Q&A: Culture Wars Release New Single “Typical Ways” and Tease Debut Album
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY KIMBERLY KAPELA ☆
Photography Credit: Eliot Lee
A RAW, HIGH-ENERGY LETTER TO THEIR FORMER SELVES — Austin-based rock band Culture Wars is making waves with their latest single, “Typical Ways”—a raw and unfiltered anthem that is a sneak peek into their upcoming debut record, if not now, when? Written by vocalist Alex Dugan as an “angry letter” to himself, the track’s belt-worthy chorus and undeniable angst serve as a rallying cry for a generation hungry for authenticity in rock music.
“I wrote ‘Typical Ways’ when I was not in a good mental state,” Dugan says. “I consider it an angry letter to my former self.” The song’s unrelenting energy and lyrical introspection cut deep, resonating with fans who crave vulnerability and intensity in their music.
This release follows the band’s successful supporting run in Mexico with Keane and stadium tours across Asia alongside Maroon 5, LANY, and The Script—a series of performances that solidified their growing global presence. At nearly every show, “Typical Ways” received some of the loudest cheers, proving its immediate impact on audiences worldwide.
With their if not now, when? album, Culture Wars is set to deliver a project that champions raw emotion and provocation, qualities often missing in today’s rock landscape. The band’s name itself suggests a tension between opposing forces—passion and restraint, melody and aggression—yet their music finds a way to make peace between them. Their high-energy sound and unapologetic approach make them a refreshing force in modern rock, one that refuses to settle for anything less than authenticity.
Photography Credit: Eliot Lee
LUNA: Welcome back and thank you for talking to Luna again. It's super exciting to have you back since the last time we talked about your single “Miley.” I would love to catch up and see how life has been treating you and what have you been up to since the last time we talked.
ALEX: A lot of touring has consumed our lives, but that's a great problem to have. We did LANY in Asia and Australia. We did Maroon Five in Asia. We did Amy Shark in Australia. We did The Cult in Canada. We did some stuff in the U.S.
LUNA: What inspires you to push boundaries within your sound? Are there any specific experiences, artists, or moments that have encouraged you to explore new musical territories?
ALEX: I think there's always something different on this album. I don't know that it was a specific band, but it was more just us being really hungry and wanting to push ourselves. Obviously Caleb [Contreras] and I spent a lot of time on that. On the writing side, Caleb and Dillon [Randolph] separately, spent a lot of time on the sounds of the guitars and the basses. David [Grayson] is the engine, as he called himself, he wanted to get back to just being a band. I think that's really what drove us. We thought if we're going to do that, we need really good songs, because we've got so many. I think that's enabled us to be less find the the sound that no one's ever heard before, and instead let's make really great songs, and then let the music create itself and just allow it. I was raised very Buddhist, just let it happen.
LUNA: You just released your latest single “Typical Ways” which is a sneak peek into your upcoming debut record. Can you walk us through the inspiration and the creative process behind bringing the single to life?
ALEX: I think this single has always been a weird thing for us, in the sense that it was written before we even knew we were going to do an album. It was written when I was still in Austin, pre-pandemic. It stemmed from Dillon coming up with the guitar part and the bass and pretty much all of it. He brought it to me and I loved the harder rock vibe. The verse and the chorus section was pretty immediate.
As soon as we did it, we went through this process of trying to discover what the new album is going to become, and a hard rock song was just not what we thought it was going to be, and yet it happened before. As we've gone through all this stuff, that song has just always stuck out. I almost had convinced myself it wasn't good anymore. Now we're realizing night after night that when we play it on tour, it gets the biggest response, even on even on a bad night, everybody wakes up out of nowhere. As a band, you always try to think what is going to work. Sometimes, you just have no idea. LANY is a very pop crowd, and it's not “Typical Ways,” and still with their crowd, night after night, loudest applause. We're just really excited for it.
