Dierks Bentley is set to release his brand new studio album Black this week and he talked exclusively to us about album track Mardi Gras when we caught up with him ahead of his recent show at the Eventim Apollo in Hammersmith.
Fans will be familiar with several tracks from the record already but album track Mardi Gras is one that is likely to catch them off guard when they hear it on Friday. It’s a song that moves Dierks into new territory sonically and it features Trombone Shorty.
“I wrote (it) with Natalie Hemby and Steve Moakler. It was back in 2014 when I first started this process. Natalie brought that idea and I’ve been to Mardi Gras before,” Dierks revealed.
The song very nearly didn’t make it onto Black. “We started writing it and sometimes when you write a song you know it’s not connected to the record but you honour the process and you want to finish the song. Maybe it finds a new home and I didn’t think that would be on my new record.
We finished the song and everyone loved it. It’s one of those songs that stuck around forever. When we added to the brass to that I just really loved that because it felt totally different from anything else I’ve ever done.”
Explaining why the song is such a departure from the sound that fans expect to hear from him, Dierks told us, “The longer you do this and the more records you make, I’m just trying to find anything weird, different and cool that’s not expected – that’s exciting to me.”
The story of the song is in keeping with the relationship theme of Black. Dierks says, “The guy has always been in charge of the relationship or involved in deciding how it goes with whoever he’s with but at this point he doesn’t get to control that one. She just leaves him on the streets like the trash at Mardi Gras.”
Even though the premise for the song sounds like it may be a little downbeat, Dierks assures fans that’s not the case. “It’s a fun song too, there’s humour in it. It’s not like it’s a sad and depressing situation. I love the production on it, I just felt it was totally off the wall.”
Black is released on Friday 27th May 2016. Watch the recently released video for Black below:
[brid video=”38566″ player=”531″ title=”Dierks Bentley Black”]
