Music
The records
Out now
The Dirty Souls
the last seven · recorded together
- 1.Need Your Love
- 2.Shadow of a Doubt
- 3.Sympathy Tonight
- 4.Can't Keep Still
- 5.White Linen Dress
- 6.Old and Grey (Alternate Version)
- 7.Take Me Home (Stripped)
for Matt
The last music the band made with Matt, finished at last and out ten years to the day. Not the end of the story — there's more in the archive still to come — but this is the record Matt always wanted to make.
Tracks 1–6 recorded at Wizkid Sound, Atlanta, with engineer Rob Dyson. “Take Me Home (Stripped)” is the 2012 EP recording, cut at Real 2 Reel Studios in Jonesboro with Jonathan Beckner and remixed by Alex Slinin in 2026.
From the engineer
Six days after Matt died, Rob Dyson wrote about the band on his studio's blog. Wizkid Sound has since closed and the page is gone; it survives only in the Internet Archive.
After hearing of Matt Johnson's passing, I immediately regretted not having shared how much I enjoyed working with him on his music, and that I cherished the time we spent together both in the studio and later as friends. What I can do is share with the rest of the band, and do the same for other musicians I've been lucky to work with over the years.
I first met The Dirty Souls in August of 2013, after exchanging emails with Alex. They visited me at the studio, and a few days later I went to one of their rehearsals in East Atlanta where we had a few beers and talked about The Stones, The Beatles, and if I remember correctly, Aretha Franklin, James Brown, and Curtis Mayfield. After convincing them that I was more than just a weird English accent, we decided to record a few songs, one of them being “Sympathy Tonight”.
It was a true privilege to work with Matt and Adam and the rest of the band on their music. I loved recording Matt's vocals and working out parts with him. He put everything out there, and I think that's clear from the music.
My heart goes out to Adam, and all of Matt's family and friends.
The 2012 EP
We're Called The Dirty Souls— the band's first record, five songs cut between 2010 and 2012.
Liner notes · where the EP was made
- “Don't Mind At All,” “Take Me Home,” “Confession's Not for You” — Real 2 Reel Studios, Jonesboro, GA, co-owned by Collective Soul's Will Turpin — with Jonathan Beckner engineering
- “Concrete Shoes” — Killybegs Sound Recording, the studio of Adam McIntyre, frontman of Atlanta's The Pinx, cut in 2010 while the band was still a three-piece
- “Old and Grey” — the band's own basement in Atlanta
Cover art: downtown Atlanta drawn by Tim Degner, lettering by Mandy Holt.
Buy the music, fund the scholarship
Downloads are pay-what-you-want on Bandcamp. Every dollar we make goes to the Matt Johnson Music Scholarship.
Download on Bandcamp