Q&A: Meet Durry, the Most Legendary Suburbans You’ll Ever Meet
IF YOU’RE LOOKING FOR FUN POP-PUNK HITS ABOUT TACO BELL AND NOSTALGIA — look no further. Formed by sibling duo Austin and Taryn Durry, Durry’s debut album, Suburban Legend, was released last month. The Minnesota-based siblings are clear proof of how much millennials and Gen Zers have in common, even if it does sometimes feel like they’re worlds apart.
At the start of the pandemic, Austin and his wife moved back to his parents’ house and became housemates once again with Taryn. After the cancellation of a tour with his former band, Coyote Kid, Austin threw himself into his creative element and got to work on some new projects, along with the Gen Z expertise of his sister. As songwriting progressed, the duo quickly became who we now know as Durry. The two brainstormed everything they could together, ranging from promotions and branding to merch.
The duo decided to post an unfinished version of their first song, “Who’s Laughing Now,” on TikTok, and the video quickly became a hit with thousands of viewers. Today, the song has over 4M hits on Spotify. “Who’s Laughing Now” and its coming-of-age themes encourage listeners to share how they relate to the lyrics.
Suburban Legend is the perfect album for both Gen Z and millennial generations. The band is inspired by pop, pop-punk, and alternative genres, which come through in plenty of head-banging and energetic tunes that explore the themes of suburbia, ambition, mental health, and even Taco Bell. With plans of a sold-out nationwide tour starting in November, Austin and Taryn hope to continue writing music that their listeners can relate to, especially when it comes to the realest moments.
Luna sat down with Durry to discuss the band’s influences, the thin line between Gen Z and millennials, and future plans for the sibling duo. Read the interview below.
LUNA: Tell me more about the background of how you became Durry.
AUSTIN: It all started with the pandemic and with my old band… All of our plans were getting canceled because of the shutdown. It inspired me to make totally different music, start over, and try something new. Because of the pandemic … both [Taryn and I were] in our parents’ house again. I started bouncing ideas off Taryn. Then, eventually, we realized that we [work] as a duo, and people seemed to like what we were doing. We made it official and became a band.
LUNA: How hard was it to adjust to the overnight fame?
AUSTIN: I’ve been in the music industry for so long with no real traction. Then we had this little moment of traction so I felt like we were prepared for whatever came next. We knew we had to jump on it and make a video as quickly as possible and try to capitalize on that little bit of virality that we had.
Then it was all about keeping the train going. There were definitely a couple of crazy overnight viral hits, but it was also about nurturing those moments and seeing what potentially could become a long career. The whole name of the game has been turning that one moment into many moments.
LUNA: Your debut album, Suburban Legend, was clearly inspired by nostalgia and suburban themes, but how has your hometown in Minnesota particularly inspired this album?
AUSTIN: Burnsville is the most unremarkable suburb. It’s very middle of the road, middle class, and it is the perfect stereotype of a suburb. Growing up, I always wanted to be in one of the cool bands from the city, and I thought that the suburbs were so sad and boring. That’s what a lot of the album is inspired by: trying to find beauty in mundane things while not overlooking all of the beautiful moments we have. We’re examining our shared childhood in our town, our communities, and our family.
TARYN: It’s also been cool to share those memories and experiences. Because we’re a sibling duo, we’ve had the same upbringing. We know the same things and we can make music about that. We’re more in sync than most band members would be.
LUNA: What did your dynamic look like as siblings before Durry was formed? In what ways have you grown closer?
TARYN: We have a pretty big age gap — there’s seven years between us. Because of that, we haven’t really been equals until recently, just because I had some growing up to do. But it’s been cool discovering our friendship for the first time in our lives because we’re in close quarters, working together. That’s something we haven’t been able to really find until now.
AUSTIN: It’s been really cool to restart our relationship because we can both just be adults now. I’ve really loved bringing Taryn into the world of music that I’ve been a part of for a long time.
LUNA: What is your favorite thing about working with your sibling?
TARYN: At least once a day we’ll do some dumb thing in perfect unison. We talk a lot about how our personalities are very similar. We’re both very ADHD, and we’re not necessarily complimentary but we’re the same. So when we’re working on stuff, it’s like having the same person, just doubled. Our brains just spit out the same things all the time.
AUSTIN: It’s funny, there are stupid mannerisms or phrases that our family said growing up that we spit out at the same time, too.
LUNA: I’m especially interested in learning more about how Suburban Legend conveys mental health messages and why you both wanted to write music about it.
