In an exclusive interview with Atwood Magazine, Dexter and the Moonrocks guitarist Ryan Anderson explores the writing and recording of the Texas band’s debut album ‘Friends That I Don’t Like,’ the explosive rise and reign of hit single “Freakin’ Out,” and what it means to be successful as a rock group in the age of social media.

‘Friends That I Don’t Like’ – Dexter and the Moonrocks

Reaching nearly 10 million monthly listeners on Spotify is a milestone every band, regardless of age or genre, dreams of reaching.

For Dexter and the Moonrocks, that dream is now being fulfilled by vocalist James Tuffs, lead guitarist Ryan Anderson, bassist Ty Anderson, and drummer Ryan Fox, thanks in large part to a perfect storm of “Western Space Grunge” riffs and four members who refuse to give up on a long-shared vision for the future.

Usually, that high of a monthly listener marker is achieved through a slow, steady influx of streams across a band’s years-long discography. For the Texas natives, however, the 2026 release of hit single “Freakin’ Out” triggered an onslaught of new fans nearly five years after forming outside of Abilene. “It was violently overwhelming. It still is,” Anderson tells Atwood Magazine. “Freakin’ Out” garnered 300 million global streams, earned them over half of a million followers on Instagram, and brought them their first late night slot in the form of a performance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon just over a month ago.

“I just had a different expectation for how our careers would go. I thought it would be this slow build for the next seven to 10 years, and then we’d just naturally become bigger,” Anderson continues. With the band coming from blue collar backgrounds in West Texas, their small-town roots meant that they’d need to work for every single follower, stream, and attendee at a show. Shackled by their old team and misunderstood by the people who were meant to represent them, it wasn’t until 2025’s Donkey Flats EP that these efforts could be fully pursued.

When Fox and Tuffs made a mention of “Freakin’ Out” and its potential to push them to the “next step,” Anderson was hesitant, but understood they were expanding their own boundaries creatively by writing the song no matter the public reaction. “I didn’t think it was gonna be a hit,” he emphasizes. But having come out of previous releases depleted and feeling increasingly inauthentic, the track was just the evolution they needed to see them through to the next chapter of their careers.

Got somethin’ in my system
She said, “Why you gotta take it so far?”
Excuse me, I’m out of rhythm
Takin’ pills and sleepin’ in a car

– “Freakin’ Out,” Dexter and the Moonrocks

Finding momentum is one thing, but nurturing its continuation is another. Anderson explains that building on the song’s success was a chance they didn’t want to pass up. “We didn’t even know we were gonna do an album until March, so the ideas had to move pretty fast when it came to music videos and content,” he says. Forced to cement their identity quickly amidst such a chaotic rise to popularity, the band took to writing and recording as a means of solace. What resulted was Friends That I Don’t Like, their debut record, out now via Severance Records.

From collaborations with Treaty Oak Revival (“12 Steps”) and Avery Anna (“Why Don’t You Say So) to lyrical insights into addiction, the effects of touring on family life, and the push-and-pull of intense relationships, Friends That I Don’t Like is just as brutally truthful as it is uplifting. For every mention of love, there is an anchoring of pain – “I’m bound to keep on losing,” Tuffs fears on “12 Steps,” but the guitars that underlay his self-damnation suggest the chance at a new start by breaking free from bad habits.

Let’s relapse, let it all in
Fighting feels better when you’re under my skin
Sober enough to know it all feels wrong
Drunk enough to probably go along

Well, it’s a bad idea for me to keep on using
It’s been clear I’m bound to keep on losing
So I’m taking 12 steps to get away from you
Yeah, I’m taking 12 steps to get away from you

– “12 Steps,” Dexter and the Moonrocks

On “If You Could Talk,” Tuffs imagines a conversation with his young son about the struggle between providing for his family’s future, and feeling guilty for being absent for parts of it due to nonstop touring. Elsewhere, he flips between self-perceptions: “I’m not a bad guy,” he sings on “Under The Weather,” having previously declared he is a bad guy on “Mull It Over.” It’s these little idiosyncrasies and moments of humor that add depth to the record, and challenge fans to examine their own inner critics.

