Hard Rock Hell Radio host of The Rule Breakers Show, Charlotte, spoke with Brendon from rock band Wheatus at this year’s Download Festival, talking about the busy year they have had, the tour they embark on with Bowling For Soup this Fall and the real story behind writing their iconic single, Teenage Dirbag.

Charlotte: Welcome to Download! It was actually yesterday that you guys performed on the Avalanche Stage and I heard it was pretty chaotic with people trying to get in. It was manic.
Brendon: Yeah, it was crazy. I’ve seen pictures of people outside of us playing, but can’t see us at all. It’s just shot from outside the tent and it looks like it’s about two tents away from the tent, which would indicate that it was like 30,000 people trying to get in there, which sounds scary to me. But, it was fun.

C: And with your set being yesterday, you’ve had some time to take in Download and have a wander around if you managed to see any bands. How’s your Download experience been so far?
B: I haven’t yet. I snuck a selfie with Baby Metal. That’s who I really wanted to see while I was here, and we were playing at the same time that Mr Bungle was yesterday, so that’s annoying cause I’ve been wanting to see them since I was like 15. But, I think I’m gonna cruise around, I did catch a bit of Queens of the Stone Age yesterday, so that was really cool.

C: So some nice little highlights, you’ve managed to see some bits that you want.
B: And Bowling for Soup, of course, is playing later tomorrow, so we’re super excited about that.

C: This is actually the last stop of your European and UK appearances.
B: It is.
C: But you’ll be out on the road with Bowling for Soup, who you’ve just mentioned as well, a little bit later this year. So what can we look forward to from that? And what other appearances have you got lined up?
B: Well, we’ve never toured the States with them. We’ve toured here with them before. In 2007, we had a sold-out tour with Bowling for Soup that was really fun. I don’t know, we just go really well together. They’re one of the greatest rock bands I’ve ever seen live, it’s really fun to watch them. I learn a lot when I watch them play, so, it’s inspiring that way. But I think that we’re going to finally have a chance to rehearse because we’ve been on the road. I’ve been on the road since February 1, [with] four days off since then. So we’ve been touring the States and touring here and Australia, twice. So it’s been intense, this year has been crazy. But we’re gonna have some time off in July to get our act together in August as well, and then we’re gonna hit the road with Soup in September and rumor has it we might do it in another country. I’m not sure yet, but we’ll see.

C: Which other festival appearances have you got this summer?
B: We’re only doing a festival in a couple of them. We’re doing some American festivals in July and in August, so we’re kind of excited about that. But most of the time, we’re trying to keep July a little bit free so we can organize around, because, of course, next year, 2025, is our 25th anniversary of our first record, so we got to get ready for that. We got to prepare a new show and, you know, all that takes time. You can’t do it on the road. You got to do it at home and rehearse a little bit.

C: [For the Anniversary] Have you got anything exciting planned, obviously, you just mentioned a potential tour to celebrate 25 years since your debut album. So is there anything else that we can look forward to for that celebration?
B: Nothing that I can announce earlier than tomorrow.

C: So, as you’ve just mentioned, obviously this year’s 24 years since your debut, and I couldn’t have a catch-up with you without speaking about your classic single, Teenage Dirtbag. So can you just talk me through how you actually wrote that track? And did you expect it to still be in the mainstream 24 years later as it is now?
B: No, certainly not. Didn’t expect that. I had that riff in high school, and when I got down to writing the song, it was about 1994/95. I was trying to come up with a song that was a sort of identity for myself and for the person I was when I was ten years old and discovered music, or discovered what kind of music I liked, which at the time was ACDC. But to try and find that headspace where who I was in 1984, in the summer of 1984 made sense with who I was in the summer of 1995, you know, and try and draw the through line with a little narrative, a little poem. It’s a fantasy song. It’s not a real. It’s not autobiographical. But I wrote the first verse laying down on my futon in Queens, cheap apartment that I had for $250 a month. I was sleeping on the floor, and I was staring at the ceiling, thinking about Cindy Lauper and Metallica at the same time. I was just trying to experience both of those feelings at the same time. You know, merge the feeling of listening to Cindy Lauper and the feeling listening to Metallica to put them together. That’s how it came to be.

C: And the Iron Maiden reference, was that just a bit of a fluke or was there an intent to include?
B: Well, it’s a perfect vowel movement. You know, the words fit perfectly. Iron Maiden was always like, from my point of view, the first truly independent metal band that reached the big heights, that did their own thing. Sci-Fi, weird monster zombie music that was like really crazy hard to play. Also technically, like challenging, sort of progressive metal. They were the first to do stuff like that, I thought sort of Sci-Fi metal band, and also number of the beast, it’s the only song that this. Six, six, six, you know, it’s right there. It’s just like the best. But yeah, that was the reason they’re in there. I loved Iron Maiden, for many years, tried to play Rime the Ancient Mariner until I gave up because it was too hard, that kind of stuff.

C: Obviously, a few years ago, Teenage Dirtbag exploded over TikTok with the whole trend. Were there any specific favourite participants of that trend?
B: Sza did a really cool version. Are you talking about the tiktok not the covers?
C: Let’s talk about both!
B: Well, I like certain versions of the song. I like them all on some level because it’s very flattering to have somebody do that. But some of them really hit me in the heart. Phoebe Bridgers version hits me in the heart. Sza version. Hip hop artist from Chicago called Rod Wave, Rushton Kelly did a really nice one. As far as the TikToks are concerned, the one that really flattened me was Quincy Jones. I thought, oh, my God, how does he even know our music? Like, why would he know? And he’s the greatest producer of all time, arguably. So it’s just like, I can’t believe this man knows who I like. It’s just, what is this? You know, overwhelming sense of acknowledgement is crazy.

C: So in terms of music, you released a re-recorded version of your debut back in 2020. Is there any more releases or new music in the pipeline? I know we discussed, obviously, the 20th Anniversary
B: So the 20th-anniversary version of our first record is the original ten songs, plus the b sides from that era. Theres another ten songs that we had from over the years that kind of sounded like they belonged on that first record and we didn’t. That’s why we didn’t release them. We thought, oh, this is old. This is first album stuff. So we put all those songs on a 20-song version and we put that out, and that’s the newest music that we have currently, although we have three singles on streaming from our 7th studio album that we haven’t finished yet. One of them is called Lullaby, a sort of psychedelic metal jazz track.
Another one is called Tipsy, which was inspired by Liam Payne from One Direction conversation I had with him where he impressed me. He turned out to be a really conscientious young man, and another song called Michelle, that is on a live record that we released from touring America a couple of years ago. We are trying to finish that 7th album. We just haven’t had a chance to get into the studio to do it.

C: So maybe that’s a plan for the rest of this year, potentially.
B: No, because we’re going to be on the road too much. Maybe December, maybe. We’ll see.

C: So it’s a pretty hectic schedule between now and next year.
B: Absolutely hectic, yeah.

C: Well, I wish you all the best with it, and I’m sure we’ll be covering whatever you’ve got lined up at HRH Mag.
B: Thanks very much.

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