AUSTIN: This whole album has been an experiment of just not sugarcoating anything. We wanted our audience to know that we’re not just spitting out good messages for the sake of good messages. We wanted some of them to be grounded in reality, and some of them to have some pain behind them. The song “I’m Fine” is the most obvious track that focuses on mental health. We’re trying to portray the facade of happiness while also giving the internal dialogue that’s a bit messed up. It sounds very chipper upfront, but underneath that, there’s dark stuff going on. As the song progresses, the darkness spills out and gets crazy.
LUNA: How does Taco Bell play a role in this album?
AUSTIN: The song “TKO” is about me and my wife, Ashley, who plays bass in the band, and it’s about the true story of our first date at Taco Bell. I wanted to pay for the meal and I couldn’t, but I married her anyway. It’s about insecurities and is written for people who feel like their partner is too good for them. It’s not quite a love song, but it’s more of a self-deprecating love song for people who are dating up.
LUNA: Who are some of your biggest musical influences, and how did they play a role in inspiring you to write Suburban Legend?
AUSTIN: Our number one is always Weezer. We both grew up hearing a lot of it from our older brothers, who exclusively listened to them. Along with them, we listened to a lot of early pop-punk influences. The White Stripes is also a big influence. I love how they do a lot of cool things with simple music, and that’s one thing we tried to emulate.
LUNA: How do you find the balance when trying to relate to both Gen Z and millennial audiences?
AUSTIN: Good question. We get asked, “How do you make it so relatable?” so often, and it’s truly just being real. It’s about writing human things. I’ll just write about my own life and my own feelings and then everyone else says, “You’re writing about me!” but I’m writing about me — we’re just all the same. Taryn has the Gen Z vision and helps the vision become more accessible in that world too. I feel like many differences between the two generations are super thin.
TARYN: I’m a Gen Z-millennial cusp so I feel like I’m getting the best of both worlds, and this is right up my alley.
LUNA: Tell me more about how you came up with the idea for the custom N64 case for your cassette.
AUSTIN: There was a whole eureka moment for me when we were returning an N64 game to a friend of ours that we had borrowed, and we were also giving them one of our cassettes. We had them stacked up on the table and I realized that they were the exact same size. From there, an avalanche of ideas all piled up, and ever since then it’s been my little pet project. Our whole brand is nerdiness, so it just fits.
With our branding including a lot of yellow, N64 cartridges are often yellow, so it just clicked. We connected it to our song “A Little Bit Lonely.” The sticker design came first because we needed someone to make the video game version of us, and then when we asked them to make a music video for us, it was like they had made an entire video game.
LUNA: What is something new that you’ve learned or are trying to balance after your overnight success? Are there any obstacles you face with it?
AUSTIN: This has been a learning process as we go. One thing I’ve realized is how DIY we are. I like to do everything myself, and there’s value in being able to look tutorials up on YouTube and learn a new program. I told myself that every time we make a music video, I’m gonna learn one new thing, we’re gonna get one new piece of gear and learn one new technique. Five videos later, we’ve got all this gear and new techniques and we know exactly what we’re doing. The ability to learn well is crucial, especially in creative spaces.
TARYN: That’s allowed us to stay in the creative driver’s seat, just because we’ve had more control and our hands are on all of it.
AUSTIN: It’s given us a really concise vision for the project as a whole, but [it] also gives us space to change things up as we go. We’ve scrapped whole videos before, and it’s free because we did it ourselves.
LUNA: I see that you’re currently on tour — congrats! How has that been so far, and what are you looking forward to the most about it?
AUSTIN: It’s been nuts. We just got back from Europe, and that trip was insane. We sold out every single show out there and it could not have gone better. We had a blast and we saw so many cool things. Now we’re home for a month and getting ready for this big US tour that starts in November. We’re looking forward to playing bigger rooms and selling out more shows, along with meeting our supporters.
TARYN: What was super cool about going to Europe was knowing that that was the first time we had played those songs since our album was released. It was surreal that everyone knew the words. Hearing massive crowds of people singing our lyrics was amazing. I think I’m most excited to hear our fans sing our lyrics along with us. It’s an overwhelming feeling.
LUNA: What has been your favorite song to perform live so far?
AUSTIN: My favorite has been “Bubble of My Gum.” It’s very acoustic … [slow] and mellow, but the whole crowd sings and it’s a beautiful moment. Everything else is heavy rock ’n’ roll, and then we take a little breather. A bunch of people have been using that song in their weddings, so it’s emotional for them when we perform it. It’s beautiful, and I’m happy we get to do that for them.
TARYN: “Suburban Legend” is a lot of fun, and it’s a nice powerhouse song to end with.
