The Dirt Man, Carter Vail Comes Clean

by William Jessup

Carter Vail is ready for the rodeo. With his signature cowboy hat and deadpan delivery, you may recognize the 27-year old Connecticut-born singer from his viral comedic bits on social media, where he’s garnered a devoted audience of over 1.4 million followers across TikTok and Instagram. Now based in Los Angeles, Vail is ready to prove that he’s more than a funny face ahead of the release of his latest album, 100 Cowboys, sharing his journey from viral TikTok sensation to indie pop-rock artist.

Vail first started pursuing music while studying audio engineering at the University of Miami; he released his first single, “Melatonin,” in 2018 and graduated shortly after in 2019. Vail got one of his first jobs at a guitar pedal manufacturing company in Nashville but quickly became disillusioned. “I did a lot of repairs for different studios around my college. And I got out of school and I feel like I completely hated it,” he explained. So, he decided to start a recording studio, Happy Camper Studios, with his friends.

It’s in Nashville that Vail began to really focus on his songwriting and producing, and by 2023, he had recorded and released three indie pop-rock albums: Red Eyes, a compilation of songs that he had written in college, and The Interstellar Tennis Championship and a sequel aptly titled Volume II, both of which were quarantine-inspired concept albums about a man getting beamed off-world and forced to play tennis across different galaxies. Vail took this whimsical songwriting persona to TikTok, where he posts eccentric songs and comedy sketches that strike a chord with his Gen Z fanbase.

I first came across Vail’s viral hit, “Dirt Man”, in April. Vail opens the video with, “We’re guys, we –” but abruptly transitions to a catchy jingle about a man who collects the dirt beneath your pillow like a loamy tooth fairy. Frequently compared to It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’s iconic song, “Dayman”, “Dirt Man” has amassed nearly 18 million views on TikTok over the course of two and half months and quadrupled Vail’s monthly listener count on Spotify to over 561,000 listeners. In the past, he had intended to keep his comedic work separate from his more serious music, but now it’s not uncommon to see comments echoing the sentiment (sediment?) of “I came for the Dirt Man, but I’m staying for this” under videos promoting his latest single, “Harder to Kill.” Regardless of his success with other songs about fighting aliens and aquatic uprisings, Vail was not expecting “Dirt Man” to get as big as it did. “I did not think it was that good of an idea. I think Dirt Man just took off with the right timing. It’s been fucking crazy.”

As “Dirt Man” took the internet by storm, it captured the attention of Apple Music’s Zane Lowe who shared a video harmonizing with the track. It also earned Vail a shoutout from John Mayer after he posted a follow-up tutorial on how to play “Dirt Man”. The song even found its way back home with one of Vail’s younger cousins who was genuinely concerned about the existence of the Dirt Man. “[He] comes to me and asks, ‘Is the Dirt Man real?’ Vail jokes, “I thought that was hilarious. Like little kids are asking, ‘What is this thing, and do I have to be worried about it?” While the existence of the Dirt Man has yet to be dis-proven, the song highlights Carter’s knack for humor and ability to capture the internet’s attention.

When asked about the inspiration behind his hit jingle, Vail is honest saying, “Whatever the first idea [I have] when I wake up in that half-dream state is usually what comes out.” Vail credits these groggy thoughts and his innate offbeat sense of humor for his rise on TikTok. For now, Vail doesn’t have any plans to expand upon the Dirt Man mythos despite its immense popularity. He prefers not to over-explain the concept in order to preserve its appeal and mystery. “It’s fun to make [the videos] and see what the internet does with them. People keep asking about an extended version, but I think part of the charm is that there is no follow up information,” he says. “If I suddenly came out with verse two and explained it more, I think it loses a lot of that fun.”

Although Vail won’t be digging up more Dirt Man lore, he is releasing his latest LP 100 Cowboys on July 19th. The new album was inspired by the dissolution of a six-year relationship after he moved to Los Angeles in 2023. Vail spent a month in the studio with his college friend and now co-writer/ co-producer, Noah Tauscher, where the duo wrote and produced eight of the nine songs featured on the album. Vail describes the album as a cleansing process of sorts saying, “Emotionally, I just didn’t want to deal with [the breakup] beyond wanting to write about it,” he says. “Writing felt so cathartic. Because so many of the songs came together super quickly, I was processing my emotions in real-time.”

Despite the sore subject, the set shows off Vail’s self-described relentless optimism. As he reflects on the end of the relationship, his somber lyrics are juxtaposed with upbeat melodies. “Having the music behind the words [of a sad song] be happy makes for a really interesting song,” says Vail after joking about his friends teasing him for not being able to write an entirely sad song. “A lot of these songs are super personal to me but dressing them up as pop and rock songs is a lot of fun. It’s how I can share this brief period of my life that was really sad.”

Evident in the title, the aesthetics and tone of 100 Cowboys are heavily influenced by Vail’s love of spaghetti westerns, a subgenre of western movies known for their rugged, sunburnt anti-heroes and shanty towns in sprawling deserts. The cowboy motif is reflected across the album and even made its way to social media via the cowboy hat and grainy western backdrops featured in nearly all of Vail’s recent videos. He emulates the characters in these films as he crafts a new persona to navigate the emotional fallout from his relationship. When asked about which song he was most excited for, he mentions the concluding track, “Waste of Time.” With lyrics like “Cause while worlds burns / I still wanna try/ What a waste of time,” Vail describes the song as “the most cowboy of them all,” as he grapples with resignation in the face of personal upheaval. With “Waste of Time” and the rest of album, Vail shows that he’s ready for bigger things but will probably still keep a little dirt under his pillow in case the Dirt Man comes to town.

Following the album’s sold-out release show on July 17, Vail will be joining Yung Gravy for The Grits & Gravy Tour.