LUNA: “Typical Ways” is a glimpse into your debut album if not now, when? What is the inspiration behind the project and what themes and emotions do you explore?
ALEX: It’s organic. Band first, band forward has always been the mission. When asked to come up with bands or records that we feel are in the wheelhouse of what we're trying to do, Third Eye Blind’s first record, and U2’s All That You Can’t Leave Behind, and Oasis’ first two records come to mind. It's very band forward, very where we used to be when Dave and I first started the band 12 years ago, which is kind of funny, we've taken a long way around. This is the sixth song of that album. I think it rounds it out. Going from a song like “Miley” to a song like “It Hurts” to “Typical Ways” is very wide. That's definitely where the album will keep going.
LUNA: I would love to touch more on the creative process behind if not now, when? What did a typical writing and recording session look like? Did you approach it differently compared to your previous work?
ALEX: We do things in a lot of different ways, so I'll try to put it together in a succinct way. Usually for this album, Caleb and I would work together, either in person or when I was living in Australia, over zoom together, we would write the basis of the song, essentially just one part, like a guitar and a vocal, and that's it. And one other thing is that we don't move forward, and we were really strict about that for a while. That has been the MO most of the time, and then we let the band build around it. In the case of “Typical Ways,” though, that's something that Dillon and I did separately and then the same process. But again, song first, just a guitar, just a vocal, that's it. “Miley,” being the only one where we built the track first, because it was built around the drums. That's how it started. So that's the exception of the rule. But again, song first, then let the band just play it out.
LUNA: Are there any moments or songs on the album that felt like breakthroughs in your artistry or personal growth?
ALEX: “Slowly” and “It Hurts” for a growth point. For both of them, they were songs that I figured out acoustically, and then it was pretty straightforward, and then the band all knew what they were doing immediately. Everyone learned their parts and practiced their parts before we even got in the studio. It was very efficient and certainly cheaper. We've learned to be more efficient with our time, with recording and showing up with everything ready to go. And the secondary part of that that I hadn't thought about until we were in Mexico doing press, it kicked in because they were asking about the music. I feel because we've gotten older and because we put so much work into it, there's just a different level of confidence in it, not because we're just being cocky, but because we're not trying to do anything. We're not trying to sound like anything. We're just doing what we want to do, and in that maturity of being comfortable with ourselves and comfortable with the music enables us to show our stylistic evolution more.
LUNA: What is your favorite song from if not now, when? and why do you love this song? Is there a certain element, lyric or message that you gravitate towards the most?
ALEX: “Slowly,” because that's more of a personal thing. It was the first time where I had done something acoustically on my own and knew I could do this. I remember being just petrified of showing it to anybody and showing it to Dave because of the possibility it gets shot down. It was at a time when we said that the album was done, so it was very much a not only did they like it, but they liked it enough to reopen the book, so to speak. It was a personal growth moment for me, more than anything else.
LUNA: What are you most excited for your listeners to take away from this era of your career?
ALEX: Aside from just the enjoyment factor, the people that have been through the growth of the band, we've been around for a while, but obviously everything always feels new. I hope they see are guys that they have watched make music for a while that are that finally figured it out. To me, maybe that's just a personal thing that no one else I'm going to connect with.
LUNA: How are you feeling in this current era of your career and what does the rest of the year look like for you that you would love to share with Luna?
ALEX: It's a lot of good problems to have. A lot of touring. I think, as an independent label, running our own business, this is the first time for this specific release, where I've felt pretty confident in the marketing and the touring. But it just feels like we finally got to a place where we're getting these opportunities that we always thought were beyond, like we're not there yet. Now we're opening gigs in stadiums which is insane. It's the first time where I felt very positive and I hope it translates. It's a nice feeling, and we hope to keep touring and we're looking at a lot of touring for the summer. It's just thing after thing. We feel very grateful and lucky, and we're just going to keep putting one foot in front of the other and managing being away from home. All good problems to have.
