There are bands that grow old gracefully, soften the edges, polish the mythology and try to become respectable.
Then there are Dwarves.
For decades, Dwarves have been one of punk rock’s most infamous and impossible to neatly define forces. Punk, hardcore, garage rock, dirty pop, shock rock, heavy music, chaos, hooks, filth, humour and mythology have all been dragged through the same busted amplifier, and somehow, after all these years, Blag Dahlia and co are still kicking the door in with that same dangerous smirk.
Now Dwarves are back with JENKEM, out June 5 through Greedy Records, distributed by MVD. The new album is short, sharp, ugly, catchy and direct, tapping back into the faster and more aggressive side of the band while still carrying that strange Dwarves gift of hiding real songcraft underneath the wreckage.
I recently caught up with Blag Dahlia for Crannk to talk about the new record, the roots of Dwarves, the power of not censoring yourself, why the band never really fit into any scene, and why punk rock may need something new if it is going to keep moving forward.
The First Spark
Before we got into JENKEM, I wanted to go right back to the beginning and ask Blag about his earliest core musical memory. Not the first record bought just for the sake of trivia, but that first moment where music really hit him.
For Blag, it goes back to his seventh birthday.
“On my seventh birthday, my brother got me a single. It was Stevie Wonder, ‘Living For The City’. And I mean, to this day, I hear Stevie Wonder and it just brings me right back to my youth.”
That moment opened the door to a lifelong obsession with records, songwriting and live music. Blag spoke about seeing Angelic Upstarts, Frank Zappa, Minor Threat, Black Flag, Dead Kennedys and even Spinal Tap when the film came out. But while his tastes were broad early on, from jazz to Zappa to musicals, it was punk rock that gave him the key.
“I really never wanted to do anything else except be on stage and sing and do music,” Blag says. “I wasn’t that great at it. That’s why I love punk rock so much.”
Then came the Ramones.
“I heard the Ramones and it just changed my life. It was like, wait a minute, I can do this. I can play this. I can sing this. This makes sense to me.”
That discovery matters, because it sits right at the heart of what Dwarves became. Dwarves were never about musical gatekeeping or asking permission. They were about taking the thing, twisting it into their own shape, and doing it whether anyone approved or not.
Chicago, California And Fighting For Everything
Blag grew up around Chicago, and Dwarves came out of Highland Park before the band became more closely associated with San Francisco. In the interview, he spoke about playing his first show at the Cubby Bear Lounge in 1983 and what that Illinois background gave him.
“Chicago was definitely like, it wasn’t like everybody was patting you on the back to play in a rock band,” he says. “It was more like a bunch of assholes going, get a job.”
That might not sound like encouragement, but for Blag it helped shape the attitude that carried through Dwarves from the beginning.
“I think coming from Illinois really gave me the sense of like, nobody gives you anything. They don’t give a fuck. Whatever you get, you’re going to fight for and work for.”
That sense of having to fight for every inch is all over Dwarves. The band never moved like a group waiting for industry permission. They made their own rules, broke a few more on the way through, and built a reputation that was as much about resistance as it was about sound.
Not Trying To Shock, Just Not Censoring Themselves
Dwarves have always carried a reputation for provocation. The covers, the lyrics, the live shows, the interviews, the mythology and the chaos around the band have all fed into that. But Blag made an important distinction during our chat. From his point of view, the band were not sitting around calculating how to shock people. They were just refusing to filter themselves before the song even existed.
“I wasn’t trying to shock people,” he says. “I just communicate what’s in my brain. It’s other people who censor themselves before they even start.”
That might be one of the clearest ways to understand Dwarves. The band’s reputation is real, but underneath it is a very simple punk rock idea: say the thing, make the song, play what you want, and let everyone else deal with their own reaction.
That freedom also carried into genre. Blag talked about loving hip hop records and folding different sounds into Dwarves because he wanted to, not because it fit someone else’s idea of what the band was allowed to be.
“That’s really punk rock’s essence, I think, is just freedom to do whatever you want,” he says.
JENKEM And The Joy Of Making A Punk Record
Across the last couple of decades, Dwarves have jumped through punk, pop, hardcore, hip hop, rock and whatever else felt right in the moment. Blag described the last 25 years of the band as an extended period of genre hopping, with records that would jump from sweet pop punk to unlistenable noise to speed metal to mid tempo rock.
