In the nine months since Tucson singer-songwriter Clay Dudash started his next chapter with his indie rock band The Manor Born, he’s released a six-song EP, gotten airplay on international radio stations and landed on some of Tucson’s most prestigious stages including Dusk Music Festival in November.
The members of Tucson post-punk band The Manor Born (from left, James Trivitt, Nick Kopff, Clay Dudash and Jeff Eagan) were together around six months when they landed a spot on the Dusk Music Festival stage in November.
On Friday, Dec. 18, he and the band will make their second appearance at the Rialto Theatre as part of Local Love Presents’ “Festivus” local band showcase.
“We're just happy to be asked back, and hopefully we make another good impression,” Dudash said.
Just how Dudash and his post-punk revivalist band went from zero to Dusk, one of the state’s largest indie rock/EDM festivals, and to the Rialto, a pinnacle of Tucson's indie music scene, is a credit to Dudash.
The 33-year-old, who grew up in Laughlin, Nevada, and has been involved in local bands since he moved to Tucson in 2011, is not one to quietly wait for the world to knock on his door.
“I'm not afraid of asking for help anymore, and I'm also not afraid of being told no,” he said, which could explain how he reached out to the folks at Dusk through LinkedIn about playing the festival in mid-November.
“It is just me not caring if people tell me no or not, because it's not that big of a deal,” he said. ”I'm trying to get the band out there.”
Dudash had a similar approach to landing the band its first Rialto show on Sept. 5, the same day their debut indie EP “see you next year” dropped. He messaged a guy he knew at the iconic downtown venue from the time Dudash played guitar in another Tucson band.
“I messaged him and said, ‘Hey, we're trying to really get our name out there and play, you know. Just keep us in mind’,” he recalled. “A week or two later, it was like, ‘Hey, we have a spot. Are you open to playing?’”
The September Rialto show was the first time all four members of The Manor Born — Dudash, James Trivitt, Nick Kopff and Jeff Eagan — performed a show together. In earlier gigs, it was sometimes two or three; for a few shows, it was just Dudash performing under the band’s name.
Frontman and band founder Clay Dudash, center, has taken his post-punk band The Manor Born from zero to some of Tucson's biggest stages.
“A few of us were nervous,” said Dudash, who had played the Rialto before but never as lead singer. “I was excited to … be able to play there and be singing stuff I wrote the lyrics for.”
The band’s EP has gotten positive reviews in a number of online music platforms including Earmilk, which said the recording makes an impression far bigger than its six songs over 19 minutes and 28 seconds.
"Collectively, the tracks paint youthful portraits of desire and self-exploration, each one distinct but connected, like dots across The Manor Born’s vision," Earmilk opined. "... The Manor Born’s ‘see you next year’ is at once a nod to indie’s golden era and a proud step forward for a band that is not content to be chained down by nostalgia."
Cage Riot said the band “delivers a stunning, emotionally charged EP with 'see you next year,' a masterclass in raw vulnerability and creative freedom,” while The Big Takeover said the record did not so much echo Dudash’s influences from early 2000s Brit rockers and post-punk revivalist bands (Bloc Party, Arctic Monkeys) as it reimagines that era “for a whole new age that flavours and fires everything that makes ‘see you next year’ so great.”
The EP, which Dudash wrote alone, came out after he released two singles — “Catch Up” and “In Memory” — last spring. He had written and recorded those songs for a previous band but they had never been released.
The band as a whole is writing its debut album, which Dudash said they will start recording in January. He hopes to release the album in the spring.
"The soup that we're making now has the more varied influences because everyone is writing together," he said, noting that the record will lean into indie rock with nods to post-punk.
Friday’s Local Love Presents show at the Rialto, 318 E. Congress St., starts at 7 p.m. Tickets are $10-$20.65 through rialtotheatre.com.
Also on the lineup: Damn Bullets, Daytrails, Hoplights, Znora and Desert Undertones.
