
and an affordable place to get some writ-
ing done, play shows and explore.
BM: So has folk music always been your
thing?
KM:
Well, I grew up around it as did Mark.
Growing up in the ‘90s but listening to mu-
sic from the ‘60s.
Dirty Little Blondes
Coming Clean