But with JENKEM, the idea was simpler.
“When it came time to do this one, it was just like, let’s just knock out a punk record. Let’s just do it.”
That directness is exactly what makes JENKEM hit the way it does. It does not hang around. It does not try to dress itself up as something grander. It is fast, filthy, lean and built to land.
Of course, because this is Dwarves, even the simple punk record has a thumb in the eye.
Right in the middle of making the album, Blag wrote what he described as “this kind of mid tempo 80s rock kind of hit song” and immediately knew it had to become the single.
“That’s ‘Damned If I Do’,” he says. “We made this video for it. It’s very kind of Hollywood with chicks and big production value. There’s always some weird thumb in your eye with the Dwarves that doesn’t make sense.”
That is exactly the point. Dwarves can make a straight ahead punk record and still throw something sideways into the middle of it just to see who twitches.
The Wu Tang Clan Of Punk
One of the best lines of the whole interview came when we were talking about the way Dwarves operate. They have never really felt like a fixed, traditional lineup in the usual sense. They have always moved more like a dangerous travelling organism, built around songs, attitude, personalities and whoever is part of the chaos at the time.
Blag had the perfect description.
“We’re the Wu Tang Clan of punk.”
And honestly, it fits.
Dwarves have always had a wide cast of contributors, writers, musicians and collaborators moving through the machine. That is part of why the records do not all sound the same. The attitude is consistent, but the shape keeps changing.
Blag also spoke warmly about working with Andy Carpenter (Supersuckers, Strung Out, Screeching Weasel), who recorded and mixed JENKEM and has been part of Blag’s creative orbit for around 15 years.
“Andy, I’ve just come to rely on him a lot. He’s just got an amazing ear, and he too writes songs. Once he made enough Dwarves records, he’s like, oh, I’ll write a Dwarves song.”
That collaborative looseness helps explain why Dwarves have avoided fossilising. Blag is still moving through genres outside of Dwarves as well, including Ralph Champagne and the hip hop project Big Dick Hustlers with Z Man and Mickey Avalon.
“When you keep doing the same thing, you fossilize,” he says.
Australia, Rock And Roll And The Spirit Of Fun
Blag also had plenty of love for Australia, looking back on Dwarves’ past visits and the band’s 2024 run with Me First and the Gimme Gimmes.
“We’ve played Australia probably a half a dozen times, and I always just have such a great time there,” he says. “The people there are so wonderful. It’s just a great place, and the crowds are great.”
He spoke about playing acoustic shows in record stores, meeting fans, and feeling a different kind of rock and roll spirit here.
“There’s just a spirit to Australia that is very special. It reminds me of America before everybody got scared of everybody else.”
That line says a lot. For Blag, rock and roll still seems connected to fun, danger, looseness and human connection. That came through again and again in the interview. He did not get into rock and roll to cry. He got into it to make something alive.
Touring Across Worlds
The JENKEM tour run puts Dwarves across an incredible spread of worlds, from Screeching Weasel to Eyehategod, The Exploited, Total Chaos, Hellfest, Obscene Extreme, Sjock Fest, Punk Rock Raduno and more.
For some bands, that kind of spread would feel confusing. For Dwarves, it makes perfect sense.
“I love traversing all those different worlds and being able to have the Dwarves touch them and then move on,” Blag says.
That has always been part of the band’s strange power. They were too punk for some crowds, too pop for others, too filthy for the polite rooms, too hooky to be dismissed as pure noise, and too funny to ever be fully absorbed by serious rock culture. That outsider position could have killed a lesser band. For Dwarves, it became the whole engine.
A Blueprint For Freedom
When we got onto legacy, Blag was clear that Dwarves were never the biggest band in the world. They did not have the giant mainstream machine behind them. But influence is not always measured by numbers alone.
The deeper impact of Dwarves comes from the freedom they showed other bands.
“Bands would always play with us and just be like, wow, you guys really don’t give a fuck, do you?” Blag says. “You guys really just play what you want and do what you want.”
That might be the most honest Dwarves legacy. Not respectability. Not polish. Not cleaning up the story so it can sit nicely in a documentary box. Just freedom.
“You kind of give a blueprint for freedom,” Blag says. “And if you’re smart enough to pick it up, then you pick it up.”
