Gizmodo: When did you realize The Dirt Man had gone viral?
Vail: I guess thats like three days after I posted it.
I just started getting a ton of messages asking me to post it on Spotify.
Screenshot: Carter Vail / TikTok
And then someone recognized me in public and said, oh, youre the Dirt Man.
And I was like, okay, clearly this is one of the ones that does well.
Vail: There have been a couple through the last like four years that have gone really well.
This might be the biggest one or maybe the one that has had the most staying power.
Gizmodo: Its interesting to hear you say that youve already been recognized in public.
Vail: Its been overwhelmingly positive, thankfully.
But, you know, the stuff that you dont expect to work, that works really well.
But, yeah, people have loved it so far.
Vail: Someone did atalk box voice cover, which I thought was fun.
And we opened up an open-verse challenge so people can, like, expand upon the lore.
And, you know that just cracked me up.
Dirt Man#dirtman#talkbox@Carter Vail
Gizmodo: Thats very funny.
Have you been able to make any money from The Dirt Man?
Vail: [laughs] Uh… not enough.
So its more of a tool than an actual, like, money-making operation.
Gizmodo: Makes sense.
Do you have a day job, or do you make music full-time?
Vail: I make music full-time.
Gizmodo: And how long have you been doing that for?
Vail: In the last five or six years.
Vail: Yeah, I think its at almost 14 million on TikTok.
Gizmodo: And Instagram seems like its doing pretty well too.
I dont know what the view count is on that.
Vail: Yeah, a couple million… probably four or five.
Gizmodo: How do you feel about the potentialTikTok ban?
Does it concern you at all?
Though I think for humanity, maybe its a good thing to ban TikTok.
Im not too concerned about it.
Gizmodo: How did you get into music?
Whats your background that brought you to the music that you play today?
Vail: I have been doing music seriously for the last, probably, eight years.
I went to college for audio engineering and out of school I started working as a guitar pedal manufacturer.
A lot of soldering, and I had that job for two weeks and decided I absolutely hated it.
But yeah, I mean, my main thing is the serious music thats on Spotify, which is…
I just put on a song called Harder to Kill yesterday.
Gizmodo: Do you still make guitar pedals or is that something that was more of just a job?
Vail: It was a job.
Before that I had worked in some studios as like a repair guy.
Gizmodo: [laughs] So do you ever collaborate on production efforts or is it all you?
Weve done some stuff together, and thats kind of the most collaboration Ive done so far.
Gizmodo: How would you describe your musical style?
The Dirt Man has been stuck in my head for… For the music on Instagram and TikTok, I like to go through as many genres as possible.
Like, Id call Dirt Man bossa nova, but with like bedroom, lo-fi production elements.
It was half humiliating and frustrating and half really cool and exciting.
Both your more humorous stuff and your more serious stuff?
Vail: I think the biggest influences Ive had for both sides of it… Like, there are parts to Vampire Weekend that are definitely kind of funny.
And so I think that was the first time I got into like really funny music.
Gizmodo: I saw youre planning on doing a national tour soon.
Is that still in the works?
Have you worked out any cities or dates for that yet?
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