#Localmusicmonday Tessa in Naked City Magazine.

#LOCALMUSICMONDAY- FEAT. DIRTY DERRINGER

Jessica McKim December 8, 2014

In preparation for this months installment of “A Night In Verse” at District House; this weeks #LocalMusicMonday features Dirty Derringer, a talented duo consisting of husband and wife Joey and Tessa House from Southeastern Oklahoma. We had the opportunity to chat with them a little and get to know them better. Make plans now to come out tomorrow (Dec. 9) and catch a free, all ages show from them, you don’t want to miss it.

NC: Joey and Tessa House of Dirty Derringer Tell us a little something about yourselves.

DD: We hate questionnaires! Haha! Just kidding! Well, our names are Joey and Tessa House (like a house you live in) and together we are Dirty Derringer. (Joey’s the Dirty… Tessa’s the Derringer ;)). We are a married couple who lives in Stonewall, Oklahoma – very recent move from Ada – and have been together for almost 4 years now, as a couple and as a musical duo. Tessa has lived in and around Ada all her life and Joey was born in Texas and moved to Ada when he was around 8 years old.

“We went to the same school, had the same friends, played in the same venues, and NEVER met each other until 2011. We like to joke that as he was walking into a room, I was walking out of it pretty much our whole lives.” – Tessa House

NC: Describe your music for someone who hasn’t heard it before.

DD: That’s kind of a tough one. We love just about every genre and play a little of everything. We are sort of a melting pot of music. He comes from a punk rock background and 90’s rock. He’s Matchbox 20 meets Tenacious D, Weezer, Amos Lee, and Blues Traveler. I come from more of a country background and 90’s women. Miranda Lambert meets Carrie Underwood, Katy Perry, Alanis Morissette, and Jewel. Put us together, mix in some Civil Wars and FUN and you get Dirty Derringer.

NC: How did you two start playing as a duo together? Does marriage make it easier or more difficult to be in a band with someone?

DD: Funny story. We were playing regular shows at the same venue but on different nights. He ended up coming to one of my shows one night and the rest is history. We have been playing together ever since. For us, marriage is a bonus. We get to do something we are both passionate about with our best friend. We rarely fight. Especially when we are making music. Everything just clicks. We have been in other bands, and some people aren’t so easy to work with, but I think it has nothing to do with being married or not, it has to do with the person you are making music with.

Being that you both had solo careers before joining forces, do you still write songs alone and then bring them to each other or do you write from scratch together?

We have written a few songs together, and one of us will usually have something they are thinking throwing around ideas for. We bring it to the other and build it together. But I think we have written more solo than together. When a song hits, sometimes you just have to get it out, no stopping for air.

NC: How do you write together? Does it happen in all possible ways, or is one of you more the lyricist, etc?

DD: Joey is more technical. He goes into tonics and harmonics and 5ths and all that jazz. I just let him do his thing. I’m more of a lyricist anyway.

NC: In many duos, particularly male and female, the attention can naturally go to the female. Is this true in your act and if so, how do you handle it?

DD: I think we have a really good balance of male/female songs. Most of our songs are duets, anyway, and if it’s not, we usually turn it into one. And if it is an all female or all male song, we always add some harmony, so we are both singing 98% of the time. He does, however, play the guitar way better than me, so he usually plays while we sing.

NC: What can people expect from one of your shows?

DD: Interaction between us and with the crowd, humor, sweet harmonies, nostalgia, passion, laughter, love. An all around good time. You never know what we will play at any given time and we love to feed off the feel of the crowd. We could be singing love ballads one minute and Tenacious D the next. You never know. We like to keep ‘em guessing.

NC: Outside of music, is there anything you two are actively involved in?

DD: Oh, man. Well, I think the biggest and most creative, other than music, would be our writing. We are published authors of The 11:11 Series, which is a zombie apocalypse book series – two novels and two short shorties in all for now. A Dead New World, The Human Condition, The Book of William Singer, and The Book of Dan Lynch. Horror is our passion as well as music, so naturally, when we started writing our first book, zombies came up. (And we love zombies so much that we had a zombie wedding!) We wrote the books alternating writing chapters. He would write one, and then I would write one, and so on. It kind of gives a different feel to our books than traditional writing. You get a different character prospective every chapter, along with a different writing style, so it feels like you are authentically jumping into a different character’s mind. I would say we write very well together. Being creative together is our strongest suit. (If you need to know, you can find our books on Amazon.com and Kindle under – authors – Tessa and Josef House.)

NC: For people who cannot make it down to Southeastern Oklahoma often, is there anywhere they can go to support your music?

​DD: We have a website and a facebook page! www.musicgigs.wix.com/dirtyderringer andwww.facebook.com/dirtyderringermusic. We have players installed so you can listen to us whenever you like!​ You can also keep up with us on Twitter @DirtyDerringer or on htttp://artistecard.com/DirtyDerringer

For Booking and more information please email dirtyderringer@gmail.com.

To see the interview on #NakedCityOKC's website, Naked City Magazine - Click here.