Through it all, Friends That I Don’t Like manages to be both loving and, as Anderson puts it, “ridiculously sad.” It’s a portrait of four musicians navigating life on and off the road, and grappling with the sacrifices that life demands in return. Most of all, the record never takes itself too seriously – it’s a uniquely Dexter and the Moonrocks trait to be able to elicit such laughter and emotional resonance in the same lyric. The songs arrive both as a comfort to fans undergoing tough times, and as a wake-up call to those looking to make tough choices for their own betterment.

We had the chance to sit down with Anderson to speak about the rapid rise of Dexter and the Moonrocks, stories from the filming of their rowdy music videos, and, on a broader scale, what the term success means as the record finds its way to hundreds of thousands of eager listeners in the age of social media.

“The fact that we did just get to do it finally is a success. We’ve wanted to do an album for so long,” he says. “[I’d like] for it to not turn into what we said earlier, where three or four songs make it out alive, and that’s it. I don’t think that’s what’s gonna happen – I think it’s gonna go bananas.”

A CONVERSATION WITH DEXTER AND THE MOONROCKS

Ryan Anderson: We definitely didn’t have a hat or a tier list or anything, and we didn’t really get to naming it until a month after we finished it. It’s almost like we forgot, because we were so excited that it was finished. We would just have casual conversations every now and then like, ‘What should we call it?’ And it’d be like, ‘Should we do a title track?’ which none of us wanted to do, because it’s not 2002 anymore. [laughs]

There wasn’t really one that came close other than that one. We like the oxymoron thing. I think there’s a Modest Mouse album called Good News for People Who Love Bad News or something like that, so we wanted to do something along those lines. I just said, ‘What about Friends That I Don’t Like?’ Because that’s kind of that way, and it’s a lyric from the album. We said it in front of an employee at a radio station we were about to play at, and she was like, ‘That’s really cool.’ We were like, ‘Okay… you just named the album. Thank you.’ That was how we went with it.

Ryan Anderson: No, we had to rent that out for sure. And I’m not sure they were aware of what we were gonna do there or not, but we cleaned up obviously. We trashed that place, but they offered!

Ryan Anderson: Probably that one, because we had breakaway props from movies and stuff. The plates we were smashing over the dummy’s head were cinematic quality breakaway, and just getting to make a mess [was fun] and then our bus was right outside. We were staying where we were shooting, so it was like, ‘Go kick the shit out of this dummy for three and a half hours and then go to bed.’

Ryan Anderson: I think [Ryan] Fox and this guy named Derek [Hockemeyer] came up with it. Derek works for the music video company that filmed it, but he also tours with us as our videographer. They just kind of threw that idea together pretty quick, because everything moved so fast this summer. We didn’t even know we were gonna do an album until March, so even the ideas had to move pretty fast when it came to music videos and content and stuff. So you know, that song we were like, ‘You know what? Let’s make that one a single.’ And we had the shoot scheduled a week and a half later. So they just threw that together.

Ryan Anderson: For the most part we usually agree. Sometimes there’s been, not arguments, but things like, ‘I don’t know about that one.’ But then it crushes, and then we never talk about it again. We usually choose the more catchy or more hooky ones, or if we just feel like it’s gonna be popular and it represents the album really well.

Ryan Anderson: Back in April, I believe, we were in Nashville recording, which is rare. We don’t record in Nashville anymore. But we just happened to be there, and there was an open studio and we were like, ‘We’ve got so much to do this year. Let’s just take any chance we get to work.’ She had shown interest prior to this, and they were like, ‘She can just come by and hang out and see how it goes.’ And she came by to meet us, and it wasn’t awkward at all. It was like we already knew each other, you know? Just good vibes. We didn’t even really talk about work or talk about doing a song together. It was just checking out the vibes and seeing how we could work together.

She was supposed to come down to the studio in Texas we work at, I think in June, and something fell through so we just didn’t get around to it. And then we finished the album and got ‘Why Don’t You Say So’ back, and we were like, ‘Maybe this is the one she sings on.’ We sent it to her, and she sent it back with her vocals the next morning. So it was all pretty fast. She had made this point when we were discussing her doing a song, that she didn’t wanna do the basic thing where a rock band has a girl feature on a song, so it’s a slow, gorgeous ballad. She was like, ‘I wanna take a song that y’all would put out with or without me, and be on that one.’ So we went with ‘Why Don’t You Say So.’

