On July 25, The Dirty Nil, aka dynamic duo vocalist/guitarist Luke Bentham and drummer Kyle Fisher, brought their trademark blistering rock and roll on The Lash. And this time, the two went back to basics in a simple studio set-up with local audio engineer Vince Solivari just down the street in their hometown of Hamilton, Ontario. Beyond this stripped-back approach, Fisher and Bentham sought out to make a record that made them feel “stoked,” and ignite feelings that returned them to day one. So, between their straight-forward attitudes and even a trip to Rome, The Dirty Nil arrived with 10 tracks of gritty, grunge-laced, face-melting rock—their best collection to date. And what more could you ever want?
idobi Radio had the chance to catch up with The Dirty Nil‘s frontman, Luke Bentham, while on a short break during their massive 2025 tour. Check out the full interview where the artist chats about his high school blood contract, the advice he’d offer his younger self, and the magic that made the “truest” Nil record to date.
This interview was edited for length and clarity.
With your trip to The Vatican, you were clearly inspired by what you saw for The Lash via the brutal pieces of Francesco Messina‘s The Horrors Of War. Did you also reckon with any spirituality, mortality during this time? Tell me a little bit more about that trip.
Yeah, when I found that series of bronze relics, it was markedly different from a lot of the other artwork that was in the Vatican—a lot of depictions of the crucifixion. You kind of just develop a bit of an appetite to see something else. These were equally, if not much more, moving pieces for me, personally. They didn’t depict Jesus. They depicted common people caught up in the gears of war. And it really moved me.
I certainly am a very secular person, so even the finest of brushstrokes won’t really shift my perspective on those kinds of things. But it was very moving and I think all the more so because I didn’t expect it to be, I didn’t expect to see something like that in the Vatican. I was fully prepared to see the Sistine Chapel and religious imagery. Seeing something so brutal and metallic and raw really was kind of the highlight of my trip to the Vatican. But for anybody that’s interested, I would highly recommend going to the Vatican, even if you’re not a particularly religious person.
Kyle did note that The Lash is akin to your therapy record. So, did you find any relief writing this record, and if so, what song felt the most therapeutic to write or just sing through?
I never feel very comfortable or fruitful [when] talking about the lyrics that I write, just because there’s not really a deeper meaning behind anything. It’s very stream-of-consciousness for me. I won’t deny that a lot of the times, particularly on this album, I went in with a lot of negativity and came out with a song and felt a lot better.
And so I think that that in and of itself has been a very important part of my life, and dealing with reality, in writing songs. But I think that whenever I try and sit down to write something…very little happens. I can’t sit around and wait for songs to happen because I’ll just…I just won’t do anything. So, I think that most of these songs kind of came from a place of feeling bad, and as cliche as it is, making something that made me feel really happy that I had gotten it down, and maybe captured a feeling inside me that I couldn’t verbalize as well.
But I think the most therapeutic one for me, or the one that kind of made me the happiest to get out, was probably “This Is Me Warning Ya.” I felt immensely stoked on it as soon as I had laid it down, I wasn’t thinking about the lyrics or anything. I just had my guitar and my voice notes, and I banged it out really quickly and felt awesome about it.
The other really therapeutic one was “Rock N’ Roll Band.” I don’t remember what was going on at that time, but there had been days and days and probably weeks of just not playing much rock and roll and having to navigate the more business side of [the music industry] through emails and Zoom meetings and conference calls. And it doesn’t even matter what had gotten me upset on that particular day, but I just picked up my guitar and plugged it in and I got the first kind of draft down and I showed it to Kyle…and he was really stoked. And that’s really what I’m living for… is trying to make Kyle stoked!
Yes, “Rock N’ Roll Band” does cover some of the rougher behind-the-scenes dealings of the music industry as a whole. What keeps you going through the burnout and through the tougher parts of touring life?
Well, I think the biggest thing keeping me going is that I just love it. And there’s no thrill like delivering a good show, or, especially, getting a new song together that you’re stoked about that nobody’s heard yet. It really fills me with a feeling of optimism toward the future. I think a big part of it for me is that Kyle and I signed a blood contract when we were 16. And so, here we are. I’m not a superstitious person, but there seems to be a longstanding power in signing our names in blood on a piece of paper when we were 16 years old. I think that the hardest periods for me with the band are when we’re at home for super extended periods, I think things start to get existential.
When I’m on the road, it might be hard at times and very hard at other times, but still, there’s a sense of purpose that I think we all get when we’re out there playing shows and moving from one town to the next, and crossing dates off the itinerary…accomplishing them. The troubadour aspect of it is very fulfilling. But there are parts that I love about being at home, and there are parts that I don’t like, and vice versa for touring. I think that we’ve been able to find a really happy place with our touring that has allowed us to kind of take on a pretty demanding schedule.
Now, you’ve been rocking with Dirty Nil since 2006. You’re almost ready to celebrate 20 years of the band. What would you tell your high school self about where you are now?
I would tell them, “Enjoy it!” I think that another part of rock and roll, and life in general, but specifically rock and roll is that…when things get really hard and challenging and demanding and stressful, I have this default position of “You just gotta get through this and then it’ll be okay.” But the thing is, there’s always a new nasty surprise in your future. That’s the very nature of life.
One of the things that I’m proud of myself for is that I’ve successfully been able to steer myself towards a place of accepting when things are hard and not seeking refuge in some sort of idea that “I just need to get to this and I just need to get through this.” Because at the end of the day, this is what it is. Rock and roll is a series of minor catastrophes and victories until you are dead.
So, you might as well just take it as it comes and more. I try to not defer my happiness the way I used to. So, that’s something that I would encourage my younger self to do. But, that being said, I still have enjoyed pretty much everything — even the gnarly parts of rock and roll and the less-than-savory side of it. I’ve enjoyed it all. And I wrote everything down, too, for the last 10 years when we really started touring hard. I would thank my younger self for writing everything down.
You are busy, busy, busy on an international run with Heart Attack Man. Do you have any road tips for staying in tip-top shape for such a long tour?
Noise-canceling headphones, I think, are a good investment. That would be my recommendation in terms of something you should invest in if you’re going on a two-month tour. But having your own little routine every day is crucial, too. So, I’ve definitely got one of those, and it serves me well.
You shared that this The Lash feels like the truest Nil record… what makes it feel so close to you and Kyle at this point in time?
Nil is the two of us. With our [2011] single, “Fuckin’ Up Young,” we recorded it at a cottage. We knew that, even though we had no fans of the band yet, we knew people were gonna like that song. We were excited about it. And we liked it. And we just kind of felt that same feeling going into this [album]. Since “Fuckin’ Up Young,” we’ve made a lot of records in increasingly more bougie studios. And that kind of culminated on the last one [Free Rein To Passions], where we went to a really, really nice studio. And a few days in, I was just like, I don’t think we need to do this anymore. We’re a rock band. We plug in and we do it, and then I record the vocals and we go home. You know?
I think that this time, we bet on ourselves [to] make a record that we’re really proud of in a much simpler studio down the street that we didn’t have to leave our hometown to do. I think it was kind of a return to that feeling rather than listening to or considering things like radio and chart performance and all that stuff. We didn’t care, we just made this one the same way that we made “Fuckin’ Up Young.” We set up the mics… and we did it. And we loved it the entire time! And that, to me, is the goal.
