After years spent writing hits for other artists, Bridgend songwriter Corey Sanders is stepping out of the shadows as Dirty Blond – transforming heartbreak, honesty and male vulnerability into song. The perfect occasion for Antonia Levay to solicit an audience with Sanders.
Things have moved quickly for Corey Sanders. After years working quietly behind the scenes as a songwriter, the Bridgend-born musician is now finding himself at the centre of the story. His Dirty Blond project has attracted a rapidly growing audience, with its melancholic songs, soaring choruses and close three-part harmonies striking a nerve both online – debut EP So Long Baby was released in June – and in increasingly packed venues.
“The first few months were really intense,” he admits, speaking from Dublin during a run of shows. “I wasn’t used to being on this side of it. Now it has calmed down and we’re just doing what we’re doing, which is great.”
Sanders’ musical education began at school, encouraged by a teacher who recognised that he approached music instinctively. “She made a big impact on me,” he remembers. “She would give everyone else the sheet music, but she would make me learn it by ear. I still can’t read music now; it just feels like magic sometimes. I think, ‘That sounds good to me.’”
As a teenager, Sanders formed bands with schoolfriends and played Bridgend venues like Hobo’s, playing on local bills while relentlessly contacting potential managers. “I was about 16 or 17, emailing everybody I could,” he says. “Out of around 2,000 people, three got back to me – but one of them changed my life.”
That connection led him away from performing and into professional songwriting. While friends left for university, Sanders slept on couches and stayed with relatives in London, writing constantly until his first significant break arrived when he was 19. He subsequently built a successful career writing for others, including co-writing Calum Scott’s global hit You Are The Reason. Yet after nearly a decade in the shadows, the business and constant pursuit of the next song had begun to lose its appeal; Dirty Blond offered a way back to something personal.
The songs are unashamedly melancholic, in light of which Sanders is quick to clarify: “I’m happy, though!” Releasing such honest material initially brought embarrassment, nervousness and insecurity, yet the response to it revealed that the songs had become about far more than his own experiences.
“When I started putting out my truth, no one really asked me about me – everyone told me about them,” he says. “That was the nicest and coolest outcome. My experience isn’t unique, but hopefully the way I worded it was what someone needed to hear.”
That emotional openness feels particularly significant for male listeners, who are still frequently discouraged from discussing heartbreak, vulnerability or fear. “I always felt this way about love and life, but I was frustrated that I couldn’t let it out, especially in my hometown. I thought, ‘I’m just going to write what dudes actually feel, because we don’t always talk about it.’”
Messages from men who have found comfort in the music have become some of the most meaningful reactions Sanders has received. “The songs made their way to them and helped them feel a little less alone. Even if it’s only five or 10 messages, I think – I’m doing for someone else what music did for me.”
Live, Dirty Blond becomes a family affair, with the three-part harmonies provided by Sanders, his younger brother Tommy and close friend Mark Prendergast, guitarist of Kodaline. Raised on Bread, The Eagles, Neil Young and harmony-driven sounds, Sanders’ music carries echoes of Laurel Canyon and the warmth of 1970s American songwriting.
“My brother is my brother, so we communicate almost telepathically,” he says. “We grew up listening to the same things. Mark has this magic way of knowing exactly what the piano or guitar should do, and how everything fits together.”
Despite his rising profile, Sanders remains refreshingly uncertain about the machinery surrounding success. An album is being completed, with recording expected to start in October, and when he states an ambition to record a duet with Celine Dion he’s only partly joking. What is certain is his commitment to Wales.
“I love Tom Jones and the Stereophonics, but I would like more people to be on that list. There is so much heart, soul and talent in Wales – we need to put ourselves back on the map.”
For Sanders, however, success is not ultimately defined by numbers. “We’re trying to write songs that are true and share them, so everybody knows they’re not alone. The music is connecting with the people it is meant to find.”
Dirty Blond, Canopi, Cardiff, Sat 18 July
Tickets: £15. Info: here
words ANTONIA LEVAY