Ryan Anderson: Yes, we don’t want it to get twisted. This is just me speaking for myself, but we put out a project almost two years ago now, and a lot of the people were saying like, ‘Oh, you can tell they went elsewhere to write this one,’ or, ‘There’s a lot of people’s hands in the pot, and it doesn’t sound like them anymore.’ And we didn’t even f***ing like the project. I don’t know why we even put it out. We’ve made a concentrated effort to let people know we are back where we wanna be, and we are back to being who we wanna be musically.

Ryan Anderson: There were a lot of co-writes involved, and I don’t think we’ve ever asked for a co-write, to be honest. But we did it once, the co-write thing, and we didn’t say we hated it, so I think a lot of people around us were like, ‘Okay…. make them keep going and doing co-writes.’ We didn’t know how to operate in that space for a while. We were just making, in my opinion, a bunch of music that didn’t sound like Dexter, and then we said we wanted to do the Donkey Flats thing, which was that we wanna go record ourselves in the place where we used to record music. We produced it, everything, just to get back into that ‘Who the hell are we?’ kind of thing. As soon as we did that, it was like the ball started rolling. You know, we changed our whole team around. But in terms of knowing what changes to make when they’re needed, you don’t, really. You just have to pick out the obvious ones and hope the rest of the changes that are needed kind of reveal themselves.

Ryan Anderson: We have been kind of chasing them around for about two years. It’s almost like flirting. Just a lot of social media interaction with one another and DM’ing. We’ve only played with them once, and it was a benefit we put together with them for the floods in South Texas last summer. That was the only time we had all been together prior. I think our drummer has been to a few of their shows and had been buddies with them, but we hadn’t spent real time together, and we still haven’t.

Fox wrote ‘12 Steps’ and sent it to me and James, and we immediately knew it was a great song, but we both at the same time said, ‘We will not do that song unless it has Treaty Oak on it,’ the very first time we heard it. And it wasn’t because it wasn’t good enough to be on its own. It was just that we’ve been wanting to do a song with them for two years now. This is the one that we do with them. Our producer texted Sam from Treaty Oak. He sent us the screenshot. It was like, ‘Do you wanna do this Dexter song?’ And he sent him the song, and he just said, ‘Sure,’ and that was it. So there wasn’t a lot of convincing or anything like that. We got the song back two days later. We’re looking forward to when we actually get to play it live when they’re there, because we’ve yet to do that.

Ryan Anderson: All of them. But for a few, I will say my favorite is still Kody West. I’d say he’s one of the few bands that is the reason we are a band. Guys like Cole Barnhill, Koe Wetzel obviously, but I’m sure everyone knows who he is at this point. There’s a band called Tiny Joy. Some people don’t know who they are yet, but they’re up next. They’re one of my favorites. I think I’d stop there for me personally, those the ones I would push.

Ryan Anderson: Of the song specifically, like what the song is, no, it hasn’t. It has changed my mindset on what the internet is these days, and the fact that you genuinely do not know what’s gonna work, at least every single day. And it’s cliche, but the goalpost moves every single day. It really does. I guess this doesn’t change my opinion on that, but strengthens it or reinforces the fact that I had no idea that was gonna happen. To James and Fox’s credit, they both said in the studio, ‘Oh, this is the one that’ll push us to the next step.’ They didn’t know it would do this either, to the level it did. But they did say, ‘This one’s gonna have a moment.’ And I wasn’t being a hater, I just had a different expectation for how our careers would go. I thought it would be this slow build for the next seven to 10 years, and then we’d just naturally become bigger. I didn’t think it was gonna be a hit.

Ryan Anderson: It was violently overwhelming. It still is, but we’ve handled it well, I think. But it’s been a lot, for sure.

Ryan Anderson: I think I like it, but I understand anyone who hates to do it because it’s so vulnerable and you’re putting yourself on a plate to the internet, or you’re just being something you’re not to try and get people to come support your dream. But we have to be in agreement that that’s got to be easier than what it was in the 90’s, where you just put a record out and hoped somebody bought it and told somebody about it. Maybe I’m tripping, but I feel like that had to have been more difficult than slapping stuff up on the internet every single day. But either way, it’s a grind for everybody involved, whether you like it or not, and I think it’s here to stay for a while. It’s a part of the business, and I think you have to do it.