What Still Feels Punk In 2026?
Toward the end of the conversation, I asked Blag what still feels genuinely punk in 2026. His answer was not about fashion, nostalgia or recreating an old scene.
“You know, man, I still think that it all revolves around sex and drugs and violence and the basic human things,” he says. “All art really touches back to that. The human element.”
In a world where AI is creeping into music and art, Blag sees the need for something that still feels real. But he also does not want punk to become a museum piece.
“Hopefully punk rock doesn’t have a future, because I think young people have to find something new,” he says. “Rock and roll had its time, punk had its time, hip hop had its time, and now we need something else.”
That is a very Blag answer. Honest, funny, sharp and completely uninterested in protecting punk as a sacred relic. If punk ever meant anything, it was because it broke from what came before. So maybe the most punk thing the next generation can do is not copy punk at all.
Dwarves Will Never Let You Down
At the end of our chat, Blag left it in the most fitting way possible.
“Dwarves will never let you down. JENKEM’s the record. Damned If I Do’s the single. Rock that shit.”
That says it all.
JENKEM is out June 5 through Greedy Records, distributed by MVD. It is fast, filthy, direct and packed with exactly the kind of hooks, attitude and sideways thinking that have kept Dwarves dangerous for decades.
Dwarves – JENKEM
Out June 5 via Greedy Records / MVD
Pre-save / Order JENKEM: https://found.ee/dwarves_jenkem
Dwarves Official Site: https://thedwarves.com
The Dwarves Are — Snupac, Rex Everything, The Fresh Prince of Darkness, Mike Pygmie, Ginger, Andy Now, Sgt. Saltpeter & Blag Jesus
TOUR DATES
U.S. Dates
06/12 — Austin, TX @ Austin Noise Fest w/ Prong
06/13 — Dallas, TX @ Dusty’s
06/14 — San Francisco, CA @ Bottom of the Hill w/ The Pandoras
Europe & U.K. Dates
06/17 — Barcelona, ES @ Razzmatazz 3
06/18 — Valencia, ES @ 16 Toneladas
06/19 — Vitoria, ES @ Azkena Rock Festival
06/20 — Tours, FR @ Bateau Ivre w/ Eye Hate God (Free Show)
06/21 — Clisson, FR @ Hellfest
06/23 — Utrecht, NL @ DB
06/24 — Düsseldorf, DE @ Pitcher
06/25 — Haarlem, NL @ Patronaat w/ Eye Hate God
06/26 — Ysselstyn, NL @ Jera On Air
06/26 — Deventer, NL @ Burgerweeshuis w/ Truckfighters
06/27 — Hamburg, DE @ Hedi (2 Sets)
06/28 — Berlin, DE @ BiNuu w/ Eye Hate God
06/29 — Regensburg, DE @ Alte Mälzerei w/ Eye Hate God
07/01 — Trutnov, CZ @ Obscene Extreme Festival
07/02 — Brno, CZ @ Kabinet
07/03 — Zabok, HR @ Regenerator
07/04 — Pula, HR @ Monteparadiso w/ Eye Hate God
07/05 — Treviso, IT @ Nomad (Free Show)
07/08 — Athens, GR @ Gazarte Ground Stage
07/09 — Prolsdorf, DE @ Krach am Bach Festival
07/10 — Stuttgart, DE @ Goldmarks
07/11 — Essen, DE @ Don’t Panic
07/12 — Gierle, BE @ Sjock Fest
07/15 — Marseille, FR @ Molotov
07/16 — Bergamo, IT @ Punk Rock Raduno (Free Show)
07/17 — Turin, IT @ Blah Blah
07/18 — Theley, DE @ Backside Festival
Additional U.S. Dates
09/04 — Philadelphia, PA
09/05 — Brooklyn, NY
09/06 — Montague, MA @ RPM Fest
09/11 — Scottsdale, AZ w/ The Exploited, Total Chaos
09/12 — Los Angeles, CA w/ The Exploited, Total Chaos
09/13 — Murrieta, CA w/ Total Chaos
09/16 — Las Vegas, NV w/ Total Chaos
09/17 — Orange County, CA w/ The Exploited, Total Chaos
09/18 — San Francisco, CA w/ The Exploited, Total Chaos
09/20 — Sacramento, CA w/ The Exploited
