When the members of The Dip started recording in their Seattle studio nearly a decade ago, they had no idea that they would go on to earn rave reviews, play large festivals and score the No. 1 spot on Billboard magazine’s R&B Album chart.
“Our studio was an old converted nail salon that we had fixed up over the years,” recalled bandleader Tom Eddy of the group’s humble origins. “We had a six-track cassette recorder and a quarter-inch reel-to-reel, so we recorded it all analog to different widths of tape. It was a pretty laborious process—well, at least for us—but it was really fun. It took us a long time to get the right takes, and to have it sound good, and then mix it ourselves. So for the second record, we were like, let’s try to pass that off to some people who do that full time, so we can just focus on the writing and arranging and playing.”
In the years since, The Dip have toured relentlessly, playing a rapidly growing catalogue of originals, along with covers that, on any given night, might include funked-up versions of songs by Madonna, Eddie Floyd or Black Sabbath. Along the way, The Dip also developed an increasingly eclectic and less predictable sound, as evidenced by their 2024 album Love Direction.
“I think that this record was definitely an effort to sort of guide it away from the stuff that we originally started out doing,” Eddy said in a recent interview, referencing their earlier, more R&B-derived sound. “Having played that music for a number of years, we just wanted our music to be a vehicle for more interesting improvisation live, with more chords and more changes. It’s not like we’re trying to alienate people to a degree where they’re like, ‘What the hell is this shit?’ But we’re definitely trying to move in different directions and explore different sounds and colors. And there are so many great improvisers in our group. So I think that’s part of where that’s coming from.”
The band’s fourth album, Love Direction, also shows Eddy’s development as a songwriter, from the poignantly elegiac “Humble Hands,” which comes complete with upright bass line and beautiful harmonies, to the raucous “Head on a Swivel,” which is all about jealousy and bar fights.
“Having played that music for a number of years, we just wanted our music to be a vehicle for more interesting improvisation live, with more chords and more changes.”
“It’s got that small-town feeling,” Eddy said of the latter, “where you walk into a bar and you see all these people that have it out for you, like because of past loves that ended up on the rocks or people you owe money to. And you’re like well, this is the only place in town, so I got to be here. So you’ve got this emotionally intelligent song, and then the other is like, ‘Let’s get into the bar fight!’ But they’re both great songs—I think.”
The Dip’s origin story bears little resemblance to that of most bands. Vocalist/guitarist Eddy was renting a house with bassist Mark Hunter and drummer Jarret Katz in an alley not far from the University of Washington campus in Seattle.
Down the street, trumpeter Brennan Carter, tenor saxophonist Levi Gillis and baritone sax player Evan Smith, who were all enrolled in the university’s music program, would hang out on their balcony playing jazz.
Soon, Eddy, Hunter and Katz began playing around town as an electropop band, while their neighbors started playing jazz gigs. It was only a matter of time before the two trios converged and began playing as The Dip.
“Having seven people in the group is kind of a double-edged sword, because there’s a pretty big swath of musical interests,” Eddy said of the lineup, which now also includes a keyboardist. “We drew most of our musical vocabulary from R&B and jazz, but everyone’s got their own thing. Our baritone sax player’s very deep into some heavy classical stuff. I tend to gravitate toward Latin music and also Caribbean music like calypso and mento from the islands. I just love the joy of it, the percussion and those rhythms. That element hasn’t really made it into much of The Dip’s music, but maybe in the future. Who knows?”
What is certain is the fact that The Dip have developed a loyal following, not least because of their energetic live shows. They’ve toured Europe with Durand Jones & The Indications and shared stages with artists from a wide range of genres. Meanwhile, critics continue to call The Dip a soul band, something Eddy would never do himself.
“I think to label yourself as a soul band and be a bunch of white dudes, for the most part, is pretty fraught,” said Eddy, who sees it as a sign of disrespect to the artists and culture that brought that music to life. “To say that we’re influenced by soul music and we owe a lot to that music is very accurate. But it would be another thing for us to say we’re a soul band, because soul is an expression of black music. And I think it’s important to recognize that.”