Ryan Anderson: There’s one called ‘Complacent’ that I would say, just because it’s the first love song we’ve ever written. It’s still ridiculously sad, but it’s the first one of those we’ve done. I would say that one, or there’s one called ‘Mull It Over’ that we’re all kind of like, ‘That one’s probably not gonna do very well,’ but we love it and it’s a great song. There’s no reason for us to feel that way. I think maybe just because we do like it so much is why we feel that. But it doesn’t meet all the ‘hit’ quotas, you know? It’s not the catchiest one. But just musically and vibe-wise, that’s my favorite one. So I would say ‘Mull It Over.’

Ryan Anderson: We always try to roll out a few unreleased songs just to get the ball rolling, and mostly to practice the damn thing. But we’ve been playing the one with Avery Anna every show for the last few weeks now just because it’s sort of a difficult song, so we play it to get our feet underneath it. And now that it’s, I don’t know if I’d call it viral, but it is kind of going everywhere on the internet, just promoting it, so people already know the entire song before it’s out. So that’s been fun. We played that one, but I think that’s the only unreleased one we’ve been playing lately.

Ryan Anderson: ‘Ritalin,’ I feel like that one’s always gonna be a big crowd jumping moment. We still play ‘Freaks’ by Surf Curse, and we tell people to mosh pit on that one, but the next few songs after that, people are still wired up. This song called ‘All Your Friends Still Scare Me,’ that one is the crowd surfing song. I don’t know why. It didn’t stream particularly well, but every time we play that song it is crowd surfing from front to back, just for that one for the most part. I think ‘Ritalin’ is probably still the most hyped one outside of ‘Freakin’ Out,’ or ‘Sad in Carolina,’ because we open the show with it.

Ryan Anderson. Well, that’s a great question. And I don’t wanna just say like, ‘Well, if it streams well, then it’s a success.’ I won’t say that, because that’s an answer. But I like how you ended it, because the fact that we did just get to do it finally is a success. We’ve wanted to do an album for so long. We didn’t think it would be worth it. Like you said earlier, sometimes people are gonna like three or four songs on it, and the rest are gonna vanish into the void. But apparently when you have a moment like ‘Freakin’ Out,’ to follow it up with an album is a very strong reaction. But for me, I would say for it to be a success, I would want us to play at least eight of the songs on the album regularly in the set until the next album comes out. For it to not turn into what we said earlier, where three or four songs make it out alive, and that’s it. I don’t think that’s what’s gonna happen. I think it’s gonna go bananas.

Ryan Anderson: It’s on our Wikipedia page?

Ryan Anderson: We have to get that out of there [laughs]. There was never a sniff of a sponsorship being remotely possible. We did try, but we gave out Cheez-Its at the shows for three, three and a half years. We forgot them one night, and the crowds were like, ‘Where’s the Cheez-Its?’ And I was like, ‘Cheez-It told us we can’t give y’all any more Cheez-Its.’ And that was it… it was like throwing a raw chicken in an ant pile. I’m talking immediate nonsense, which I love that our crowd was there for us, but there was nothing for them to be there for us for.

And I mean, they immediately started bullying Cheez-Its. We’re blocked from Cheez-Its. You can’t even put a moon and a rock emoji in Cheez-Its Instagram, on their comment section, without it getting deleted. And then we went to the Cheez-It Bowl, which is their big football game at the end of the year, and we flew a banner over the game that says, ‘Cheez-It sucks.’ They didn’t care. They’re so rich, and we’re so not on their radar. We tried, and then it went from an attempted sponsorship to harassment, essentially overnight.

Ryan Anderson: Well, we have a few in the works already. I’m not sure I can say them yet, so I won’t. They’re all confirmed, but it hasn’t been announced yet, so I won’t say them here. And this was the one that we are working with was one where never in a million years did I think we’d get to. I think being in a stupid fast food commercial would be really fun.

You know those old McDonald’s commercials when they had celebrities in them or whatever, before McDonald’s was doing whatever they’re doing now? Doing something like that, or a ridiculous Gatorade commercial, because none of us are athletes. So I think it would be hilarious to be in a Gatorade commercial. But that’s a good question. I haven’t really thought about that, and I’m bummed I can’t say the one that we are working with yet.

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:: stream/purchase Friends That I Don’t Like here ::

:: connect with Dexter and the Moonrocks here ::

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 © Derek Hockemeyer

Friends That I Don’t Like

an album by Dexter and the Moonrocks