The decade-long overnight success of Culture Wars

Currently unpacking the group's journey into the realms of recognition, he's countering the idea that they're new. The reality is, often, a new artist must develop an entire career before finding any semblance of recognition. It's something that the Austin-based band have come to terms with since forming in 2015.

"People are discovering us, Oh my God, these guys are brand new. It's like, no, we've been doing it for a fucking good minute,” he tells me. “It just takes time and practice – you learn from your mistakes, and eventually it starts clicking."

Grayson met vocalist Alex Dugan in a previous outfit, Zsu, that kick-started their journey. The two meeting reads like a self-fulfilling prophecy. Both born in different parts of Texas, Grayson first found drums in third grade and after trying out a kit at a friend's house, he was hooked. He eventually got a "big boy" kit at 12, and since then it's been a stream of playing with friends. Eventually heading to Austin and spending his college tuition money on a new kit instead of books, he'd go on to meet Dugan while bartending to make ends meet.

Dugan's story goes back further. "I've always been singing since I was in diapers, or wanting to do some version of that," he smiles. It was in high school that he began singing properly and set out chasing his band-life vision. His spark came from watching Blues Brothers 2000 as a young boy: "From the age of five, I wanted to be that kid," he explains. "I did all sorts of things like theatre and I ended up going to film school but being in a band eventually became the main landing point." Meeting Grayson allowed him to find a kindred spirit equally enamoured with the idea.

Rooted in jangling indie sonics, Zsu soon became The Vanity, an outfit even more devoted to the six strings. It wasn’t long before this wound up becoming just Dugan and Grayson as the pair became disenchanted with the repetitive nature of being just another guitar band, particularly after witnessing a New Order headline set at a festival in Texas. "My whole brain chemistry changed,” Dugan recalls. “It was just very much like, Okay, what we're doing now is not necessarily what I want to be doing."

The melodious and hard-edged sonic that Culture Wars have created is the product of the pair’s childhoods. Dugan's is rooted in his school commute listening to the sole two CDs in his dad's car – The Beatles Number One Hits and Jimi Hendrix Re-Experienced. Grayson's musical exposure comes entirely from being a 90s kid: "My mom only listened to 90s country – I could sing you every fucking Shania Twain song that you can think of, or taking us to school, she had the first TLC album too," he explains. He’d go on to grow a varied CD collection from AFI to Hanson.

Dugan elaborates more on explains their DNA: "We both grew up in Texas, but I'm from Houston, and we'd go to the rodeo every year, so with country music you either love it or you hate it and I always resented it, but it still has found its way into what we do," he admits. For the most part, they come from the school of mid-00s and 90s guitar-driven music, "Your U2s, your Kings of Leon, The Strokes, Oasis," Dugan lists.

Following a couple of singles to test the waters, Culture Wars' debut EP, Tech, came in 2021. Recording the EP at Sonic Ranch studios, where guitarists Josh Stirm Caleb Contreras were on production duties, both eventually melded into the Culture Wars lineup, and bassist Dillon Randolph rounded off the line-up. "Once we got Caleb and Josh in, it felt like, okay, this is who we've always been looking for. This is the band –after years and years. But look at Nirvana: Dave Grohl was the fifth drummer until it became that thing. So we've had a lot of turnover and stuff, until finding the right people." Grayson says.

What made this formation of the band stick longer than any of the previous projects, according to Dugan, is quite simple: "It's getting along with each other and wanting to make the same kind of music together, but the other side of it, frankly, is the work ethic thing. To make this work, you've got to have a specific level of grind in you," he continues. "Otherwise, it's not going to work." It's the same willingness that Dugan and Grayson had found in each other.

The pair have a yin-yang element to their relationship, which makes their creative endeavours rupture with determination and grit. "Alex is very glass half full, and I'm glass half empty," Grayson deadpans. He likens it to a married couple as much as brothers: "You can argue a lot, and we fight and other guys sometimes would be like, Oh my God, but it's like a family, you can say mean shit to each other, but the next day you're like, All right, where are we going to eat? Are we going to get a drink? I think it's good when you're able to just [talk with] brutal honesty. You need that honesty, because it's about keeping each other in check and essentially, if me and Alex are aligned, it flows a lot better."

Culture Wars have been readily ambitious in wanting to be big. The success that's started rolling in from the release of their early singles, and has been building up since, has been the prize their eyes have been on. "We've always gone about things differently," Grayson says. "We were never ashamed or tried to hide the fact that we want to be a big band and we want to do big tours."

It meant they never quite fit into a scene when they were finding their feet. Instead, they became self-reliant, jumping on support tours with the likes of The Script, and Maroon 5, and using their eagerness to keep ploughing forward. Which is why they never quite fit in at home. "We were never hipster enough, unfortunately," Dugan laughs. "A lot of those bands spend so much time trying to make it in Austin that they never make it out…and then it's kind of like, who can outdo each other, which doesn't necessarily translate to a larger audience. It can, and it has. But for us, it didn't make sense."

With that, the Culture Wars debut album – released last year – was a long time coming, not least because it's Dugan and Grayson's opening gambit in terms of the creative partnership. "Our debut album is called If Not Now Then When, because Dave and I were looking at the album, we're like, alright if this doesn't fucking work, we don't know what works," Dugan laughs. "Like, Fuck it, we're out. This is us. We're not doing anything else. We're just doing our own thing."

With each successive single finding a following on social media, they're now selling out their first run of headline shows in the US. It was a run in Mexico with Wallows that cemented that the hard work was finally paying off. Noticing the songs coming back at them, "I was like, Damn, we've never even been here," Dugan says. "That validation at least lets us know that we're not just full of ourselves, like, this is working on some level."

For all the time they've bided, Dugan and Grayson have come to hold the notion of ambition lightly. They may be reaching for the grandest stages ("Wembley Stadium, that's the kind of band we want to be," says Dugan), but what they hold as the jewel in their sights is longevity, more specifically, a life after death for their music. "Maybe that's an egotistical approach or something," Dugan says, "but maybe you can have some impression on other people."

Grayson follows a similar train of thought. "I think it's giving people a moment or memory or feeling like when they heard our music," he says. Referencing the ongoing Oasis reunion, which has transcended time, for all the gold and glory, being able to find true staying power is what Culture Wars are after. They want to embody the feeling of Grayson’s beloved 90s, to douse it in their sounds, and continue that evergreen idea: "It's like a time capsule, back in time when music was amazing and raw and real and nobody gave a fuck," Grayson says. "No one's just sitting there with their arms crossed, everyone's looking at each other and singing from the top of their lungs. That's what I've always wanted with our music and our band."

They say the third time's the charm, and for Dugan and Grayson, and the rest of Culture Wars, the hard work and patience are paying off, and the time is certainly now.